Ike Crockett

When the novel begins, Ike Crockett is a mountaineer who would rather live his life on a mountain than to live a more conventional life. Ike runs a tour company in which he and his partner Kora guide people up the mountains and to visit other areas of significance. At the beginning of this novel, Kora has told Ike that this is her last trip with him because she wants more of a conventional life. Perhaps this is part of the reason Ike becomes lost on a mountain that he has climbed hundreds of times. The group gets caught in a snowstorm and are forced to take refuge in a cave. In that cave is the body of a long dead man that has been tattooed and carved in an odd way. In time, the group notices that one of their members is missing and they go...