On 21 February 2022, 35-year-old Charlie Walker flew into Yakutsk in the Russian Far East, ready to ski hundreds of miles up the frozen River Lena, pulling his gear on a sledge. He was heading to the Laptev Sea, a large peripheral bay of the Arctic Ocean. A neighbour at home in London had wished him luck. ‘Frostbite I can handle,’ Walker replied. ‘Let’s just hope Russia doesn’t start a war while I’m there.’

Walker writes: ‘That Special Military Operation changed everything: for me, for Ukraine and for the world.’ Obliged to change plans, he flew north-east to Batagay over the Verkhoyansk Mountains, and from there set out over the Yana and Omoloy rivers. Large plastic letters in the car-park of Batagay airport announce the ‘Pole of Cold’: an exiled dissident had logged a record low of -67.8°C.

The chained ghosts of Gulag workers stalk these pages. I fancy they are mocking the ‘adventurers’ among us

The chained ghosts of Gulag workers stalk these pages. I fancy they are mocking the ‘adventurers’ among us

The author’s journey pierces the taiga, that five-million-square-mile boreal forest that lives in the Russian imagination as a primordial hinterland and refuge of mythic spirits. Walker artfully........

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