To the End of the Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson

Epic journeys ain't what they used to be, to judge by this sparkling adventure saga. In recreating Robert E. Peary's storied (and disputed) 1909 trek to the Pole, explorer Avery, four human companions and 16 sled dogs had GPS systems, Internet uplinks, freeze-dried entrées and stand-by air transport; they avoided the death marches and cannibalism that grace Avery's recaps of past arctic expeditions and were greeted at the Pole by a Russian tour guide descending from a helicopter with champagne. Still, there's excitement aplenty in their crossing of what is literally an ocean storm frozen solid, hard as rock yet unstable as the sea. With their alternately heroic and mutinous dogs, Avery's team braves lethal cold, towering ice ridges and heart-stopping traversals of open water via flimsy ice pontoons. The author's chipper prose lacks Peary's ringing mixture of stoicism and bombast (“A few toes aren't much to give to achieve the Pole,” he quotes the frost-bitten old trooper). But Avery offers a strong defense of Peary's achievements against critics who say he faked them—and a captivating homage to a polar frontier that's melting into history. Photos. (Mar. 17)