Labyrinth of Ice
The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition
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4.5 • 74 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
National Outdoor Book Awards Winner
Winner of the BANFF Adventure Travel Award
“A thrilling and harrowing story. If it’s a cliche to say I couldn’t put this book down, well, too bad: I couldn’t put this book down.” —Jess Walter, bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins
“Polar exploration is utter madness. It is the insistence of life where life shouldn’t exist. And so, Labyrinth of Ice shows you exactly what happens when the unstoppable meets the unmovable. Buddy Levy outdoes himself here. The details and story are magnificent.” —Brad Meltzer, bestselling author of The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington
Based on the author's exhaustive research, the incredible true story of the Greely Expedition, one of the most harrowing adventures in the annals of polar exploration.
In July 1881, Lt. A.W. Greely and his crew of 24 scientists and explorers were bound for the last region unmarked on global maps. Their goal: Farthest North. What would follow was one of the most extraordinary and terrible voyages ever made.
Greely and his men confronted every possible challenge—vicious wolves, sub-zero temperatures, and months of total darkness—as they set about exploring one of the most remote, unrelenting environments on the planet. In May 1882, they broke the 300-year-old record, and returned to camp to eagerly await the resupply ship scheduled to return at the end of the year. Only nothing came.
250 miles south, a wall of ice prevented any rescue from reaching them. Provisions thinned and a second winter descended. Back home, Greely’s wife worked tirelessly against government resistance to rally a rescue mission.
Months passed, and Greely made a drastic choice: he and his men loaded the remaining provisions and tools onto their five small boats, and pushed off into the treacherous waters. After just two weeks, dangerous floes surrounded them. Now new dangers awaited: insanity, threats of mutiny, and cannibalism. As food dwindled and the men weakened, Greely's expedition clung desperately to life.
Labyrinth of Ice tells the true story of the heroic lives and deaths of these voyagers hell-bent on fame and fortune—at any cost—and how their journey changed the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Levy (River of Darkness) recounts the story of the 1881 1884 Lady Franklin Bay Expedition in this evocative, deeply researched account. Led by Lt. Adolphus W. Greeley, the U.S. Army Signal Corps expedition sought to establish a research station in the Canadian Arctic; collect "magnetic, astronomical, and meteorological data"; search for the lost crew of the USS Jeannette; and reach "farthest north," the highest northern latitude achieved by explorers. Greeley and his men built Fort Conger on the northeast coast of Ellesmere Island and survived wolf attacks, temperatures approaching minus-100 F, and "months of total darkness." Relief ships, hindered by bad weather and ice floes, failed to reach the fort, however, and in August 1883 the group set out on a 200-mile journey south from Fort Conger to Cape Sabine, where Greeley was under orders to take his men if two consecutive resupply efforts failed. But only a small cache of emergency rations had been left by the relief ships, and 18 members of the 25-man crew died before rescuers arrived in June 1884. Levy meticulously documents the expedition's scientific achievements and praises Greeley's leadership skills. He also gives credit to Greeley's wife, Henrietta, for lobbying President Chester A. Arthur and other U.S. government officials to keep up rescue efforts. The result is an intense historical adventure with modern-day relevance for the climate change debate.
Customer Reviews
Great Artic Adventure
The human spirit can endure more than ever imagined.
Page turner!
Couldn’t put it down. There is very few men I put on the list of men with the utmost integrity. Greely is one of them and that goes for Brainard also. Gripping tale!