Hell Mountain
A novel by Jack Fortune
A college student ducks under a ski-resort boundary rope. An avalanche is only the beginning...
Some secrets are buried too deep
for the snow to hide.
On her first day at the Bright Mountain ski resort, college sophomore Grace Ryan slips under an boundary rope into forbidden backcountry—and is caught in an avalanche. As the search for her intensifies, it unravels dark secrets: a rookie ski patroller with a hidden connection to her family, a patrol director traumatized by his own encounter with the mountain; and Grace herself, whose harrowing survival underground demands a reckoning with guilt, grief, and faith.
Part survival thriller, part supernatural suspense, Hell Mountain draws on the legend of the Lord of the Mountain — a shapeshifting figure who carries young women into the deep, where the boundaries between the living and the dead dissolve. By turns terrifying, tender, and darkly funny, it is a story about what we owe the dead and what the living owe themselves.
A novel of psychological intensity, spiritual dread, and elemental force.
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ISBN Print 978-1-9194786-3-0
ISBN eBook 978-1-9194786-2-3
"We caught up with Jack Fortune before he caught another bus…
Q: Hi, Jack, where do you hang your hat?
A: Wherever I can plug in my laptop. Seriously though, I’m Irish by nationality and a Green-Carder by lottery.
Q: By lottery?
A: Luck of the Irish. I’ve lived all over from Staten Island to Los Angeles. When I’m not on a bus or a train going somewhere interesting in the world.
Q: What was the inspiration for Hell Mountain?
A: I love mountains. I am afraid of heights, caves, and the dark. It seemed like a good combination for a story."
© 2026 Jack Fortune. All rights reserved.
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