‘Into the Ice' Review: North by Northwest
Many people reassessed their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mark Synnott, an accomplished mountaineer and writer, decided it was a good time to refit his sailboat, the Polar Sun, and navigate the Northwest Passage—the icy arctic waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 'Could I sail a forty-year-old fiberglass boat from Maine to Alaska—a voyage of some seven thousand miles—and live to tell my own tale?' he wonders. 'It was a question that would soon all but consume me, in the same way I knew it had done to the European explorers who had ventured into these same waters long ago when this part of the world was still a blank on their maps.'
For centuries the search for a polar trade route had indeed consumed—and bettered—more-experienced explorers, until Roald Amundsen successfully sailed it between 1903 and 1906. Today the passage remains a daunting journey fraught with danger, from the frigid waters and the shifting currents to 'Jakobshavn, the fastest-moving glacier in Greenland, which surges forward' up to 130 feet a day and is responsible for about 10% 'of all icebergs spawned from the Greenland Ice Cap.' Further complicating his adventure: Mr. Synnott was recently remarried and the father of a young son.
As he sat on his boat docked in its marina and contemplated the idea of traveling the Northwest Passage, Mr. Synnott, then in his 40s, asked himself: 'What do you really want to do with the time that you have left?' To which he reflected: 'I [want] to spend as much of it as possible with the two human beings sleeping below and with my three other children.' But he also admits that 'I'm someone who has always needed more than that. I need epic adventure and exploration in my life.' He would find both on this journey, and live to write about it in 'Into the Ice: The Northwest Passage, the Polar Sun, and a 175-Year-Old Mystery.'
The mystery of the subtitle is what happened to John Franklin. On May 19, 1845, the Royal Navy expedition commander set off from Greenhithe, England, in search of the Northwest Passage. In September 1846, Franklin's two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, became trapped in the ice near King William Island in northern Canada. 'Not a single one of them made it out,' Mr. Synnott tells us of Franklin's crew, 'and no detailed written account of their ordeal has ever been found.' Solving that mystery became Mr. Synnott's mission and justification for leaving his family behind for much of this six-month lark. Lucky for him, his second wife, Hampton, herself somewhat of a free spirit, supported him.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
25 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Take a look inside Vizcaya, the 45,000-square-foot Gilded Age mansion near the heart of Miami
Vizcaya was James Deering's winter home from 1916 until his death in 1925. Struggling with illness toward the end of his life, James Deering came to Miami, then a small city surrounded by mangrove forests and wetlands, looking for tropical warmth, which was believed to help improve health. By the turn of the century, the Deering family had begun to develop estates around South Florida, with patriarch William Deering purchasing a home in Coconut Grove in 1900. By the time James Deering began building Vizcaya, his brother, Charles Deering, was also developing a winter home in the south of Miami. The property, known today as Deering Estate, also operates as a museum and is open to the public. The main house features 54 rooms, including 34 rooms decorated with their original furniture. Expanding over 45,225 square feet, Vizcaya's main house features the living spaces of James Deering himself, his guests, and the house staff. Envisioned by interior designer Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya took inspiration from the Italian Renaissance adapted to South Florida's subtropical climate, and showcases furniture, artworks, and artifacts purchased by Chalfin and Deering on their travels to Europe. Although Miami's population was estimated to be only 10,000 in 1916, the construction of the Vizcaya estate employed an estimated 1,000 workers, many of whom were Black immigrants from the Bahamas. Apart from the main house, Vizcaya is also home to the Vizcaya Village, the historic quarters of the mansion's workers and farmers that allowed Vizcaya to serve as a self-sufficient farm-to-table estate. The Village expands over 12 acres and includes 11 "architecturally significant" buildings, according to the museum's website. The tour begins in the courtyard, which is adorned with tropical plants. Lined with tropical plants like palms and philodendrons, the courtyard highlights South Florida's natural beauty while adhering to the mansion's European inspirations. While today the courtyard is covered by a glass canopy that allows for the estate's air conditioning, it was originally open to the elements, allowing the tropical climate to seep into the main house. Meant to be used as Vizcaya's main entrance, the East Loggia opens up to the Biscayne Bay. Featuring marble floors and columns and decorated ceilings, the East Loggia was meant to serve as Vizcaya's main entrance for guests arriving by sea, which was Deering's intended — and preferred — way of entering the mansion. It was used as an entrance for guests who arrived by boat, while the current main entrance of the museum was used as a back entrance for guests arriving by car. The room also features a model boat hanging from its ceiling in honor of the explorers who inspired Deering's interpretation of Vizcaya. Although he began living in Vizcaya during his retirement, Deering included multiple working spaces in the property. James Deering was heir to the International Harvester manufacturing firm, which produced tractors and other agricultural machinery, and he worked as its vice president from 1902 until 1909. Deering might have been one of