> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 7 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241986790
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160

Philosophy for Polar Explorers

An Adventurer’s Guide to Surviving Winter




Explorer and bestselling author examines how learning to survive in extreme conditions can teach us how to live meaningful and fulfilled lives

The secret to a good life, seen from the ice, is to keep your joys simple.

Erling Kagge was the first man in history to reach all of the Earth's poles by foot - the North, the South, and the summit of Everest. In Philosophy for Polar Explorers he brings together the wisdom and expertise he has gained from the expeditions that have taken him to the limits of the earth, and of human endurance.

This is the essential guide to the art of exploration. In sixteen meditative but practical lessons - from cultivating an optimistic outlook, to getting up at the right time, to learning to find focus and comfort in solitude - Erling Kagge reveals what survival in the most extreme conditions can teach us about how to lead a meaningful life. Wherever we may be headed.

  • Published: 7 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241986790
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 160

Also by Erling Kagge

See all

Praise for Philosophy for Polar Explorers

As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Silence braces a space within which we can hear ourselves think. Quietly, wisely, it makes a case for dumbing the din of modern life, and learning to listen again. Drawing on the experiences of Kagge's extraordinary life in wild places, this is a book of great concentration

Robert Macfarlane, on Silence

A delightful book that explores the strange land between getting out of bed in the morning and reaching for the moon

Tristan Gooley

A wonderfully deft Swiss army knife of a book. One really feels the hard won wisdom at the book's heart, the graft and nouse of life lived in arctic extremis. Kagge's preternatural energy, warmth and sagacity shine - a cool-headed polar philosopher to treasure!

Dan Richards

A marvellous human being

Chris Evans

Essential survival and life lessons from polar explorer

Foyles newsletter

His wisdom will soothe and awaken

Fearne Cotton

An author for our noisy times, full of a rare and deeply redemptive languor and perspective

Alain de Botton