Into the Great Emptiness

May 16, 2022
Climber Roberts (Alone on the Ice) recounts the story of “forgotten hero” Henry George “Gino” Watkins (1907–1932) and his 1930 Greenland expedition in this gripping narrative. The 23-year-old Englishman and his 13 teammates set sail in July with ambitions to survey Greenland’s little-known east coast and interior, collect data on the ice cap, and chart an air route from western Europe to North America. But the expedition didn’t go as planned: dangerous terrain, fierce storms, and temperatures below -50 degrees Fahrenheit derailed their efforts and threatened their lives. Roberts paints a vivid and suspenseful picture of the expedition as the team scrambled to rescue teammate August Courtauld, who was trapped alone at the weather station he manned with food stores running perilously low. Despite the mishaps, Roberts argues, Watkins’s scheme was still “the most daring and fruitful British expedition to the Far North during the previous half-century,” in large part due to Watkins’s success at earning his team’s unwavering loyalty, even through exceedingly arduous circumstances. Roberts knows how to tell a good story, and he draws on firsthand accounts from team members to depict their excursions in harrowing detail. Perfect for fans of adventure stories, this one hits all the marks.

June 1, 2022
In March 1931, two men of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition (BAARE) in Greenland ventured out to relieve a fellow team member who had been manning a distant weather station solo for months, his supplies dwindling as extreme weather conditions further deteriorated. As the two men braved the ice sheet to find their colleague, time was at a premium. Henry George "Gino" Watkins helmed BAARE, aiming to explore Greenland's weather conditions. Only in his early twenties, the ambitious Watkins had already led a previous successful expedition in Norway. In Greenland, the fate of three of his crew members hanging in the balance, Watkins set out to locate his men and bring them home. Roberts' (Escalante's Dream, 2019) pulsating real-life thriller recalls the exciting and harrowing details of an expedition into the depths of the unexplored. Readers will be on pins and needles.

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Starred review from May 27, 2022

This superb book by the late Roberts (The Bears Ears: A Human History of America's Most Endangered Wilderness), who passed away in 2021, reintroduces the public to the Arctic explorer Henry George "Gino" Watkins and his exploits, focusing particularly on the 1930-31 British Arctic Air Route Expedition. In 1930, in support of a proposed air route from Europe to North America via Greenland, the 23-year-old Watkins and his team set out to explore the island's forbidding east coast and establish a weather monitoring station in the middle of its ice cap. Roberts recounts how the ambitious expedition turned into a rescue operation in the spring of 1931, when repeated efforts to relieve the solitary team member manning the station were frustrated by snowstorms, failing equipment, and unrelenting ice. Balancing a suspenseful account of the expedition with an overview of Watkins's life, Roberts searches for the key to the explorer's prodigious resolve, ultimately finding the contrast between the London bon vivant and the daring leader as compellingly mysterious as did Watkins's contemporaries. VERDICT Placing Watkins and his team among the esteemed ranks of polar heroes like Shackleton and Scott, this is an essential read for enthusiasts of Arctic exploration and survival.--Sara Shreve

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Starred review from June 1, 2022
The late, prolific adventure writer returns with a fresh account of an epic yet little-known Arctic expedition. Polar explorers Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Ernest Shackleton are household names, but Henry George "Gino" Watkins (1907-1932) rings few bells. In this fascinating biography, Roberts (1943-2021) points out that, unlike his predecessors, Watkins was neither a military man nor a seasoned traveler. Rather, he was a carefree Cambridge student fond of risky antics and mountain climbing but no expert explorer. Inspired by a Cambridge don who had traveled with Scott and Shackleton in the Antarctic, Watkins decided to explore the Arctic. Dropping out, he led a 1927 expedition to a poorly explored island in the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, and to Labrador a year later. Despite his youth, he turned out to be a good leader. Building on these successes, he organized and led the British Arctic Air Route Expedition of 1930-1931, aiming to survey the obscure east coast of Greenland and gather climate data to plan a shorter air route to North America. By this time, others had crossed the island, but no one had overwintered in Greenland's unspeakably cold, stormy interior. Roberts devotes most of his book to a gripping account of this expedition, with equally fine asides on Greenland's history and Indigenous inhabitants. Despite the usual mishaps, the men accomplished many of their goals. They established a weather station 140 miles inland, although reaching it proved far more difficult than anticipated, and occupants spent frightening weeks waiting for relief. One man volunteered to spend the entire winter; by spring, his tent was sealed under 20 feet of icy snow, and the relief expedition did not find it until it was nearly too late. Ultimately, everyone returned to wide acclaim. Watkins drowned during a 1932 expedition, but Roberts blames his obscurity on the fact that he left no popular writing, never sought fame, achieved no iconic discoveries, and experienced no disasters. An outstanding account of a great expedition led by "a child prodigy who died before his full genius could flower."

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