the first prominent Florida "snowbirds," retirees who travel South during the colder months. His downstairs library, located in the northwest corner of the main house, is located steps from the entrance hall that welcomes guests. It features Deering's personal book collection, desks for him and a secretary, and seats for business guests. When closed, the door leading to the next room — a reception room meant for entertaining guests — is concealed within the book-lined walls. The reception room features a ceiling imported from Venice, which had to be resized to fit. The reception room is lined with tropical-inspired silk panels showing palm trees. Our tour guide brought our attention to the ceiling, which is decorated with sculpted panels that extend to the sides of the room. The ceiling was imported from Venice and purchased before construction on the property was finished. By the time workers were putting up the decorations in the mansion, they realized that the ceiling panel did not fit the room dimensions, leading to the restructuring of the panel, which curved into the walls. "We should remember that this house was built during the First World War," curator Flaminia Gennari said in the audio tour. "So to import large quantities from Italy in the middle of the war was very complicated." Vizcaya's telephone line was one of the first in Miami. Wired throughout the house, Vizcaya features a highly innovative telephone system for the time. Only 17 years before the beginning of Vizcaya's construction did the Miami Telephone Company begin providing telephone service to the city. Vizcaya's telephones also featured automatic electric exchange, allowing users to connect directly to the number they dialed without going through a human operator. The telephone room, located between two of Vizcaya's main entertainment rooms, was meant for guests to communicate privately without disturbing the flow of the entertainment. The living room showcased Deering's most impressive collections. The living room, with its 1600s limestone fireplace, features some of Vizcaya's most impressive items, including an "admiral carpet" originally commissioned in the 1450s by the grandfather of King Ferdinand II of Spain, the Spanish king who sponsored Christopher Columbus' exploration of the Americas. The room also features throne-like armchairs where US President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II sat in 1987 during the Pope's visit to America. A centerpiece of the room is the Welte Philharmonic Organ, which was meant to fill the house with music through elaborate sound systems. Designed for guests rather than full-time professional players, the organ uses perforated paper rolls to aid the musicians' performance by adjusting notes and volume. Concealing the organ pipes is an oil painting, which was cut in half to cover wooden doors. "Chalfin had the idea of cutting it in half and using it as the doors of the organs, which is not a very respectful thing to do for a representation of the Virgin Mary, the child, and the saints, but it somehow testifies to the freedom and positive carelessness that they had around old objects," Gennari said in the audio tour. The mansion's formal dining room features the house's oldest artifacts, although it was rarely used. While Deering himself didn't eat in the formal dining room often, he made sure that the room was impressively decorated for his guests. Sitting to the side is the room's most awe-inspiring feature: a marble tabletop sitting on carved bases resembling mythical creatures, which were historical artifacts unearthed near Pompeii, dating back to the times before Mount Vesuvius' eruption. Next to the dining room, on the south side of the mansion, the enclosed loggia gave guests a view of the gardens. The colorful glass panels, designed for Vizcaya, feature the estate's main symbols: the seahorse and the caravan. Providing a view of the garden through the glass panels and double doors, the enclosed loggia allowed guests to take in the garden views while staying cool from the Florida sun. The loggia also connects the gardens to the main house through sculpted iron gates. Aside from giving guests an inside view of the gardens from the ground level, the room also connects the outdoors to the rest of the mansion. Downstairs, the kitchen worked as a serving space for staff to plate food and bring it to guests. When designing Vizcaya, Deering asked for the main kitchen to be built upstairs as he didn't want the smell of food to flood the main entertaining rooms on the first floor. To facilitate the transportation of meals and the serving of guests to the dining room, the entertaining rooms, and the loggia, he built a downstairs serving pantry. Today, the serving pantry cabinets display one set of Deering's fine dining china, the one designated for his 80-foot-long luxury yacht, Nepenthe. Commissioned in 1912 to be shipped from Europe, the original set of china purchased by Deering was transported to America as cargo aboard the Titanic. After the ship sank, a replacement set was ordered and is now displayed. The kitchens feature state-of-the-art Gilded Age technology. Throughout the house, Deering incorporated cutting-edge technology, including annunciators with bells connected throughout the house that Deering or guests could ring at any time to get the house staff's attention. Another then-advanced feature of the serving kitchen were its refrigerators, which were rare at the time. The kitchen also featured a warming oven that helped keep food warm while guests were served. Connecting to the upstairs kitchen, which serves as the house's main cooking area, was a dumbwaiter: a food elevator meant to carry the food cooked upstairs to the downstairs plating area, where staff would then take it to the main entertaining rooms, like the dining and sitting rooms. Upstairs, 24 rooms housed guests, staff, and Deering himself. Nine of the bedrooms were dedicated to guests and each