
Into the Ice
The Northwest Passage, the Polar Sun, and a 175-Year-Old Mystery
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mark Deakins
-
By:
-
Mark Synnott
About this listen
New York Times bestselling author Mark Synnott has climbed with Alex Honnold. He’s scaled Mount Everest. He's pioneered big-wall first ascents, including the north-west face of the mile-high Great Trango Tower, and skied monster first descents. But in 2022, he realized there was a dream he’d yet to achieve: to sail the Northwest Passage in his own boat—a feat only four hundred or so sailors have ever accomplished—and in doing so, try to solve the mystery of what happened to legendary nineteenth-century explorer Sir John Franklin and his ships, HMS Erebus and Terror.
Only a few hundred vessels have ever transited the Northwest Passage, and substantially fewer have done so in a fiberglass-hulled boat like Polar Sun. But Mark was determined to return to the Arctic, where he cut his teeth as a young climber, and in the process investigate one of the great mysteries of exploration: What really happened to Sir John Franklin and his entire 128-man crew, which disappeared into these ice-strewn waters 175 years ago?
In this pulse-pounding travelogue, Mark Synnott paints a vivid portrait of the Arctic, which is currently warming twice as fast as any other part of our planet. He weaves its history and people into the first-person account of his epic journey through the Northwest Passage, searching for Franklin's tomb along the way—all while trying to avoid a similar fate.
In Into the Ice, Mark and his crew race against time and treacherous storms in search of answers to the greatest mystery of all time: What is it that drives someone to risk it all in the name of exploration?
©2025 Mark Synnott (P)2025 Penguin AudioCritic reviews
“Part travelogue, part historical mystery and part memoir, “Into the Ice” will appeal to fans of extreme adventure stories, nearly all of whom will never sail a boat through the Northwest Passage.”—Associated Press
"You can fill a lot of shelves with books about Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition…and whenever I see a new one I wonder: How will this be different? But Mark Synnott’s Into the Ice really is different—as well as informative, refreshingly honest, and page-turning.”—Sail Magazine
“Synnott delivers a thrilling account of his 2022 journey through Canada’s inhospitable Arctic islands… while recapping heart-pounding encounters with blizzards, gales, polar bears, and an Arctic typhoon—all in a 47-foot fiberglass sailboat that could crack open like a walnut if caught in the ice…a page-turner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)