The Horizontal Everest: Extreme Journeys on Ellesmere Island [Paperback]

This is a well-written book, which describes on a very human level the personal and physical effort of the arctic experience. He easily brings to life personalities and events much better than the score of history books I have read of the arctic.

Three kinds of readers would enjoy this book. Firstly, the reader who occasionally randomly chooses a book in hopes of being entertained educated or enlightened. Another person who would derive pleasure is someone who has an academic interest in the arctic, or, who enjoys books of personal effort, and enjoys histories and descriptions of arcane places and events. Finally, anyone with actual arctic experience who wants to relive places and experiences would find this book captivating.

One warning: begin this book when you have a free weekend, because once you start it, you can kiss your weekend goodbye, as you will be unable to put it aside.

On a personal note, though Kobalenko gives little credibility to the Cook claim, it was a passing comment by him that got me interested in the Peary/Cook controversy such that I am now on the board of the Dr. Frederick A. Cook Society. Also, however well written, listening to Jerry describe his Gun Fight at Polar Bear Corral is much more entertaining while sitting on insulated sleeping mats, drinking hot Tang while warming one's hands on the walls of the insulated mug, near the ice foot of an island, in a frozen sea of ice.

He doesn't live there all the time (he lives in Canada), because he does have to make a living, which he does mostly by taking photographs and writing about his travels on his island and other inhospitable spots. For the past fifteen years, he has roamed the island in various expeditions, often solo. He has traveled, by foot, thousands of miles across and around the island, more than anyone alive. He doesn't use dogs. He has no radio. He hikes, pulling a sled full of the stuff he predicts he will need. He writes about preparing beforehand 54 peanut butter and jam sandwiches (one per day) because "long ago, I had discovered that making a sandwich on the arctic trail meant hacking for fifteen minutes at toffee-hard peanut butter with a Swiss Army knife and laying the shrapnel between crumbly pieces of frozen bread." Coated with butter, each thousand-calorie sandwich was like "vegetarian seal blubber," full of energy required for a freezing pack animal.

Much of this book tells the story of other travelers in the area. Kobalenko recreates some of the expeditions from the past, visiting the campsites from the last two centuries which the arctic cold has preserved. He is delighted whenever he finds cairns, the traditional rock piles set up as commemorative markers. Sometimes there is a note in a bottle, and he is the first to poke around and bring it back home. He might turn up rusted cans, matches, buttons, and shell casings, as he did at Starvation Camp, where most of the members of Adolphus Greely's expedition died in 1884. He feels guilty making his simple meals there. He sees for himself Crocker Land which was sighted by Perry in 1906. Perry knew that explorers make names for themselves by finding new territories, and also that they finance their expeditions by flattering those who back them. Perry named Crocker Land after a backer of his expedition. A later one sent to find it demonstrated that Perry had only seen a mirage. Combining history, natural science, and adventure, Kobalenko's surprising observations, written in smooth, calm, sensible prose, are entertaining throughout.