The Horizontal Everest is the culmination of journalist/photographer Jerry Kobalenko’s obsession with Ellesmere Island’s dramatic environment and complicated history. A 16,651-square-mile island in the Canadian Arctic, it is one of the harshest places on earth, earning it the distinction of having the highest misery-per-visitor ratio in the world. Kobalenko has totted up more miles and visits to this hell in the high Arctic than anyone living or dead.

Part travelogue and personal journal, The Horizontal Everest reflects on what forces drive the human spirit in such an environment. Besides detailing his extreme journeys on the island, Kobalenko attempts to solve a number of the island’s unanswered murder mysteries, bolstering his well researched anthropological study of the flora and fauna with Sherlock Holmes-style detective work.

Combining the clues he uncovers with his firsthand knowledge of the Arctic, Kobalenko proposes that the extreme endeavours of his Victorian heroes might not have ended as honourably as we had previously believed. The ghosts of these horrific events, such as the disappearance of scientists like Dr. Hans Kruger and the murder of an Inuit guide, cast their shadows as Kobalenko retraces the sometimes gruesome trails littered across the island’s centuries of human daring.

Travelling to the world’s largest uninhabited island in minus-30-degree temperatures without a satellite phone or radio, Kobalenko acts like he’s strolling down a country road. His attitudes and manner may seem brash and blunt at times, but he speaks with the voice of the explorer who has had to adjust to an environment where there is no room for mistakes and resourcefulness determines survival. He is also an astute enough writer to balance his Indiana Jones persona with a wealth of scientific and historical information.