was given a name and decorated uniquely, showcasing the artifacts and furniture purchased by Deering and Chalfin on trips to Europe. While not open to the public, an additional 14 rooms housed staff. Another then-advanced technological feature of Vizcaya was its elevator. Deering was motivated to move to South Florida because of his illness, so accessibility features were built throughout the house, such as the elevator he would take when using a wheelchair or to avoid walking upstairs. Today, the elevator isn't open to the public, and the museum's second floor is not wheelchair accessible. Deering's main office was inspired by the Napoleonic era. Connected to Deering's bedroom and bathroom, the sitting room was his office where he would tend to business and personal matters, such as sorting his mail. The decoration style was inspired by Napoleonic France. Deering's bedroom was modest compared to some of his guest bedrooms. His personal bathroom has one of the most breathtaking views of the property. Opening up to a balcony, Deering's bathroom looks over Biscayne Bay and has one of the best views of the house, although it is not accessible to the public today. The closed-off balcony also leads to a secret door to the Espagnolette, the guest bedroom located next to his, usually reserved for Deering's dearest guests. Spiral staircases lead to the South tower. A set of spiral staircases leads up to the South tower, one of the two guest suites overlooking the estate. The tower bedroom has views of the bay and the gardens. The corner room atop the North tower was designed to transport guests to Europe. "Water reflects upwards to the ceiling and the sound of waves is audible in this room, precisely as upon the quay of this great canal of Venice," noted Chalfin about the room, according to the mansion's website. A central piece in the room is a large wardrobe assembled with 1700s Venetian panels, as well as the antique painted closet doors. The breakfast room was Deering's preferred dining space. Back on the second floor, the breakfast room was the central entertaining spot. The room is lined with oil paintings depicting ocean scenes, and the windows slide into pocket doors, revealing views of the garden. It also features a sound system, with a piano hidden away in a room off the spiral staircase next door and connected to the breakfast room through floor vents that allow sound to travel into the space. Most times, Deering opted to dine in this room rather than the formal dining space. Tucked next to the breakfast room is the main kitchen. Designed to maximize staff efficiency, the main kitchen upstairs has different areas for different tasks, including separate sinks for washing dishes and produce. It also features ice boxes, or refrigerators of the time, powered by salt water. During Deering's time at the estate, Vizcaya employed two French chefs dedicated to food and pastries. Food served at the mansion was sourced from the staff village built across the street, where a farm provided vegetables, dairy, chicken, herbs, and citrus. "You and I could come down and drive into the farm area, stop and buy a dozen Deering eggs and take them home and have them for breakfast, and I think that was probably particularly important during World War I," historian Arva Moore Parks said in the audio tour. "He was able to supply not only himself but his workers also." Inspired by European designs, the gardens feature mazes, terraces, fountains, and more. Inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Italian and French villas, the Vizcaya gardens feature a variety of scenes, from a garden theater to multiple paths and mazes, intended to highlight and enhance the native South Florida flora surrounding the estate. The original layout of Vizcaya featured over 180 acres of subtropical forests. Today, that number has gone down to 50 acres. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan hosted Pope John Paul II at the estate. On September 10, 1987, President Ronald Reagan welcomed Pope John Paul II at Vizcaya, where the two conversed while exploring the gardens and the estate. Atop a garden mount is the Casino, a focal point of the gardens. Located at the top of garden mounds designed to block the reflection of water ponds into the main house, the garden casino — Italian for "little house" — was a space where Deering and his guests could take in the garden views or enjoy the subtropical weather without being in direct contact with the sun. Inside the building, a painted ceiling depicts heavenly images. Underneath, bathrooms and other now closed-off areas hide under decorated ceilings. Originally, the casino overlooked a water park part of the estate, where gondolas would be launched, a crucial part of Deering's vision for Vizcaya. Today, the water park no longer exists, and the land is instead taken up by a Catholic church, hospital, and schools after the Deering family sold part of the property to the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine in 1946. The opposite side of the estate was once used for clandestine entertainment; now, it is a café. While today a café sits underneath the mansion, the space served as a leisure center during Deering's stay. The rooms were filled with billiard tables, bowling alleys, and leather chairs. Hidden underneath the billiards table was also a roulette table, which Deering often used when his college friends visited the estate. The mansion, which opened at the peak of the Prohibition era, also had a decent supply of liquor, which Deering smuggled into the estate and hid in secret bars and cellars. The swimming pool is half-covered, providing relief from South Florida's relentless sun. Tucked next to the leisure rooms underneath the main house is the half-indoor swimming pool, in which Deering is said to have only swum once. Designed as the main entry point to the mansion, the east side of the mansion opens up to a stone barge in the Biscayne Bay. When he