It came a month earlier than they had expected, and from the beginning they were doomed.

Their supplies were almost gone.
"I can't tell you the horrors of the weeks and months that followed, as old Donald has told them to me, Joanne.

You must imagine.

Only, when you are deep in the mountains, and the snow comes, you are like a rat in a trap.

So they were caught--eleven men and three women.