**The harder you climb, the higher you live. ** Buntaro Mori is a loner, but being alone in a crowd is almost as bad as being forced to fit in. When a dangerous bid for solitude introduces Mori to the rush of solo climbing, he becomes addicted to the brilliant sense of freedom he finds as he pits his body and soul against the heights. But how high does he have to climb to leave humanity behind. Mori and the 14 Mountain assault team are more than a week into their complete traverse of the Japanese Alps, but bad weather and worse personalities are making the training seem harder than ascending K2 itself. After Mori is singled out for praise by the expedition leader, he finds himself pushed to the edges of the group as the team is beset by a series of increasingly terrible misfortunes. As conditions worsen, can the team pull together, or will it be each man for himself against the cold mercy of the mountains