Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition

National Outdoor Book Awards WinnerWinner 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.\nAmazon.com Review\nIn 1881, American Army officer Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely and his crew of scientists and explorers set off on an expedition to go as far north as possible—to the Farthest North—and to break the record held by the British for three centuries. While stationed there, Greely’s team established research stations and collected scientific data, all while fighting frostbite, intense darkness, mutinous crew, and packs of marauding wolves. After waiting two years for resupply ships to reach them, Greely took his men on a harrowing journey south to find rescue, travelling over 200 miles with ever-dwindling supplies, the men going so far as to eat their shoes and sleeping-bag covers to stay alive. Levy’s narrative situates the expedition within the complex cultural framework of the late nineteenth century, giving his readers plenty of background to the political decisions that drove the exhibition and the accompanying rescue missions. At the same time, Levy never overburdens his readers in minutiae, deftly telling the harrowing story of Greely and his men and their historic voyage.
—Alison Walker