In this powerful biographical novel, Richard Wheeler - winner of the Owen Wister Lifetime Achievement Award and six Spur Awards - tells the amazing tale of the American explorer and hero, John Fremont, and his attempt to find a railway route to the west along the 38th parallel.

Trapped in the snowbound Colorado mountains, Fremont must fight his way out. He battles the frigid elements in a harrowing journey over the backbone of the continent. In this tale of desperate danger and fierce courage, Wheeler presents the reader with a survival saga par excellence - a struggle of man against man, man against nature, man against himself - and a novel you will never forget.