Customer Reviews

Alone Across the Arctic: One Woman's Epic Journey by Dog Team

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came to know about this book because a member of our church choir is a friend of the incredible woman who undertook to live out her dream of retracing the journey of Knud Rasmussen from Repulse Bay to Barrow, Alaska....some 2,500 miles along the entire length of the North American Arctic coast and loaned it to my wife.

I was happily reading Ken Follet's most recent novel when this book arrived in our home. Because the story is about dogs, the human spirit and an amazing adventure, I started reading what it had to say. It was soon after that I decided that Mr. Follet's book could wait.

Several houurs after that, I am writng this review and suggesting, urging, imploring, anyone who has an appreciation of what is involved with staking it all in answering your life's dream to give yourselves a wonderful present and read this book.

You will learn a lot about what it takes to own and run a team of sled dogs, about what is involved in planning such an expedition and all of the pitfalls to be avoided...but more importantly, you will have your eyes opened to a corner of the human spirit that too many of us shy away from as being..too dangerous..too odd..too off the wall..which will make you assess what it is that is important in your life. We already know what is important with the author's life from reading the book. However, she did not write this book to encourage more sled dogging. The book is a beautiful metaphor about life and one's dreams and one's soul. This author found the key. So should we all. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this most wonderful adventure.
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Since writing the review that appears above, I have learned that the book was the recipient of a First Place award at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in the catagory TRAVEL ESSAY. It is well deserved and the book has goine into a second printing.

Like adventure? This book has it on every page! Prefer suspense? Try figuratively walking behind Pam Flowers as she crosses rotting arctic ice, not knowing whether she'll be able to make it to land. Want a good animal story? Here's one that stars eight dogs, with other species making cameo appearances. And, by the way, it also shows a lot about the incredible bonds of trust, companionship and loyalty which can develop in a team which includes dogs and humans. Hope to inspire someone to dream big dreams and work hard to make them come true? This is one of the most inspirational books I've ever read. And there's more...cross-cultural experiences, lots of information about life and survival in today's Arctic regions, history and humor.

Written for fifth and sixth graders, this is a definite cross-over book. I can't imagine an adult who would find it childish; third and fourth graders will enjoy listening to it.

The well-chosen photos illustrate the perhaps-unexpected beauty of the coastal Arctic, as well as the harshness of parts of the trip. And the side bars provide lots of information which illuminates the story without interrupting its flow.

What a woman! What a dog team! What a story!

The more I read this book, the more convinced I became that this sort of adventure was not for me (not that I've really been tempted). But crossing the artic by dog sled was Ms. Flowers' dream, and the further I read the more I respected her for her courage and persistance. Her dream was downright risky and life threatening. Her book puts these risks and the possibility of death in perspective, as simply things to deal with in facing her dream. There's a lesson to be learned here, about taking risks in our own lives. I won't recommend this book to everyone, but my friends who appreciate courage and finding your own way will certainly hear from me.

I met Pam at a presentation in Alaska at our local Nature Center. This is the most incredible story. It would make a fantastic movie. It is filled with such adventure and near-death survival, that even Hollywood couldn't have written a better script. The book is easy to read, hard to put down, and filled with humor, pictures, and fascinating adventure. She started out with a very small team of dogs, no money, and a determination and spirit as big as Alaska. A must read for all kids and those with a love for adventure and the great outdoors, or those wondering how to overcome obstacles in their lives.

Pam Flowers has written a wonderfully honest and straight forward account of her solo 2,500-mile crossing of the Arctic by dog team from Decemer 1993 to January 1994. She re-traced Norwegian Knud Rasmussen's 1923-24 trip with two Greenlanders, one a young woman, from Repulse Bay in Canada to Barrow, in Alaska, except the Alaskan author went from west to east.
An experienced Arctic traveler,the author planned her trip to last from three to six months, but bad weather,an early break-up of ice, stalled the trip through the summer at Goja Haven on the Canadian Arctic coast. The author turned what might have been daunting to many, to a plus. Her story is a lesson in meticulous planning and adaptibility to any backpacker,long-distance hiker, or anyone thinking about an expedition to some remote location. What would you do if the fuel for your stove was tainted? How would you handle the fact that you still had nearly three hundred miles of ocean to cross, and the ice was breaking up?
I think the book compares to Arlene Blum's Annapurna, for a story of tenacity, fear, perseverance, humor, anger, frustration, and trust. It's a woman's story of success in the face of nay-sayers, as the author concludes, her greatest reward of realizing her dream was that of self-respect.
And her story merits our respect, too.

This book grabbed my attention and held it right to the end. I kept wondering if Pam Flowers and her dog team were actually going to complete their expedition, and I worried about the dogs, especially Douggie, a lot. This story stirred emotion: pride. Perhaps even the same pride Pam must have felt at the end of her adventure. Reading this book makes you believe that if you really want to accomplish something, you can, if you just set your mind to it. In the end, I felt as if I'd made nine new friends.

Alone Across The Arctic is a superbly written adventure story that makes for a fine armchair read and tells of the author's solo trip across the arctic coast with sled dogs. From blizzards and a melting ice pack to encounters with polar bears, Alone Across The Arctic is travelogue packed with ongoing action and true-live adventure.

I needed something to read during the benchmarks, so I ran to the library during passing time and grabbed the first book I could find on mushing (I'm an addicted musher). I had a hard time putting it down. The pictures were wonderful, and the story was great. It was a pretty fast read, I finished it that day, but I enjoyed it. I've reread it twice since I bought my own copy.

I had the opportunity of seeing Pam Flowers at an Audobon society meeting here in Nevada. What an inspiring story she has to tell. My nine year old daughter was impressed by her story of fulfilling a life-long goal in spite of physical, and societal obstacles. This woman, who physically does not appear capable of such endurance, moved from the lower United States to pursue her dream of dog-sledding and exploring in the Arctic. She recounts her trip with a lot of sidelights about her dogs, which are her beloved companions. During one point in the trip, she was stranded on an ice floe and could have requested a rescue. However, that would have meant leaving the dogs behind; something she refused to do. Her stories of life in northern Canada among the Inuit gave insight into a people most often depicted as primitive, igloo dwellers, but who are in fact struggling to integrate native and modern ways. It is a shame that it took so long for this book to come out. Apparently, she struggled for years to find a publisher. She now travels around giving lectures to schools and groups and preparing for another trip northward. I highly recommend this book as an adventure, a story of exploration, a tale of a woman's perseverance, and a good dog story.

Pam Flowers, at age 46, height five feet, weight around 100 pounds, did what few people, let alone a small woman, would dare to do. The story of her solo journey, of her love for her sled dogs, and of the dogs themselves makes great reading.