Photo courtesy Eric Larsen
With so many expeditions going on all over the planet, it’s tough for an explorer to get sponsors and press time. The trick these days is to come up with a really creative idea and link the expedition to a cause to make it stand out in the very crowded adventure world. Eric Larsen’s journey has been more epic than most: in an effort to publicize global warming, he set out in November 2009 on a 365-day trip to the South Pole, North Pole, and Mt. Everest—the world’s “last great frozen places.” First he headed to Antarctica, where he knocked off a 750-mile ski traverse to the South Pole. Two months later, he traveled from Ellesmere Island to the North Pole, reaching it on Earth Day 2010. And now he sits at Camp 4 on Mt. Everest, the very last person to attempt a summit climb on the world’s highest peak this season. Weather conditions are worsening every day, and though Larsen is determined to make his summit attempt tomorrow, Mother Nature will have the last say about that. Read his expedition journal here for daily updates about his adventure.
; Thunder's Mouth Press/Balliett & Fitzgerald 1999
True adventure is generally not great literature. As long as the writing doesn’t get in the way of the story, I’m happy—because it’s the story I care about. But once in a while a book comes along and blindsides me with a rare combination of excellent writing and gripping adventure. Ice is one such book. A compilation of excerpts and essays about polar exploration, Ice meets every one of my criteria for superior reading. It’s dominated by excerpts from early polar explorers’ diaries, which paint a stark portrait of the cruel monotony of the arctic landscape and the carnage it inflicts upon human bodies. Needless to say, most of the explorers die. In fact, the book far exceeds my expected ration of gangrenous toes and scurvy-riddled bodies. But that’s not why I like it so much. I love how editor Clint Willis chose to weave these somber pieces through a latticework of essays and articles by great writers such as Barry Lopez and Edward Abbey. Some of this work is shot through with humor, some poetically describes the physical landscape, some exposes the social effects of exploration upon native peoples. And I thank Willis for choosing to include two excerpts and an essay by women writers, because female voices make the whole collection stronger. My only quibble is the emphasis on the doomed Scott expedition to the South Pole. There are several pieces related to that journey, and only one about Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition (which is my favorite polar tale of all time). Aside from that small disappointment, Ice is an absolute pleasure. Review by Kali
