It's the winter of 1807-8 on the Upper Missouri. Mountain man John Colter is moving south, into the unknown lands that will one day become Yellowstone National Park. Businessman Manuel Lisa is hunkered down at Fort Raymond, waiting out the winter, hoping for trade...and no Indian attacks. Blackfoot brave Wolf Calf is looking for honor, and he knows that by killing the yellow-haired white he'll find it. River Crow Arapoosh is on a vision quest, one that his tribe doesn't care about, for they don't care about him. Trapper and trader Francois Antoine Larocque is trying to figure out how to escape the Cree and get back to Montreal. What none of them realize is that their paths are about to cross in the wild lands in the dead of winter. Welcome to Colter's Hell.