In late February 2022, Charlie Walker set off on a hiking holiday in northern Siberia. With temperatures plunging to -50°C, he planned to trek a thousand miles north along the frozen Lena River, then cross the solid Laptev Sea to the port town of Tiksi, before flying home to London. 'The plan,' he writes, 'was simple in concept.' A sub-zero camping trip through a region of wolves, bears, and historical trauma, in a country about to invade its neighbor—what could go wrong?
Walker's Third Travelogue
On Thin Ice is Walker's third travelogue. Previous feats include a 43,000-mile bicycle ride across three continents, a 1,000-mile solo walk through the Gobi Desert, and a river trip down the Congo in a leaky canoe. According to his website, he gives talks to business leaders on 'risk taking' and 'the line between courage and recklessness.' His latest book shows he knows both sides of that line.
Invasion Changes Everything
Landing in Yakutsk with skis, sled, tent, and a 'comically huge sleeping bag,' Walker was provisioning when Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Foreign Office advised against travel to Russia. He briefly considered abandoning his plans but reasoned that 'Yakutsk is comfortably closer to the Alaskan city of Anchorage than it is to Kyiv.' He pressed on, seeing a unique opportunity to record the thoughts of ordinary Russians far from the front lines. 'This seemed worth the risk of remaining inside a police state where already-limited freedoms of expression could evaporate overnight,' he writes.
Encounters with Siberians
Armed with a flare gun, pepper spray, and a dagger for wolves and bears, Walker trudged along ice roads (zimniki) by day and shivered in his tent at night. He experienced extreme Siberian hospitality: lorry drivers stopped for photos, sharing coffee and conversation. One scolded him for pitching his tent on the road, noting that many truckers drink vodka or watch TV while driving. He was treated to grilled horse ribs, reindeer shin pie, and a sausage made from aged horse blood—'the puck of boiled blood escaped its horse-gut housing and smeared across the roof of my mouth, setting fast like some ungodly grouting.' Indigenous Sakha women placed a wolf's penis amulet around his neck and offered pancakes to Bayani, 'spirit lord of the taiga,' for his safe passage.
Kremlin Propaganda Deeply Rooted
Many people were willing to talk about Ukraine. 'Ukraine's a corrupt country run by Nazis,' said one young Sakha man. 'Ukraine belongs to Russia,' said another. Even in barren areas where trees struggle to grow, Kremlin propaganda is deeply rooted. 'I heard that President Putin is saving the Ukrainian people and I'm happy to know they're being helped,' a lone Eveni herder told Walker over roasted reindeer spine. Almost everyone believed that Putin saved Russia from the chaos of the 1990s and that whatever he does is for the best.
FSB Surveillance and Detention
Walker soon realized he should have packed the business card of a local lawyer. The FSB took an increasingly hostile interest in this inexplicable Englishman, especially as Tiksi turned out to be a military base. He was accused of 'committing journalism' and being a spy. People he encountered were harassed; others informed on him. He took insane risks, recording anti-Putin rants on a Dictaphone when anti-war journalists face 15-year sentences, and signing a confession without translation. He ended up in a detention center, spending an agonizing month awaiting deportation. Reflecting, he recalled an old Russian saying: 'You saw what you were buying, so eat up, even if you choke on it.'
Beauty and Horror
Walker had hoped to see a rosier side of Siberia. There are moments of beauty—the aurora borealis, rare bursts of warmth from locals—but almost everywhere else is horror and corruption: growing sinkholes, decaying towns, roads packed with skeletons of prisoners who died building them, and a 'blackened wasteland' the size of Belgium left by wildfires. Walker evokes it all with a masterly touch. Nobody, after reading this book, will rush to book tickets to Siberia, least of all its author, who is now banned from the country. On Thin Ice: An Explorer's Memoir of Siberia, Surveillance, and Survival by Charlie Walker is published by Duckworth (£16.99).
