Alan H. Nichols, born on February 14, 1930, in Palo Alto, California, is an American attorney, author, and explorer renowned for his originality and creativity about Sacred Mountains.¿He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Jurisprudence degrees from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served on the Board of Editors for the Stanford Law Review and was President of the Stanford Institute of International Affairs. Nichols practiced law in the San Francisco area for over 50 years, specializing in business, banking, finance, and non-profit and spiritual organizations.¿¿ Beyond his legal career, Nichols has been an active explorer and author.¿He was among the first Westerners to make pilgrimages and spiritual circumambulations on Sacred Tibetan sites such as Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar.¿ Additionally, he bicycled thousands of miles of the "Silk Web" (a.k.a. "Silk Road") from Istanbul, Turkey to Xi'an, China, completing the journey in four legs between 1989 and 2005 and was the person to bicycle from Xinjiang in China over the Himalayas and across Tibet to Lhasa, the historic capital. Nichols contributed to many publications and authored several books, including "Journey: A Bicycle Odyssey through Central Asia" and "Letters Home from the Lafayette Flying Corps."¿ As of April 2025, Nichols now resides back in Pocatello, Idaho, and serves as the Secretary of the Sacred Mountain Foundation, a nonprofit organization now based in Pocatello.