The sheer face of Half Dome, the huge granite rock formation in Yosemite National Park, extends 2,200 feet from its base to its crest. Madgic gives a brief history of its early climbers, then tells the story of five hikers who began their climb on the evening of July 27, 1985, in the face of an imminent thunderstorm. One of three groups of climbers that day, it was headed by Adrian Esteban and Tom Rice. They planned to backpack to the top, camp there, and celebrate Rice's birthday the next day. Madgic offers a biographical sketch of the climbers and gives a vivid description of storms that frequently occur across the Sierra Nevada. A bolt of lightning killed two of the climbers and gravely injured three others. Madgic recounts their daring rescue by paramedics in a helicopter which transported them to a medical center in Sacramento. This is a penetrating account of this tragedy.