Many stories capture the beauty and danger of the wilderness, from tales of survival to stories of adventure. This winter, Carlton Boyce picks five books that will transport you to remote areas that are both beautiful and dangerous, each capturing the spirit of the winter wilderness, including stories of courage, strength, and resilience.
The Worst Journey in the World
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
One of the youngest members of the ill-fated Scott Antarctic expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s classic (£12 from Amazon.co.uk
) is widely feted as the most compelling and vivid depiction of travelling in the harshest environment on earth.
Depicting the horrors he faced with a scientific detachment that only highlights the resilience shown by the men he was with, this is a modern classic that should find a place on every traveller’s bookshelf.
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube – Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North
Blair Braverman
Blair was no ordinary Californian teenager. She moved to Norway when she was 18 to learn to drive sled dogs and then found work as a guide on an Alaskan glacier. Determined to carve out a life for herself as a “tough girl”, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube (£20 from Amazon.co.uk) follows her life as she develops the mental strength to work in such a demanding, male-oriented environment.
Brutally honest and by turns funny and tragic, Blair deals with violence and love with the same equanimity before making peace with herself and the environment that haunts her.
Call of the American Wild: A Tenderfoot’s Escape to Alaska
Guy Grieve
Haunted and inspired by life in the Alaskan wilderness, Guy Grieve left a job he hated, a mountain of debt, and his wife and children to go and live in a log cabin in the wilderness for a year.
Befriended by the locals, he eventually runs his own sled dog team through the depths of winter, using the frozen Yukon River as his own personal highway. Inspiring and funny, reading Call of the American Wild (£19 from Amazon.co.uk) serves to help show the degree of determination, courage and selfishness that is sometimes necessary to follow your dreams.
The Very Best of Robert Service
Robert W. Service
The Yukon Baird, Robert W Service is revered in the frozen north, elevated to an almost God-like status by those who live and work there. Depicting life with a poet’s eye and a prospector’s ear, Robert’s poems provide insight into a way of life that was as brutal as it could be rewarding, even if most of those seeking their fortune in the Gold Rush ended up frost-bitten, bankrupt, and heart-broken.
This collection (around £7 from Amazon.co.uk) features the main body of his work, including classics such as Cremation of Sam McGee, The Law of the Yukon, and The Shooting of Dan McGrew, and covers his time serving in the American Ambulance Corps in World War One.
The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
Nate Blakeslee
Not a cold-weather book per se, but a haunting and beautiful tribute to an animal with which humankind has always been inextricably linked. Written with a charming combination of scientific detachment and poetic insight, The Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession (£10 from Amazon.co.uk) is a modern classic.
The story of the wolf’s reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park is heartening, demonstrating as it does that people are capable of extraordinary feats of insight and wisdom. In contrast, the story of O-Six will break your heart and leave you despairing at the same species’ stupidity.
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