Hidaka is a modern classic in Japanese literature and one of the best stories of mountaineering ever written. Based on a real-life tragedy in 1965, Wahei Tatematsu tells the story of a party of climbers on the Hidaka mountain range on Japans northern island. In spite of weather warnings, six men attempt an ascent on the highest peak, Mount Poroshiri a fateful decision that costs all their lives as they are caught up in an avalanche. Miraculously, one climber, Odagiri, is known to have survived for four days after his companions had frozen to death. The reader enters the mind of Odagiri trapped in snow, half-frozen, half-asleep and
revisiting his past as death slowly creeps upon him, telling his own story and that of an adventure gone wrong.
