In the Land of White Death : An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic

In 1912 the Russian navigator Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition to find new Arctic hunting grounds. Albanov's ship the "Saint Anna" became frozen fast in the ice of the treacherous Kara Sea. Problems were futher compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy. After a year-and-a-half of drifting through the ice Albanov and 13 crewmen left the ship. Hauling makeshift sledges and kayaks behind them, the crew crossed the frozen sea hoping to reach the distant coast of Franz Josef Land. With only an inaccurate map to guide them, Albanov led his men on a 235-mile journey, through blizzards, disintegrating ice floes, polar bear attacks, starvation and sickness, snowblindness and mutiny. This book is Albanov's diary of the 90 day ordeal.