Leading the life of a climber involves a tremendous amount of sacrifice and hardship, but for team athletes Conrad Anker and Kris Erickson, there's no living without it.

In 1999, on an expedition in Tibet, team alpine climbers Conrad Anker and Kris Erickson lost their good friend and exploration companion, Alex Lowe, to an avalanche that narrowly missed Conrad himself. To preserve Alex's honour, Conrad and Kris establish and send the Nutcracker, a new ice climb route in Hyalite Canyon, Montana.