May 10, 1996. Sixteen-year-old Mark Pfetzer huddles in his tent at 26,000 feet, waiting for his turn to attempt Everest's summit. As a fierce storm descends on the camp, a frightening realisation dawns on Mark and his colleagues: many of the climbers who summitted that afternoon have not yet returned. By morning, the storm has claimed eight lives - and Mark's long-dreamed-of summit day has become one of the bleakest days in mountaineering history. This is Mark's fascinating first-person account of his Everest experience, in which he takes us past the ever-shifting Khumbu Icefall, over three-hundred-foot crevasses, and up to the high-altitude "Death Zone." His story is a dazzling saga of willpower and achievement, and a celebration of the strength that guides men and women through impossibly daring dreams.
