The Fellowship is forced to turn back at Caradhras in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Caradhras is one of the three peaks of the Redhorn, part of the Misty Mountains. The Fellowship attempts to cross the mountain pass during winter, but severe snow and an avalanche block the route. Aragorn and Boromir help clear a path, yet the weather becomes too dangerous for the group to continue.
Gandalf suspects that the mountain’s hostility may have a supernatural cause and refers to Caradhras as “the Cruel.” Whether the storm is caused by the mountain itself or by an outside power is left uncertain in the text. After abandoning the pass, the Fellowship travels toward the Mines of Moria.
Caradhras is not Mount Doom, where the One Ring is destroyed, nor Mount Gundabad, an important stronghold of Orcs in the north. Mindolluin is the mountain above Minas Tirith. The failed crossing is strategically important because it leads the Fellowship into Moria and ultimately to the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.