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Rowing the Northwest Passage

Adventure, Fear, and Awe in a Rising Sea

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

"Vallely transports the reader to places few will ever go: the very edges of the earth and of human endurance."
—Evan Solomon

In this gripping first-hand account, four seasoned adventurers navigate a sophisticated, high-tech rowboat across the Northwest Passage. One of the "last firsts" remaining in the adventure world, this journey is only possible because of the dramatic impacts of global warming in the high Arctic, which provide an ironic opportunity to draw attention to the growing urgency of climate change.

Along the way, the team repeatedly face life-threatening danger from storms unparalleled in their ferocity and unpredictability and bears witness to unprecedented changes in the Arctic habitat and inhabitants, while weathering gale-force vitriol from climate change deniers who have taken to social media to attack them and undermine their efforts.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 28, 2017
      Adventurer and explorer Vallely’s debut takes readers along on his harrowing but beautiful 2013 journey in a custom-made rowboat through the Arctic Ocean’s Northwest Passage, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This “dance between tranquility and chaos” on the water is not for the faint of heart. Readers follow Vallely from finding partners and sponsors to creating specifications on construction of the four-seat boat to leaving his two young daughters behind to set out. He brings readers deep into the choppy, freezing waters, where his craft is tossed about like a cork at times and narrowly misses huge masses of ice at others. He describes waking up one morning to find “a hundred-by-hundred-foot ice floe that has wedged itself up against our bow.” There are adventures on land, too—wonderful meetings with colorful locals and other hardy expeditioners and encounters with curious polar bears. The trip was ostensibly taken to publicize how climate change has altered the Arctic, but Vallely’s book is as much a history lesson and thrilling travelogue as it is an ecological warning.

    • Booklist

      September 15, 2017
      Drawing on his lifelong fascination with the Arctic, perennial desire to test himself physically (his prior expeditions include skiing the Iditarod Trail, climbing active volcanoes in Indonesia, ice-biking through the Klondike, and retracing a WWII march in Borneo), and a burgeoning concern over climate change, Canadian adventurer Vallely came up with the idea of cajoling three companions into embarking on a rowing journey through the Northwest Passage. His previous experience seeking answers to the mysteries of the lost Franklin Expedition provided him with some familiarity with the region, and his determination to speak with residents and learn their thoughts about global warming fueled his desire to pull off what years ago would have seemed impossible. The foursome encounter brutal weather, are nearly overwhelmed by violent waves, and find the trip far exceeds their expectations in difficulty. But they also have many far-reaching conversations with the people they meet, which leave Vallely with a deep respect for local knowledge of the current state of our climate. A rousing combination of science and adventure in the Arctic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

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Languages

  • English

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