In this powerful biographical novel, Richard Wheeler— winner of the Owen Wister Lifetime Achievement Award and five 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.