By climbing a couple stories up a ladder, Alan Miller pauses to remember a man who did the same thing.

When one is young and full of idealism, there is no reason for anything that smacks of the trite. Everything is bright and new and shiny. So it is with the high school graduating classes this year.

A precarious new “floating” staircase dangling above a Norwegian fjord is the newest — and perhaps scariest — way to appreciate the country’s unparalleled natural beauty, if you dare. A whopping 2,591 ...