So I have great admiration for the hardy, crusty souls who can live and survive well in the rugged outdoors—people like the enigmatic free-style explorer Hubert Darrell, who began life as an Englishman and ended his days in far northern Canada, south of the Beaufort Sea, in the Northwest Territories. He was an amazing man whose life ended too soon.
In between his early years and his untimely death he accomplished what few mere mortals could ever hope to do: Alone, on foot, he traveled on foot (and often snow-shoed) around the far north of Canada, walking hundreds if not thousands of miles, towing a toboggan. He eschewed dog teams pulling sleds, claiming they were more trouble than they were worth. He worked as a guide for various other explorers, and was feted by no less than Roald Amundsen, first person to reach the South Pole in 1912.
The description on Amazon offers an introduction to the book that serves it well: “In November 1910, explorer Hubert Darrell vanished in the uncharted wilds of the Northwest Territories. A prospector who had been swept up in the Klondike Gold Rush, Darrell later made his name as an expert guide, trapper, and restless wanderer who ventured where few others dared. At a time when travel by dogsled in the North was the norm, Darrell became legendary for traversing thousands of kilometres alone and on foot; ranging over mountains and across windswept tundra from Alaska to Hudson Bay. During his epic journeys, he helped rescue sailors trapped in sea ice, led Mounties on their patrols, and even guided some of the era’s most famous explorers. Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole, held Darrell in awe, remarking once that with men like him, he could go to the moon. Contemporaries regarded Darrell as the hardiest, most competent explorer of his day. Despite clues reported by Inuit trappers and Mounted Police inquiries, his fate remains a mystery. While his disappearance sparked headlines around the world, Darrell’s name would soon also vanish from the history books, ironically, just as surely as he had in the wild.”
It’s a good book and something of a mystery story: Shoalts (the biographer) personally returns to remote locations in the Northwest Territories to try to solve the mystery of how Darrell died, where and when. By the book’s end he has a plausible scenario. But more importantly the reader comes away from the story with respect and a certain amount of affection for the undaunted Darrell, who chose an isolated life and ended up dying alone. The History Channel series Alone often features Canada’s Great Slave Lake as its drop-off location for their survivalists, who compete for prize money of up to $500,000. That’s for surviving alone in the far north for usually around three months. Darrell did it for many years. He also sounds like a nice guy and a good man.
