Product Description

Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004, this is the compelling account of the most recent

adventure of the bestselling author of Facing Up.

It started out as a carefully calculated attempt to complete the first unassisted crossing of the frozen north Atlantic in an open rigid inflatable boat, but it became a terrifying battle against storm-force winds, crashing waves and icebergs as large as cathedrals. Starting from the remote north Canadian coastline, Grylls and his crew crossed the infamous Labrador Sea, pushed on through ice-strewn waters to Greenland and then found themselves isolated in a perfect storm 400 miles from Iceland.

Compelling, vivid and inspirational, Facing the Frozen Ocean will appeal to all Bear Grylls' many readers and win him many more.

'An epic story of hardship, friendship and faith' Daily Telegraph

'Riveting' Daily Express

'Grylls is certainly proof that the age of great explorers has not completely passed us by' Scotsman

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6538 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 356 pages

Review
"'An epic story of hardship, friendship and faith' Daily Telegraph '[Grylls'] writing allows you to feel you are sitting alongside him on his adventure... I could taste the salt spray in every sentence and the bone numbing chill in every paragraph' Herald Express 'Grylls is certainly proof that the age of great explorers has not completely passed us by.' Scotsman"

About the Author

Bear Grylls spent three years with the British Special Forces. During this time he had a horrendous parachuting accident in southern Africa, breaking his back in three places. Three years later he overcame the odds to become the youngest British climber ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and this story forms the basis for his bestselling memoir, Facing Up. Bear Grylls is one of the most successful motivational speakers on the world circuit.

Customer Reviews

Facing the Frozen Ocean
This book was amazing. It left me speechless. I was hardly able to put the book down. I guarantee your feet will be itching and you will want to get out there and see and do the same things that the Bear and his crew did. I felt like I had had been a part of his journey, at times imagining what they must have gone through and the sheer determination that they all showed put a lump in my throat.

An excellent book, I would recommend it to anyone.

Facing the Frozen Ocean: One man's dream to lead a team acro
One of the best books l have ever read and inspired me to book Bear to tell his story at our last Sales Conference....needless to say he was as good as his book and l felt very humbled to be sat there listening to his story.

Enjoyable adventure tale, maybe a little lightweight
This book is the story of Bear Grylls' attempt to cross the arctic Atlantic ocean in an open inflatable beat. Bear leads a team of five on this challenge, and he tells the story of how the trip was organised and how close it came to disaster.

I've read Bear's tale of climbing Everest (Facing Up) which is, to be honest, the better book. Facing the Frozen Ocean was an enjoyable holiday read but it didn't grip me in the same way that the Everest adventure did. Partly, I suspect that's because Bear himself loses the impetus to continue these adventures part-way through the trip; there is one appalling leg of the journey where death was very, very close. An angry Atlantic is no place to be in an open boat -- running out of fuel and left helpless in 20-foot swells. Bear questions why he is involved in this kind of escapade when he could be at home with his young family... and that sense of disengagement is obvious to the reader.

However, you also learn all about prepping for an expedition like this, and get a vivid description of what it was like. Bear's writing (or editor!) improves in this book so the text flows more easily than in Facing Up.

Overall, it's a fast-paced adventure tale -- just not one to rank among the classics.