Mountains

The trip was jinxed from the start.For two years, in point of fact. Ever since our small band of would-be mountain climbers planned to scale Pikes Peak on the Fourth of July 1997.What could be more patriotic? Climbing the well-worn trail up the mountain that inspired "America the Beautiful," we'd be doing that particularly American thing -- hard stuff (climbing 12 miles and 7,000 feet up) the relatively easy way.That was before Candy's dad died and Ernie's back went out and other events cropped up to delay the trip -- in July 1997 and again in July 1998.

"East of the Mountains," by David Guterson. Harcourt Brace. 288 pages. $25.One of the great lines in contemporary literature graces the final page of the first-novel phenomenon, "Snow Falling on Cedars." "(Ishmael) understood this, too": David Guterson wrote at the close of his mystery, "that accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart."It was Guterson's achievement, with "Snow," to explore matters of law and landscape, passion and history, within a whodunit framework that kept its readers hungrily turning its pages.

Doug Ulman, a three-time cancer survivor whose story appeared in The Sun on Friday, wrote this report on his way to the Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race in Sandakphu National Park, India. Ulman, 22, was planning to run only the 26.4-mile Mount Everest Challenge Marathon -- the third stage of the five-day race, on Saturday. Now he is planning to run the full 100 miles. The race begins tomorrow.Ulman is a member of a team of able-bodied and disabled athletes sponsored by World T.E.A.M. Sports, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing diverse groups together through sports.

MY BEST SHOTThe hills are aliveEver since I first saw "The Sound of Music," I dreamed of traveling to Austria to see if the hills really are alive. This picture -- which I call my "lucky shot" -- doesn't lie. The beauty captured in it is present throughout Salzburg and the mountains do sing to you. Look closely at this shot and you can almost hear the von Trapp children laughing and splashing around in the lake.Beverly A. Bauhof, CatonsvilleA MEMORABLE PLACEColorado sidetracksBy Susan Sachs FleishmanSpecial to the SunCruisin' Colorado in a rental car, Don' know where I'm goin' but I'm gonna go far ...Interstate 70 west from Denver, ringed by towering rock mountains, inspires me to compose fragments of country songs as I drive to visit friends near Grand Junction.

BUMBURET VALLEY, Pakistan -- Din Mohammed rises at 4 a.m. and heads out into the pre-dawn chill. The village and surrounding hills, cast in blue moonlight, take on the quality of a dream. He picks his way down rocky paths and along gurgling irrigation canals, gathering children as he goes.It is the day before Joshi, the annual Kalash spring festival, and a pack of young girls and boys have risen early to gather yellow flowers from the hillsides.As dawn begins to glow behind the mountains, the children clamber sure-footedly up steep goat paths.

"I think 'The Hundred Penny Box' by Sharon Bell Mathis is an interesting book because it is about a 100-year-old lady named Aunt Dew who loves her box with 100 pennies. Every year she puts a penny in her 100-year-old box. You have to use your imagination at the end to see if she dies or not."Karen LachelleElmwood Elementary"My favorite mystery in the Sweet Valley Twins and Friends series by Francine Pascal is 'Ghost in the Graveyard!' It is about two twins who are detectives. Jessica and her sister Elizabeth capture a jewel thief."

In the forest primeval; My favorite placeMidway through our vacation in Costa Rica, my wife and I decided to hike to Santo Cristo Falls. Driving up into the mountains from the Pacific Coast, we eventually located the steep, narrow, dirt road that led to the trail head in the valley below. Being fiscal-minded travelers, we had booked our trip during the period between the rainy season and the high (dry) season. The cheaper rates and uncrowded parks were balanced out by a little mud in the backcountry.

HAKUBA, Japan -- The skiers were in the start house. The crowd was roaring at the bottom of the Happo'one slope. And around the world, a vast audience was assembled in front of television sets, ready to watch the Super Bowl of the Winter Olympics.But the men's downhill -- due to be televised live to the United States last night -- was called on account of snow and fog.The first crisis to hit the Nagano Games happened about the time they were handing out the first medals to athletes over at women's cross country.

AINOKURA, Japan - Sure, there is beauty in Japan: Think flower-arranging, silk kimonos and tea ceremony.But there are surprisingly few beautiful places in Japan. Travelers, primed by the country's reputation for exquisite aesthetics, are sometimes startled by how downright ugly the place turns out to be - as ugly as the United States, with freeway interchanges, high-rise buildings, concrete river channels and power lines cluttering the landscape.Fact: Japan has one-thirtieth of the United States' land area, but every year pours twice as much concrete.

BOSTON -- Bradford Washburn has a favorite phrase: "Skin one skunk at a time." The critters out there know better.At 88, Washburn still walks, shoots and maps mountains, and he directs projects simultaneously as the mountaineer, photographer, cartographer and manager he's been in a 65-year career that won't quit."

