The Mountain Story - Softcover

"An adventure that pits spectacular danger in the present against the ever-present danger of the past."--Marina Endicott, author of Good to a Fault

"A riveting novel of heartbreak, heroism, and redemption. . .[with] equal measures of high drama and humanity that will keep readers spellbound until the last word."--Carol Shaben, author of Into the Abyss

"The Mountain Story isa gritty, nail-biting tale of survival and self-revelation. Lori Lansens' lushand potent landscape is painted as vividly as her characters, whose afternoonnature walk becomes a terrifying trek to the very precipice of mortality.Pitted against the impartial elements and their own inner demons, four soulsdiscover that shared humanity is their only dependable lifeline."--Carol Cassella, bestselling author of Gemini

"A captivating tale of courage, love, and sacrifice, The Mountain Story is transporting. A young man and three women accidentally take a hero's journey that inspires the better angels in all of us."--Amy Scheibe, author of A Fireproof Home for the Bride

"The Mountain Story is an expertly crafted novel about how ordinary lives can be changed by an extraordinary mountain. If climbing speaks to how we can find truth and beauty in hardship, Lansens shows that it is also a way to see inside our souls. This is a survival story with a strong, beating heart. I loved this novel."--Claire Cameron "Bestselling author of THE BEAR "

"Four hikers get lost on a mountain, struggling desperately to stay alive, and it's all as chilling and gorgeous and full of suspense as a cracking line of ice on a frozen lake. A breathtaking look at how the past footholds the future and how even the bleakest terror can find its way to unfathomable beauty."

--Caroline Leavitt, New York Times Bestselling Author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You

"From New York Times bestselling author Lori Lansens comes a harrowing survival story about four strangers who spend five days lost in the mountain wilderness above Palm Springs. Four go up the mountain, but only three will come down... On the morning of Wolf Truly's eighteenth birthday, he boards the first cable car to head up the mountains just a few miles from his sun-bleached trailer home in the desert community outside of Palm Springs. Armed with nothing but the clothes on his back, Wolf's intention that morning was to give up on life--specifically at the mountain site of his best friend's tragic accident one year ago. But on that shaky ride up the mountain, fate intervenes and Wolf meets three women that will leave an indelible imprint on the rest of his life. Through a series of missteps, the four wind up lost and stranded among the forested cliffs--in sight of the desert city below, but unable to find a way down. As the days pass without rescue, we come to learn how each of them came to be on the mountain that morning. And as their situation shifts from misadventure to nightmare, the lost hikers forge an inextricable bond, pushing themselves, and each other, beyond their limits. Reminiscent of John Krakauer's modern classic Into the Wild and Cheryl Strayed's #1 bestselling Oprah-endorsed Wild, Lori Lansen's The Mountain Story is a deeply affecting novel that pays homage to the rugged beauty--and utterly unforgiving nature--of the wilderness, and considers the question: What price are you willing to pay not only for the ones you love, but for a complete stranger?"--