first moved into his winter home in December 1916, Deering arrived by sea on what he intended was the front entrance to Vizcaya. Opening up to the Biscayne Bay, the waterfront side of the property features a stone barge, a sculpted structure that acts as a breakwater and protects the main house from changing tides and waves. Today, the mansion hosts private events and has become a local staple for Quinceañera pictures. Purchased from the Deering family by Miami-Dade County for $1 million in 1962, Vizcaya today operates as a museum open to the public and for private reservations. The estate is often the background of Quinceañera pictures from Miami's large Hispanic population. Walking around the gardens, I saw multiple young women dressed in extravagant gowns posing in the many stunning locations of the estate. Along with being a photographic hot spot, Vizcaya also hosts private events, from Miami Swim Week runway shows to floral-decorated weddings in the gardens. Today, the estate remains an icon of Miami, a city that many would often relate to modern luxury rather than the old and classic wealth on display in Gilded Age -style mansions like Vizcaya.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Report: Most Montanans agree tourism benefits outweigh negative impacts
A NPS ranger monitors a packed parking lot at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. (Image via NPS) The percentage of Montanans who believe the benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts held steady from last year, but residents feel local communities are becoming more overcrowded, according to a report released in April by the University of Montana Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research (ITRR). The report, 'Montana Residents: Attitudes Towards Tourism 2024,' is the latest survey posing a set of questions to Montanans over the last 30 years regarding their attitudes toward visitors. Overall, 68% of respondents to the 2024 survey agreed that the benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts, in line with last year's 69%. However, it was just the fourth time less than 70% of Montanans have expressed a positive attitude toward out-of-state visitors. The lowest recorded positive attitude (52%) was in 2001, which researchers attributed to the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The second-lowest finding was in 2022, which followed record-breaking visitation after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the ITRR report, residents of Montana's Glacier Country tourism region, which covers the state's eight westernmost counties, remained the least likely to see tourism as a benefit, but that sentiment climbed for the second year in a row. However, that region of the state is also seeing a drastic visitation change this year, as visits from Canadians are down, following President Donald Trump's threats to make the neighbor the 51st state, and prompting targeted marketing from Montana. Residents in Central Montana saw the largest increase in positive sentiment, up to 70%, while residents of Southeast and Southwest Montana dropped their views on visitors. 'In general, Montana residents held a positive yet balanced attitude toward tourism within the state,' the report said. 'A majority of residents feel that the benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts, while also being in strong agreement that tourism promotion by the state provides an economic benefit to their community.' In Montana out-of-state visitors spent nearly $5 billion in 2024, contributing to the state's robust outdoor recreation economy. However, the state was split on other nuanced views about tourism. Forty-two percent of respondents said they felt the state was becoming overcrowded from tourists, while the same percent disagreed with that statement. Compared to 2021 — one of the most crowded years for tourism in Montana — significantly fewer respondents (14%) felt overcrowding was an issue. On a local level, more residents felt their communities were becoming overcrowded by tourists, with 47% responding that during the summer travel season they were seeing too many visitors. While that represented a 7% increase from the 2023 survey, the report notes that the responses heavily varied by region. Yellowstone Country and Glacier Country, the tourism regions associated with their eponymous national parks, 72% and 67% of respondents, respectively, felt tourists were overcrowding their communities. In contrast, only 23% of Central Montana respondents and 12% from Missouri River Country had the same sentiment. The survey also asked respondents if they felt the overall quality of life for Montana residents would improve if tourism were to increase. Overall, 35% of Montanans said that quality of life would improve with increased tourism, compared to 38% who felt it would decrease. Interactive data from the 2024 Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research can be viewed here. As the region with historically the most negative attitude towards tourism, Glacier Country, officials working to promote western Montana have worked to change the way they market the area. The Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission is a nonprofit that partners with Western Montana communities to 'welcome visitors and support livelihoods while protecting quality of life, extraordinary outdoor resources, and cultural heritage.' Following droves of pandemic-era tourists in 2021, Glacier Country Tourism held a series of community meetings to discuss how to shift their marketing approach to a more sustainable model for communities. A new long-term collaborative 'Destination Stewardship Strategy' was launched aimed at promoting smaller communities that wanted more visitors while pulling back from some mainstream destination marketing centered around Glacier National Park and Whitefish – core economic anchors for the region's tourism industry. Another set of community listening events was held in 2024, and Glacier Country Tourism President Racene Friede said many of the conversations showed their strategies had accomplished many of the goals. 