Arctic Insanity

Jules Mountain

4,300 miles over the polar ice cap by helicopter

‘A true Boy’s Own adventure for the modern age’ Daily Express

When a friend told Jules Mountain he’d bought a helicopter in Canada and would need to ship it home to the Channel Islands by container, Jules thought that sounded crazy. Why not just fly it?

Actually there were lots of good reasons. The lightweight aircraft had a range of 300 miles, was neither pressurised nor supplied with oxygen, and could fly for just three hours before running out of fuel. Whereas the shortest feasible route was 4,300 miles across the polar ice cap, with stretches across water that would take up to five hours to cross.

It sounded impossible for even the most experienced pilot, and Mountain had only been flying helicopters for three years. But he’d never been one to duck a challenge…so he volunteered for the job.

Arctic Insanity is the hair-raising story of what happened next, as the madcap adventurer battled extreme cold, zero-visibility whiteouts and near-misses with icebergs – landing along the way in some of the harshest places on earth – in his bid to get the aircraft (and himself) back to Europe in one piece.

‘A captivating and hugely exciting memoir; full of old-school derring-do, it’s a true Boy’s Own adventure for the modern age’ Daily Express

‘Another ripping yarn from Jules Mountain, and an even more epic adventure. It’s like he took his Everest adventure and squared it. It’s brilliant – I urge you to get hold of a copy’ Paul Ross, TalkSport

‘A swashbuckling, page-turning, rip-roaring ride across the roof of the world in the company of two astounding amateur adventurers’ Adrian Bleese, author of Above the Law

‘The exhilarating story of battling extreme cold, zero-visibility whiteouts and near-misses with icebergs is studded with comical and heart-warming travel accounts from the remote areas of the world he stopped off at along the way’ Guernsey Press

Paperback: 240pp

Published: Eye (July 2025)

ISBN: 9781785633928