Yukon Alone: The World's Toughest Adventure Race

By John Balzar

Book Overview

In the tradition of Into the Wild, John Balzar's Yukon Alone is a story of daring and determination in one of nature's harshest, loneliest, and most beautiful places.

The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race is among the most challenging and dangerous of all the organized sporting events in the world. Every February, a handful of hardy souls sps over two weeks racing sleds pulled by fourteen dogs over 1,023 miles of frozen rivers, icy mountain passes, and spruce forests as big as entire states. It's not unusual for the temperature to drop to 40-below or for the night to be seventeen hours long.

Why would anyone want to run this race? To find out, John Balzar moved to Alaska months before The Quest began and he spent time in the homes of many of the mushers. Balzar then spent many days and nights on the trail, and the result is a book that not only treats us to a vivid day-by-day account of the grueling race itself but also offers an insightful look at the men and women who have moved to this rugged and beautiful place, often leaving behind comfortable houses and jobs in the lower forty-eight states for the sense of exhilaration they find in their new lives. Readers will also be fascinated by Balzar's account of what goes into the training and care of the majestic dogs who pull the sleds and whose courage, strength, and devotion make them the true heroes of this story.

For anyone captivated by the wild north country, this riveting tale of courage and adventure will inspire and entertain.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805059504
• ISBN13: 9780805059502
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Holt & Company, Henry
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Call of the North

John Balzar is a roving correspondent for the LA Times and as such won the Scripps Howard Foundation Prize for human interest stories. Even so he had an enormously difficult task facing him in writing about the Yukon Quest, the longest, loneliest and most dangerous arctic race of them all. The true measure of a book like this is how well the author holds up as a companion, introducing people to a world and to people totally outside their experience. "To spend time with sleigh dogs, and the men and women who dedicate their lives to them is to witness a relationship so primary and so ineffable that the temptation is to reduce oneself to murmurs and tears. John Balzar fights this temptation and tells this story of the Far North and of the unbelievable characters he found there gracefully and with all the humor, honor and slack jawed wonder it deserves." - Pam Houston His book becomes an outstanding tale of adventure, one of the books which, hard to put down, will be reread many times, being a skilled and enormously well written eyewitness narrative of a tale of wild adventure in what is probably the most remote and inhospitable land on earth. "...a wholly true tale that's more suspenseful, riveting and memorable than any fiction." -David Petersen And yet Balzar avoids the dreamy metaphors that spoil most writing about the North, displaying a gritty reality in his writing as he describes the race, the country, the incredible charracters who live on the adge of desperation to compete in this race, and above all the real athletes, the dogs. As Jeff Greenwald said about a similar book, HONEST DOGS by Brian O'Donoghue ( a racer who's the only dog driver to finish both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest by coming in last} "I'd love to try this myself." and "This guy's out of his damn mind." With this book, as O'Donoghue once told me, you can relive the race without the pain. Dawson Gratrix

he couldn't put it down!

Bought the book for Father's day for my husband who loves outdoors, hunting, etc. He was visibly pleased as he read and I knew it was a serious read when the TV didn't come on as usual. He got a whole new idea of what the dogs were like. Don't think he is going riding on a sled!

Escaping Oklahoma

Reading "Yukon Alone" gave me the hint of the thrill of mushing across a frozen landscape that I could never hope to experience in my home state. Balzar's talent in describing the scenery gave me goosebumps. His characters were true to life. The best book I have read in years.

Yukon Alone

I can't imagine a book that could describe the Yukon Quest any better. Balzar captures the race, the mushers, and the country just perfect. There are times when he puts you on the trail with your own team as you feel the thrills and spills! A must read for anyone interested in dog mushing and the north country.

Excellent escape from the busy city

I really enjoyed the book. The emotions this book brings out make it well worth the read. My puppy "Rugby" may soon have some siblings on the way, siblings that pull sleds.A must read for anyone who likes dogs and/or travel/adventure.