A photojournalist's 14-year, 4,000 mile quest, following in the footsteps of the great explorers.
Both the heaven and hell of the High Arctic, Ellesmere Island lies a mere 450 miles from the North Pole. This mountainous jewel has the highest peaks in the Western Hemisphere east of the Rockies and is full of breathtaking scenery and enchanting wildlife. It also has the highest misery-per-visitor ratio in the world, according to The New York Times. What possesses people to go there, often repeatedly, sometimes to suffer and die? Jerry Kobalenko has made more visits to and walked more miles on Ellesmere island than anyone, past or present.
Kobalenko investigates the motives and mistakes of the island's first explorers; recounts the disastrous 1881-84 expedition of Adolphus Greely in vivid detail; searches for clues to the mysterious disappearance of scientist-explore Hans Kruger and the murder of an Inuit guide; recreates some of the explorer's island_s most difficult journeys; has an almost deadly encounter with a polar bear; and reflects upon the meaning of extreme adventure and his own complicated relationship with a place that, like revenge, is best served cold. Part travelogue, part historical research, part natural science, part adventure mystery, The Horizontal Everest brings to life one man's total involvement with a forbidding but romantic island.

The horizontal Everest : extreme journeys on Ellesmere Island

Jerry Kobalenko

New York, NY: Soho

Soho Crime

United States, United States of America

First Printing, 2002

Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-272) and index.

A photojournalist chronicles his fascinating journeys to Ellesmere Island in the high Arctic, re-creating some of the historical expeditions to the locale, reflecting on the meaning of extreme adventure, and capturing some of Ellesmere's remarkable landscape and wildlife.

xx, 277 p., [8] p. of plates : 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-272) and index

2023-06-28