From Mountains to Medicine
Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling
From Mountains to Medicine is the story of Erica Elliott’s magical, mind-bending, and heart-opening journey of self-discovery in search of her life’s purpose.
A courageous woman with insatiable curiosity, Elliott shares her compelling story with disarming honesty. Right from the beginning, she draws the reader into her narrative as she threads her way through the turbulent early years of her life, overcoming many daunting challenges along the way. Her guiding star is her search for meaning and purpose, which leads her to some spellbinding adventures, including the perilous climb of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the western hemisphere, along with other climbs of daunting peaks, one of which was subsequently named after her.
One reader wrote: “Elliott’s writing is intimate, intoxicating, and full of wisdom. I found myself laughing out loud, holding my breath, opening my eyes wide in shock, at times exclaiming ‘holy sh*t!’—and I imagine you will too. It is much more than a memoir. It is so engrossing I forgot I was reading a book, and I look forward to the day when it is made into a movie.”
Ultimately, Elliott’s wise heart leads her home to discover what was there all along—her destiny to be a healer.
Erica at one of her
Book Signing Events
Front Cover
A doctor’s path to discovering
her place in the world
Written by Carina Julig on April 5, 2024 (a 6-minute read)
Longtime Santa Fe resident Dr. Erica Elliott's first memoir, Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert, riveted readers with her experience working first as a schoolteacher and years later as a doctor among the Diné people on the Navajo Reservation. Elliott's new memoir — part of a planned series of four — fills in some of the gaps between those years and details Elliott's circuitous path to becoming a medical doctor.
From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling is Elliott's no-holds-barred account of her childhood and young adult years, including a stint in the Peace Corps in Ecuador where she fell in love with mountain climbing.
Elliott, who will share her stories at a book talk and signing Saturday, April 6, at The Ark Bookstore, says she wrote the book largely to inspire her patients.
"A lot of lessons I learned from overcoming difficult things I apply to my patients to help them not lose hope and know that they can turn these horrible experiences they're having, health-wise, into blessings."
Her motto, she says, is "never waste a bad experience."
Take a Tour of Erica's Life
My father and mother with the six children in England. I’m on the right, next to my father.
My first glimpse of the highest active volcano in the world, Cotopaxi, began my quest for mountaineering in the Andes.
Soon after being notified that I had been accepted to medical school.
My father and mother with the six children in England. I’m on the right, next to my father.
Click on the photo to see slide deck
Scientific and Medical Network in the UK interviews Dr. Elliott about her memoir, “From Mountains to Medicine.”
What People Are Saying About the Book
From Mountains to Medicine is an essential read for anyone who wants to live a life of passion, adventure, discovery, and purpose. An autobiography that does much more than recount an extraordinary life; it delves deep into the essence of human existence, intertwining Erica's adventures and profound experiences with timeless lessons on resilience, courage, and self-discovery. Erica's journey from challenging mountain peaks to the heart of medicine is a testament to facing life's challenges head-on and emerging stronger, teaching us that vulnerability and strength are two sides of the same coin.
Through her candid storytelling, Erica recounts her achievements, trials, and tribulations; she also invites us into her heart and mind, forging a personal connection and sharing insights on the human condition with humility and integrity. Her adventures as a healer, teacher, and adventurer are imbued with a deep love for humanity and an insatiable curiosity about life. This book is a collection of thrilling experiences and a reflection on living fully, embracing uncertainty, and finding joy and purpose in every moment.
From Mountains to Medicine is an inspiring call to action to lean into life's challenges with courage and open-heartedness. Erica’s narrative is a powerful reminder of the incredible potential within each of us to lead a life of impact and fulfillment. This memoir is not just a read; it's an experience, leaving readers with a profound sense of inspiration and a renewed zest for life.
Shocking, haunting, frightening, joyful, hilarious, comforting, compelling, gracious, skillful, unbelievable, unimaginable and so much more. These are just a few emotions one feels when you dive into Erica’s latest biographical work of art. Right from the first page you had better strap in and get ready for an honest, vivid story that is so real you feel like you are experiencing everything right along with Erica. What a storyteller she is. It’s more than a page turner. It’s a deep dive into Erica’s world and we are blessed to go along for the ride.
Part 2 of her biography provides such deep insight into her experiences and life that created this amazing person we all know today. Erica is many things; an athlete, mother, grandmother, friend, teacher, guide, confidant, medical doctor, herbalist, life coach, country doctor, friend of the earth, a shoulder to cry on and so much more. Those of us lucky enough to have crossed paths with Erica are so much better for it. She is an amazing treasured gift to us all and we are so happy to be a part of her world.
It will be hard to wait for memoir #3, but well worth the wait I’m sure. Erica has been a medical doctor to three generations of my family and has kept us all healthy, happy and productive not an easy task today. A medical doctors sworn oath is “to do no harm”. Erica has not only done no harm but always provides one with the knowledge, education, and the tools so one can learn to take responsibility for one’s own health—a trait she learned early on as she described numerous times in her books.
In this memoir, Dr. Erica Elliott not only shares pivotal events that have shaped her extraordinary life, but through them, she also shares the essence of what it means to be human. She reminds us that challenges, confusion, and physical and emotional pain are inseparable from life, but so is delight. She shows us that we can discover unknown strength, if we choose to test it. She chose repeatedly to do so, and each time she emerged stronger and added a piece to the mosaic that is her unusual, spellbinding life.
As her extraordinary, often breath-taking experiences show, the very things that can paralyze us can also innervate and galvanize us—if we lean into them instead of trying to circumvent them. She is proof that even when we feel the most powerless and vulnerable, we can marshal our wits, courage and determination in service of our agency and that we can emerge triumphant.
Dr. Elliott reminds us that it’s okay to be confused. Although it may not be comfortable, it can lead us to new possibilities, if we only remain open. She is ever curious, with an indestructible sense of curiosity and wonder. She also reminds us with her own life how crucial self-compassion is and that on the other side of remorse, joy often awaits us.
Her candor and forthrightness are striking. She never descends to “airbrushing” her experiences in order to present herself in a more favorable light. Rather, she renders her stumbles and struggles with unfailing integrity and humility. A teacher at heart, Dr. Elliott illuminates the often puzzling, sometimes terrifying, yet always precious and poignant human condition. On the surface, From Mountains to Medicine is a thrilling account of some of her many astonishing experiences. It is far more than that, though. The underlying metaphor of facing—and scaling—some of life’s daunting ‘mountains’ speaks to all of us.
From Mountains to Medicine: Scaling the Heights in Search of My Calling is another magnificent work by an extraordinary woman. Just like her first book (Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert), her second was a page-turner that filled me with delight, awe, surprise and deep inspiration. Dr. Elliott's curiosity, drive, resilience and insatiable zest for life are exceedingly rare; and her humility, thoughtfulness and commitment to humanity add even more to the mix. This book is a wonderful guide for anyone who wants a powerful dose of inspiration and hope on life's journey of inevitable bumps and uncertainties. Highly recommend!
