Two audacious Alaskan journeys are depicted in this captivating adventure tale.

In the winter of 1897-98, three officers from the US cutter Bear set off from below the Arctic Circle with the goal of driving a herd of reindeer over 1500 miles of frozen tundra and ice to Point Barrow, Alaska.

There, eight whaling ships lay stranded in thick ice, their crews on the verge of starvation.

Anthony Dalton was well aware of this story and countless other tales of tragedy and misadventure on the Arctic seas when, in the summer of 1984, he embarked on a near-fatal voyage in a small open boat along the wild northwest coast of Alaska.

He was attempting a solo transit of the Northwest Passage, and his modern sea quest ran parallel to the arduous trek undertaken by the men of the relief expedition.

Dalton's gripping description of his encounter with an icy hell explores the irresistible lure of risk and challenge that continues to draw adventurers to the Arctic, a place like no other.