Product Description

In 1912 the Russian navigator Valerian Albanov embarked on an expedition to find new Arctic hunting grounds. Albanov's ship the "Saint Anna" became frozen fast in the ice of the treacherous Kara Sea. Problems were futher compounded by an incompetent commander, the absence of crucial nautical charts, insufficient fuel and inadequate provisions that left the crew weak and debilitated by scurvy. After a year-and-a-half of drifting through the ice Albanov and 13 crewmen left the ship. Hauling makeshift sledges and kayaks behind them, the crew crossed the frozen sea hoping to reach the distant coast of Franz Josef Land. With only an inaccurate map to guide them, Albanov led his men on a 235-mile journey, through blizzards, disintegrating ice floes, polar bear attacks, starvation and sickness, snowblindness and mutiny. This book is Albanov's diary of the 90 day ordeal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #583826 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-03
• Original language: Russian
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

a gripping yarn
In the land of white death chronicles the escape of Valerian Albanov from his icebound ship (the saint anna) his trek across the frozen wastes of siberia, recreated from his journal his writing style translates very well into english with none of the mood or struggle lost.
Set around the time of Shackleton the similaraties are unmistakable (although shackleton had an altogeter happier ending), a must read for any adventure fan, at the end of the day if Albanov had been British he would have been up there with with Sott Shacklton and co, as one of the great polar journeys ever told.