Nancy J. Bowers, a retired psychologist who had taught in college and specialized in family therapy, died Aug. 10 of cancer at her Tuscany Canterbury home. She was 68. Nancy Joan Johnson was born in Chicago and raised there and in Washington. She earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1963 from the University of Cincinnati. She held a master's degree in Montessori education, which she earned from Xavier College in 1966, and a doctorate in psychology in 1975 from Tulane University.

India: People/Place/Culture/History DK, $40 India is a vast land, boasting famously high mountains (the Himalayas), fertile valleys (Assam is the heart of the country's tea industry), arid deserts and densely packed cities (Mumbai is among the most populated). This gorgeously photographed coffee-table book captures the immense country in all of its complicated glory. The long history section tells the story of the first prehistoric settlements, follows the emergence of regional kingdoms and the rise of the so-called Golden Age, the coming of Islam and India under British rule before discussing the state of contemporary India.

October is Wine Month in Virginia, but there's more than the grape harvest to toast in Charlottesville. This quintessential Virginia town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is the place Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe called home. Today, University of Virginia students roost here along with residents attracted to its rich cultural history. Here are a few things to do in and around Charlottesville: 1 Mosey around Monticello : Allow a generous amount of time to spend at Jefferson's estate home (above)

DOMINICA, West Indies - Rumor has it, once you've mastered driving on Dominica, you can drive anywhere in the world. It's easy to see why. It is, literally, a jungle. Its roads, most of which are no wider than an alley, crawl over mountains and cling to cliffs tumbling down to the Caribbean Sea. All of their turns are shaped like hairpins, and all of their curves are as blind as the nightfall here, where there are no streetlights or stoplights - only stars. And, just to make things interesting for the 66 percent of the licensed driving world who are accustomed to keeping right, Dominica's former British Commonwealth status means that here, one hugs the curves to the left.

BEIJING - The danger is far from over in the mountainous terrain where last week's earthquake struck, with the risks of landslides, avalanches and flooding growing higher as the summer rainy season begins, Chinese officials said yesterday. The warning came as the death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 51,151, with nearly 30,000 people still missing. More than 5 million are homeless and may not be able to rebuild their houses any time soon, or ever, because of the instability of the terrain.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- It's been a long time since cowboys parked their ponies on Main Street in what was once proudly marketed as the West's Most Western Town. Today's Scottsdale is two P.F. Chang's, two California Pizza Kitchens and two Merrill Lynch offices. It is art galleries and turquoise shops and boutiques and Beemer convertibles and monster shopping malls serving monster subdivisions hidden behind faux-adobe walls. Fortunately, though you may have to look carefully, Scottsdale is still desert and the mountains -- or at least a short drive from desert and mountains.

TEPOZTLAN, Mexico -- Unless you have Aztecs in your family tree, you might find this city's name hard to pronounce. But so much else about the city is easy, or irresistible. The Aztec echoes, the steam baths, the ice cream, the pyramid, even the corn smut. Tepoztlan -- pronounced teh-pose-LAWN -- is a smallish city that sits in a lush valley rimmed by mountains that appear to have been smuggled out of a Chinese landscape painting. At its center, a 16th-century convent and church rise above a marketplace full of residents making tortillas, nibbling on fried grasshoppers and licking locally concocted sherbets.

Forget cool jazz or hot rock 'n' roll. When the American Visionary Art Museum has something to celebrate - like its current Home & Beast exhibit - you know it will sing its own tune. For its "Home & Beast Feast," AVAM kicked off the night with a polka band and ended it with country music. "Tonight's theme is homey, just like the exhibit. With a stick-to-your-ribs feel," said AVAM's marketing guru, Pete Hilsee. Guests in cowboy hats and bandannas ate hors d'oeuvres like mini hot dogs and burgers, as the Baltimore Polka Hoppers took center stage in the museum's Jim Rouse Center.

Zowie! Now this is winter! We might see lows in single digits this morning, the coldest in years. And no decent snow yet. Marie Skane in Catonsville asks, "Is there any validity to the saying, `It's too cold to snow'?" Sometimes. The colder the air, the less moisture it can hold, or drop as snow. But if winds or mountains provide some lift, even cold, dry air will rise, cool even more, and squeeze out some snow. The biggest snows fall from moist air that's 15 degrees or warmer.

THINK FARMHOUSE CHIC. Farm stands beside boutiques with New York's finest designer brands. Pricey res-taurants down the street from lawns with rusting cars. Mountains looming over streams in towns with no streetlights. Local residents so against cell phone towers that your mobile just might not work there. Get over it. This is the Catskills, that famed resort region between New York City and the Adirondack Mountains, a place with just enough cachet to have trendy shops and fine dining but enough edge and quirkiness to make you feel like you're in a real place with real people and this is your own little secret.