Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis
Witnessing climate change in one of America’s last wild places, “Into the Thaw” is a first-hand account of the Arctic crisis, from the author of the bestselling Atlas of the National Parks.
Jon Waterman is an award-winning author and photographer renowned for his immersive explorations of wilderness and environmental issues. With a prolific body of work encompassing 17 books and five films, including ESPN’s Emmy-winning “Surviving Denali” and National Geographic’s “Atlas of Wild America,” Waterman has earned acclaim for his deep connection to nature and his ability to inspire readers to protect the planet’s natural wonders.
In October, 2024, Patagonia published Jon’s latest book, “Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis”), a book drawn from his life’s most profound journeys. Waterman—whose wide-ranging expeditions include a first winter ascent of the Denali’s Cassin Ridge, kayaking North America’s Northwest Passage, dogsledding up Canada’s Mount Logan, sailing to Hawaii, and boating the Colorado River from source to sea—says Into the Thaw is his most important work yet.
More than 40 years ago, he worked as a mountaineering ranger at Alaska’s Denali National Park, and his 1983 patrol to the Noatak River in Gates of the Arctic National Park sparked a lifetime fascination with the wild, remote regions of the North. He was astonished by the abundant wildlife above the Arctic Circle, amid a strange landscape and otherworldly light—how the “frequent rain showers glow like lemonade poured out of the sky.”
Transitioning from park ranger to an outdoor and environmental writer, Waterman embarked on scores of expeditions to the North, often traveling solo by boat and on foot to document the natural wonders and cultural heritage across Arctic North America.
After a long hiatus from the Noatak headwaters, he returned with his son in 2021, witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change that he chronicled in a New York Times op-ed: “36 Years Later, the Climate Changes at This National Park Stunned Me.” Amid a river now flooded, overgrown with brush, and bereft of once-abundant caribou, he was deeply disheartened by the many transformations.
In 2022, Waterman took a final, extended expedition “into the thaw” with the professional kayaker and photographer Chris Korbulic to carefully document the environmental and cultural changes precipitated by the climate crisis. They covered more than 500 miles on foot and by packraft down the entire river, then up the coast, passing through three different National Park Service managed lands to meet with scientists, interview Iñupiat (the Alaskan Inuit), investigate the many impacts of the Arctic climate crisis, and celebrate the enduring wonder of this special place.
“Into the Thaw” alternates between adventure and wilderness memoir, side-noted with scholarly research into climate change and natural history. Waterman recounts encounters with bears, enduring weeks alone amidst swarms of mosquitoes, and witnessing phenomena like the Greening of the Arctic, teardrop-shaped landslides (thermokarsts) caused by thawing permafrost, and an increasing loss of sea ice as he travels along the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Jon will share stunning color photographs and videos from his journey.
Waterman not only shows how climate change has impacted the land, sea, and animals, but also the kindhearted, welcoming Inuit people. Most affected by a crisis that has heated up the Arctic several times faster than the rest of the world, the ever-resilient villagers share how their age-old culture has attempted to cope with “the thaw.” Waterman paints an intimate portrait of both the Inuit and the little-visited North—with its treasured park lands—because “it’s high time that we truly understand the Arctic,” he writes, “lest we forget what it once was.”
Despite the unfolding climate crisis, “Into the Thaw” is a story about wonder. Through one man’s life-changing experiences in the wilderness, ends with a message of hope, urging actionable steps to mitigate further thawing and preserve the Arctic’s extraordinary biodiversity and cultural heritage.
Recommended reading available at The Bookworm in Edwards:
“Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis” by Jon Waterman
