The Frostfangs

The range runs south to north facing the Shadow Tower, dividing the Lands of Always Winter from the Haunted Forest. Frostfang, so named by the Night's Watch for its several peaks, is one of its tallest mountains. By day the massif looks blue-grey streaked with frost; at dusk it turns black, and when the moon rises it is tinged white and silver.

The easiest way in follows the Milkwater upstream to its source, a path visible from the Fist of the First Men. The Giant's Stair and the Skirling Pass are harder, less-travelled alternatives.

Few places offer so little to live on: the trees that grow there are stunted and sideways, wedged into cracks and fissures, and rocky overhangs hung with icicles loom over the paths. The narrow valleys of its foothills make perfect ambush ground. Even so, some find the place beautiful: eagles nest in the heights and swoop down to hunt, and shadowcats stalk rams like flowing smoke. Some of its hidden valleys have never seen sunlight.

During the Great Ranging, the wildling Craster tells Lord Commander Jeor Mormont that Mance Rayder has gathered an army of the free folk in the Frostfangs. The Night's Watch digs in at the Fist of the First Men, the old ringfort, while questioning a captive who speaks of some power that could open a breach in the Wall before dying without finishing his account.

Mormont sends fifteen rangers out in three parties of five to learn more: one follows the Milkwater upstream, another climbs into the Skirling Pass, and the third reaches the top of the Giant's Stair.

Of the five men sent into the Skirling Pass, only Jon Snow survives, taken prisoner by Mance Rayder; another ranger, Stonesnake, is never heard from again.

The free folk begin their descent along the Milkwater, in a column stretching for miles. Harma Dogshead leads the vanguard with five hundred riders. Behind her march people from every corner of the wild north: from the Haunted Forest, from the hidden valleys of the Frostfangs, from the Frozen Shore, Hornfoots, Nightrunners, Thenns and giants.

Jon Snow, still among them, learns that what Mance is searching for along the river is the Horn of Winter.

In the peaks of the Frostfangs, beneath a glacier, Mance had found Joramun's tomb, and with it the Horn of Winter he had spent so long searching for. The horn is later burned by Melisandre after the Battle of Castle Black.