Moments of beauty and horror punctuate this account of an ill-timed sub-zero camping trip <\/p>\n
In late February 2022, Charlie Walker set off on a hiking holiday\u00a0in northern Siberia. In temperatures as low as -50C, he intended to trek a thousand miles north along the frozen surface of the river Lena, then out across the solid Laptev Sea to the port town of Tiksi, before finally flying home to London. \u201cThe plan,\u201d he writes, \u201cwas simple in concept.\u201d A sub-zero camping trip through a region populated by wolves and bears and scarred by centuries of historical trauma, in a country that was about to invade one of its neighbours: what could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n
On Thin Ice is Walker\u2019s third travelogue. Previous excursions have included a 43,000-mile bicycle ride across three continents, a 1,000-mile solo walk through the Gobi desert, and\u00a0a river trip down the Congo in a leaky canoe. When not performing incredible feats of forward motion, according to his website, he gives talks to business leaders on subjects such as \u201crisk taking\u201d and \u201cthe line between courage and recklessness\u201d. Reading his latest, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s familiar with the terrain on both sides of that line.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/649df7bc88f9cc901b5a81485914016df54245f6\/0_0_3780_3024\/master\/3780.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f7e68e3d020d711d7085c84efc344146\" "\\"On")
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