'Tensions towards tourists were still a little high, but we came out of a lot of those community meetings feeling like one, we really heard what people were thinking deep down, and we also were able to make sure these communities felt like they were being heard,' Friede said. 'It felt very validating to the work we'd done after what we heard in 2021.' One nuance Friede said she discussed with many communities across Western Montana was the issue of overcrowding, which she said isn't perfectly correlated with increasing numbers of tourists. 'Those tourists are here, but they're also mixed with a lot of new residents, and that means there's more new people in the community, year round,' she said. 'Some audiences were really interesting to talk with when they extracted that particular point.' Recent census data shows that Kalispell has been one of the fastest growing cities in the nation since 2020, with most western counties seeing significant growth as well. While Friede said these regular community input sessions help shape long-term visitation and marketing strategies for the region, the Tourism Commission also responds to short term changes to visitor patterns. 'Weirdly,' she said, the region is looking at a shortfall of visitors at the moment, mostly from a decrease in Canadian travel due to inflammatory rhetoric between the federal government and the neighbors to the north. 'Over 50% of the businesses that replied to a survey I sent out said business is down compared to last year at this point,' Friede said. 'The closer you are to the border, the more businesses are feeling it, and they're really worried.' 'It's a whole different world this year than we expected to see,' she added. Friede said the commission recently launched a short-term marketing campaign targeting Canadian cities near Montana, promoting it as a weekend destination. 'I wasn't even thinking about that six weeks ago,' she said. 'But we're focused on people over politics, letting the Canadian people know that we're here when they're ready to visit, and we can't wait to welcome them back.' She said the organization being nimble and able to react and respond to different local needs throughout the year is essential. 'We can't control who's coming here, but we can control what role we play and how they impact our local communities,' Friede said.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
New Eurostar services will whisk passengers from the UK to cities in Germany and Switzerland
Europe's rail renaissance is showing no signs of slowing as high-speed rail operator Eurostar reveals ambitious plans to expand its network. The company says it will introduce direct train connections from London to Germany and Switzerland, in what it calls the dawn of a "new golden age of international sustainable travel". The operator is also enhancing its existing offering by increasing services on popular routes. Here's what travellers can look forward to. Eurostar's proposed expansion includes establishing direct rail links between London St Pancras International and two key European destinations: Frankfurt in Germany and Geneva in Switzerland. The company plans to invest approximately €2 billion to acquire a substantial fleet of up to 50 new trains for the routes. These new services are expected to begin operating during the early 2030s and aim to rival air travel for the same trips. And journey times make the rail alternative attractive. Passengers travelling between London and Frankfurt can expect to arrive in approximately five hours, while those heading to Geneva will make the journey in around five hours and 20 minutes. Eurostar has not yet released details on intermediate stops and whether passengers will have the flexibility to get on and off at various points along the route. Related I took a 7-day trip from Paris to Istanbul on Europe's newest transcontinental train All of the cheese, none of the hassle: Why I took a small-group rail tour through Switzerland The new services are particularly aimed at business travel, with Eurostar's Chief Executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, highlighting that the destinations are 'big financial hubs'. Frankfurt and Geneva are also tourist hotspots, filled with culture, striking architecture and international events. Dates for the launch remain approximate as there are still several logistical challenges to implementing these new routes. These include expanding passenger facilities at destination stations, establishing new border control checkpoints, and securing track access agreements. Despite these hurdles, Cazenave remains optimistic about the project's success, citing strong commitment from Eurostar, passenger demand, and government support. Eurostar's expanded fleet will also enable it to increase frequency on popular routes. This includes boosting daily return services between London and Paris from 17 to 20. The company has also confirmed plans to introduce a fourth daily return service between St Pancras and Amsterdam beginning on 9 September, with a fifth service added from mid-December. Currently, Eurostar operates services connecting London to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and seasonal routes to the French Alps during the winter sports season. It also runs train links within Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The operator transported 19.5 million passengers last year - a five per cent increase from 18.6 million in 2023. The London-Paris route proved most popular with 280,000 passengers, followed by London-Brussels with 250,000 passengers. While Eurostar currently enjoys a monopoly on passenger services through the Channel Tunnel, several competitors are developing plans to challenge this, including Virgin Group, Italy's FS Italiane Group, and Gemini Trains.
