In 1975 a mountaineering team of 9 Americans, including writer-photographer Galen Rowell, set forth to scale K2, the world"s second highest peak, in the Karakoram Himalaya. This is a first-person account of that attempt. Galen Rowell has participated in more than 1000 climbs from Yosemite to Alaska and to the Himalaya. His photographs have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, the California Academy of Sciences, and in galleries throughout the United States. He is also a contributer to magazines such as "National Geographic".