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Title details for Arctic Traverse by Michael Engelhard - Available

Arctic Traverse

A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range

by Michael Engelhard
ebook
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2024 National Outdoor Book Award Winner
"Engelhard locates life—biological, cultural, and geophysical—in every mile of this vast, wild landscape." —Robert Moor, author of On Trails: An Exploration
A lyrical memoir that interweaves wilderness, homeland, cultural connections, historical figures, humor, and gritty experiences across northern Alaska, Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range takes readers along on a once-in-a-lifetime journey.
From the award-winning author of Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon comes an intimate exploration of Alaska's northernmost mountain range with observations on Indigenous cultures, conservation, and intense cross-country travel, all shaped by respect for the land. Follow author Michael Engelhard through tussock-studded tundra for a remarkable tale of bear encounters and white-knuckled river moments, as well as poetic reflections on a vast, untamed landscape. A trained anthropologist, Engelhard evokes classic writers like Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, and Ellen Meloy with profound dives into human and natural history and vivid meditations on Alaskan wildlife, flora, and geology. When he embarked on this thru-hike, fewer people had completed it solo in a single push than had dived to the floor of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of Earth's oceans.
Much more than a captivating account of a human-powered solo thru-hike and float, Arctic Traverse illuminates the spirit of Alaska, drawing on encounters with Indigenous elders, guided clients, scientists, and others as well as on Engelhard's long-held dream and his experiences of the land itself.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 1, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781680516791

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781680516791
      • File size: 8859 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      March 1, 2024
      A decade ago, wilderness guide Engelhard set out on a thousand-mile journey along Alaska's Brooks Range, an expanse of mountains that crosses the state from east to west above the Arctic Circle. Well-versed in the terrain and its wild inhabitants, Engelhard undertook this solo hike to become better acquainted with a wilderness he already loved. Hauling a 50-plus-pound backpack and relying on supply caches along his route, he had maps, a satellite phone, one book (Into the Great Solitude, by Robert Perkins), tent, sleeping bag, and plans to keep a journal. The result is this grand and thoughtful adventure that takes the author through a uniquely spectacular region, including its surveyed history, the lives of its past and present inhabitants, and the work of some great writers with their own appreciations of Alaska's nature and peoples. Buoyed by Engelhard's wry sense of humor and encounters with those he meets along the way, Arctic Traverse is a rare entry in the outdoor genre. The author's expertise is clear, but more important, his wit invites readers to laugh and occasionally shudder with him as he makes his way to a final landing in Kotzebue. A true Alaskan treasure.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      February 23, 2024

      Cultural anthropologist/outdoor instructor Engelhard (Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon) takes readers along his exploration of the Brooks Range in Alaska. He backpacked for 48 days, starting at Joe Creek near the Canadian border and 170 miles north of the Arctic Circle, then canoed 10 days down the Noatak River to Kotzebue. Clouds are beautifully and lyrically described as "gray as a prison blanket," or "jellyfish low on the hills," and "a day that has grayed into gruel." He defines "solastalgia" as the grieving for places irrevocably lost and plays with language again when he describes the wildlife and landscape with such gems as "bearanoia," "hellish tussocks," and "decapitated summits.". He also quotes a wide array of thinkers, critics, writers, photographers, Zen masters, and more. The book includes notes and a bibliography that's unusual for a travel memoir. VERDICT This book gorgeously documents the author's journey through a wild landscape. For readers of travel memoirs and outdoor adventures.--Margaret Atwater-Singer

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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