Arctic Solitaire

Souders, Paul. Arctic Solitaire: A Boat, A Bay, and the Quest for the Perfect Bear. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books 2018. Print

First Sentences:

All the easy pictures have been taken.

But I'm here to tell you there are still some stupid and crazy ones left out there....I was heading north with at least one of them in mind; I was looking for the polar bear of my dreams...living unafraid and standing unchallenged at the very top of the food chain. 

Description:

I was freezing cold throughout this entire book. What did I expect?  Paul Souders book, Arctic Solitaire: A Boat, A Bay, and the Quest for the Perfect Bear is about sailing in a small open boat through heavy rain in the Arctic, sprinkled with climbing around on ice bergs and occasionally falling into the icy water.

In Arctic Solitairs, Souders, a seasoned wildlife photographer, details his real-life quest to capture one tryly unique picture of a polar bear. In his stunning, funny, and "chilling" account, Souders spends four summers motoring around the upper Hudson Bay seeking photogenic polar bears willing to do something interesting for a one-of-a-kind shot. And he doesn't want those starving, almost tame ones hanging around civilization scrounging for scraps like in touristy Churchill, but rather in the remote ice floes near native Inuit communities where bears roam as the largest predator on earth.

I have long dreamed of finding my own private Arctic bastion, unpeople but well-stocked with polar bears....Shouldn't it be possible to take a small boat and visit the bears during those [summer] months as the ice disappears and the bears head for short?

This means Souders must head north to the remotest parts of the vast Hudson Bay. The trip starts off as "a sort of lark" since he is not an expert in biology, animal behavior, or even boat travel. First he has to purchase transportation, settling on a 10' Zodiak ("my laughably puny boat with a too-small hand pump"), and, when that proves inadequate, acquires a 22' cabin cruiser, the "C-Sick." He then sets about to outfit it for a summer in the cold unknown, and haul it from Seattle hundreds of miles to the Hudson Bay. Of course, he takes too much stuff as well as not enough of more important items he finds out later, he tries to survive the cold, rain, waves, and drifting ice bergs daily using his wits and a load of good luck. 

I started planning with nothing more than my outdated Rand McNally road atlas. I've always found something seductive about maps. The offer all the promise of travel and adventure and discovery, yet foretell nothing of the discomfort, misery, and expense my travels always seem to entail.

Once he has motored away from civilization, he does find bears -- but they are all calmly dozing on rocks. Not much of a photo opportunity, especially when these bears catch his scent or see him approach in his tiny inflatable Zodiac. Usually they run off, but all too often they decide to explore this new, interesting smell of "sweat and dirty underwear." They are huge, especially when they charge, teeth bared, ready to jump into the water to pursue a possible meal. Several times their claws pierce his inflatable boat and Souders has to chug furiously back to his boat in a sinking Zodiac

Day after day Souders writes in his journal about his victories and defeats while searching for bears, trying to stay warm and dry, and taking photos from underwater, overhead with his drone, and with telephoto lenses from a hopefully safe distance. Of course, most of his equipment ends up dropped in the Bay, soaked, and ruined.

There is real humor throughout as Souders tries to find and photograph his giant subjects. Mostly, he is winging it to just survive the harsh weather, waves, and drifting ice. He recounts experiences with the local Inuit people living in isolated villages who suspect he works for Greenpeace and will try to stop them from their traditional lifestyle and diet of blubber that necessitates their hunting of whales. 

But he perseveres  and eventually turns this daily journal into Arctic Solitaire. His amateurish nautical (and survival) efforts written in a laughable stream-of-consciousness narration make for a pleasurable reading experience. Scattered throughout the book are his outstanding photos of the northern world of ice, water, and naturally enough, polar bears.

I'm still too cold to even think about following his path to the remote north, but Souders photos certainly opens a new world to me of beauty, animals, and life.

I had decided long ago that I could only spend the years I had with both eyes opened wide, hoping that life's majesty and drama might not pass me by. For these few fleeting moments, I had been given a chance to witness a scene of rare beauty.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Mowat, Farley. Never Cry Wolf: Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves.   

Mowat is dispatched to the Canadian North to document the lives of arctic wolves to prevent them from killing all the caribou as hunters claim. Unfortunately, Mowat is completely, humorously unprepared for everything he finds, from wolves who wander into his campground unafraid to their diet of field mice, and his own lack of wilderness skills. Highest recommendation (previously reviewed here)