This is the gripping true account of the worst disaster in the history of Mt. Everest. On May 10, 1996, two commercial expeditions headed by experienced leaders attempted to climb the highest mountain in the world, but things went terribly wrong. Crowded conditions on the mountain, miscommunications, unexplainable delays, poor leadership, bad decisions, and a blinding storm conspired to kill. Twenty-three men and women, disoriented and out of oxygen, struggled to find their way down the side of the mountain. In the dark, battered by snow and driven by hurricane-force winds, some of the climbers became hopelessly lost and resigned themselves to death. But head climbing guide Anatoli Boukreev refused to give up hope. Climbing blind in the maw of a life-threatening storm, Boukreev brought climbers back from the edge of certain death.

ANATOLI BOUKREEV (1958-1997) was one of the world’s foremost high-altitude mountaineers. Twenty-one times he went to the summit of the world’s highest mountains. For his heroic actions on Mount Everest in May 1996, he was awarded the American Alpine Club’s highest honor, the David A. Sowles Memorial Award. He died in an avalanche while climbing in Nepal on December 25, 1997.