The year was 1982. Krantzkloof Gorge was wild, untouched, and waiting. Six misfits bribed a cousin with a case of Castle Lager and the promise of a quiet December, eager for a day of reckless adventure.

By sunset, only five of them walked out.

Fifteen years later, those five are still running-from the past, from the weight of that day, from the things they will never say out loud. They set their sights on the world's fourteen highest peaks, a tribute to the friend they lost. But The Second Summit-an unforgiving winter ascent of K2-will be their undoing.

At the world's end, survival is raw, brutal, and never guaranteed. The cold cuts deep, but secrets cut deeper. Friendships fracture, past and present collide, deals go badly, and the mountain demands its due.

All that's left is to descend...