| Haji | Ali | Korphe village chief. |
| Mouzafer | Ali | One of the most skilled porters in the area. |
| Nargiz | Ali | Fatima's friend. |
| Mohammed | Ali Changazi | Organize tours and mountain-climbing expeditions. |
| Faisal | Baig | McCown's guide. |
| Fatima | Batool | One of the children of Brolmo. |
| Bashir | Baz | Retired Brigadier General of Pakistan's army. |
| Julia | Bergman | Worked on the CAI's board. |
| Osama | bin Laden | Leader of a terrorist group Al Qaeda. |
| Tara | Bishop | Greg's wife. |
| Mary | Bono | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. |
| Tom | Brokaw | Television news anchor. |
| James | Bullock | Tara and Greg's friend. |
| Scott | Darsney | Greg's fellow mountain climber. |
| Uzra | Faizad | Durkhani High School principal. |
| Kevin | Fedarko | Reporter. |
| Etienne | Fine | Member of the expedition who got extremely sick. |
| Badam | Gul | Greg's fellow guest in the hotel. |
| Mullah | Gulzar | Religious leader of a village called Brolmo. |
| Sir Edmund | Hillary | Part of the first team to climb Mount Everest. |
| Jean | Hoerni | Mountain climber and a scientist. |
| Aziza | Hussain | The first health care worker in Zuudkhan. |
| Abdul Rashid | Khan | Warlord. |
| Mohammed A. | Khan | Chief of Hushe. |
| Sardhar | Khan | Man who ruled the province of Badakhshan. |
| | Khan | One of Greg's kidnappers. |
| Mr. | Khan | Driver. |
| Alex | Lowe, | Famous mountaineer. |
| Dan | Mazur | One of the expedition's leaders. |
| George | McCown | Board director of the American Himalayan Foundation. |
| Haji | Mehdi | The chief of Askole. |
| Haji | Mirza | One of the smugglers. |
| Khyber Bishop | Mortenson | Greg's son. |
| Greg | Mortenson | Emergency room nurse. Aka: Dr. Greg, Dr. Sahib. |
| Mullah | Omar | The head of the Taliban government. |
| Ghulam | Parvi | Changazi's accountant. |
| Lana | Pieri | Greg's cousin. |
| Jonathan | Pratt | One of the expedition's leaders. |
| Abdullah | Rahman | Taxi driver. Greg's friend. |
| Apo | Razak | CAI worker. |
| Dr. Louis | Reichardt | First American to reach the summit of K2. Aka: Lou . |
| Syed Abbas | Risvi | Religious leader. |
| Amartya | Sen | Nobel Prize winner. |
| Abdul | Shah | Watchman at the hotel. |
| Zahir | Shah | The king of Afghanistan. |
| Kishwar | Syed | The man who taught Greg how to use a computer. |
| Sher | Takhi | The mullah, or religious leader, of Korphe. |
| Dr. Tom | Vaughan | Greg's friend. |
| Jennifer | Wilson | Hoerni's wife. |
| Aamina | | Fatima's sister. |
| Akhmalu | | The man who had cooked for his K2 expedition. |
| Amira Eliana | | Greg's daughter. |
| Christa | | Greg's sister who'd died on her twenty-third birthday. |
| Dan | | McCown's son. |
| Hawa | | Hussein's wife. |
| Hussein | | One of the hunters. |
| Irvin | | Greg's father. Aka: Dempsey. |
| Jahan | | Twaha's seven-year-old daughter. |
| Janjungpa | | Porter from Greg's expedition to K2. |
| Jerene | | Irvin's wife. |
| Kais | | Translator. |
| Kari | | One of Greg's sisters. |
| Sakina | | Haji Ali's wife. |
| Shakeela | | Mohammed Aslam's daughter. |
| Sonja Joy | | One of Greg's sisters. |
| Susan | | Dan's wife. |
| Tahira | | Hussein's daughter. |
| Twaha | | Haji Ali's son. |
| Yakub | | Mouzafer's friend. One of the porters |
| Yasmine | | Parvi's fifteen-year-old daughter. |
