This is a story about blowback-the unintended, unforeseen and often adverse consequences that rebound on the strategies of people and organization. It is a story set in the high mountains of Afghanistan during the Soviet Afghan war during the mid-1980s. It is a story about exploration conducted on a personal plane, exploration through a difficult physical geography and through the obscurity of poor information and understanding during warfare and massive social struggle, and exploration through the mists of history, legend, distance and an exotic past.