Skip Hatch, a fifteen year old boy, is late home. Very late home in fact. It's 3am in the morning, and his parents are sick with worry. Suddenly the phone rings, breaking the silence. It's bad news. Skip was out hiking with friends in the mountains, but they got separated climbing down. They looked for him and shouted, but he never answered - and now he's stuck in the mountains, alone, and nobody knows what has happened to him.