When Ruth Anne Kocour and a team of nine men began their ascent of Mt. McKinley in Alaska, they were unaware that their climbing dream vacation was about to become their worst nightmare. Only nine days into the climb, a massive weather system, the most violent on record, slammed into the mountain with explosive force, pinning the group on an ice shelf at 14,000 feet. In what would become the deadliest two weeks in McKinley history (eleven climbers died), Ruth Anne and the others fought for their lives and clung to an ever-weakening thread of sanity. Ripped by 110 mph winds, with temperatures plunging to minus 47 degrees Fahrenheit and wind chills in excess of minus 150, Ruth Anne was trapped in a world of high-velocity blindness, deafening noise, and suffocating snow. As the first storm cleared and another readied its assault, the team faced a daunting decision: get off the mountain, or go for the summit and risk all.