Content Warning: This section includes discussions of the violent deaths of nine people, including graphic descriptions of corpses.

Eichar weaves together three narratives in Dead Mountain, each of which centers the theme of perseverance and determination, which are depicted as both positive and negative motivations. The first narrative is Eichar’s reconstruction of the hikers’ final days. Even when several people who knew the area and the weather well warned them that continuing their journey would be dangerous, the hikers kept going. They considered danger to be part of the appeal of what they were attempting. Their desire to earn their Grade III hiking certifications is admirable, but it also made them unwilling to listen to potentially life-saving advice. In Eichar’s final reconstruction of the night of February 1, he paints a portrait of nine people who were still determined to survive even as they are succumbed to hypothermia. Yuri Yudin provides an important counterpoint to this theme in the hikers’ narrative. He was as determined as his friends to see the journey through, but physical pain forced him to turn back. The fact that he survived when his friends did not suggests that there are limitations to the benefits of perseverance and determination.