I blame Kenneth Branagh. Twenty years ago, his miniseries Shackleton aired, and my fascination of true cold weather disaster stories was born. The miniseries covers the 1914 expedition of British explorer Earnest Shackleton to Antarctica. His ship became stuck in the pack ice, the pressure of which eventually broke the ship apart and sank it. (Aside—the wreck of his ship, Endurance, was recently found, causing great debates about what should happen to it now.)

This left Shackleton and crew trudging across ever-shifting ice until they could find open water. At which point they jumped into open boats and sailed a thousand miles to an uninhabited island, after which a smaller party took off again in the open boats to sail many hundreds more miles to find help.

As soon as I finished the miniseries, I grabbed Alfred Lansing’s book Endurance about this ill-fated expedition. That book proved merely a gateway to more stories about people in extremely cold places and the myriad of things that can go so very wrong. (A short list of what can go wrong includes: scurvy, insanity in the long polar night, rotten food stores, altitude sickness and so much frostbite. Things also usually go badly for sled dogs, unfortunately.)

But I love these stories. I love people pushing themselves beyond anything they thought possible in order to survive. And in the hands of a good author, these stories are absolutely riveting. Below is a list of not only amazing true feats of human fortitude, but authors who are at the top of their games, so much so that you just might find yourself wiggling your toes to make certain you can still feel all of them.

Borrow them from the (warm!) comfort of home on the Libby reading app.

Empire of Ice and Stone by Buddy Levy

This is the newest book on this list, but Levy is not new to cold weather disasters. (See his award-winning Labyrinth of Ice.) The book covers an expedition to the Artic that began in 1913 and was led by a charismatic if inept explorer with too many goals to succeed. The book doesn’t focus on the ostensible expedition leader, though, opting instead to tell the thrilling tale of the men aboard the ship the leader abandoned, the Karluk. The ship’s captain, Bob Bartlett, a veteran of Robert Peary’s expedition to the North Pole, loses the Karluk to the ice, and then struggles on foot and dog sled hundreds of miles across Siberia in an attempt to save the crew he left on a desolate island.

Into the Great Emptiness by David Roberts

Also new this year is the latest from Roberts, author of the equally fantastic Alone on the Ice. This time we have intrepid 23-year-old Gino Watkins trying to establish a permanent weather station in the far north of Greenland, 8,200 feet above sea level. In addition to the travails of the weather station and future expeditions by Watkins, Roberts also discusses the team’s relations with the native Greenlanders and attempts to learn how to become self-sufficient in one of the most inhospitable places on earth.

Endurance by Alfred Lansing

I know I already mentioned this book, but I wanted to make absolutely certain that anyone just skipping ahead to the list sees this favorite of mine. Several books have been written about this expedition—many of them titled "Endurance" after Shackleton’s ship—but I really do think this is the best of the books covering Shackleton’s remarkable 1914 expedition to Antarctica.

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

Rightfully considered a classic, not just a classic of exploration literature, Cherry-Garrard was a member of Robert Falcon Scott’s final expedition to Antarctica, which lasted from 1910-1913. Scott famously died after reaching the South Pole (which he managed only a month after Roald Amundsen had gotten there first), and the book tells quite emotionally of the death of the expedition’s leader. But in their years in Antarctica, this group of men performed numerous scientific expeditions, all while fighting for their very survival.

I highly recommend the Simon Vance narrated audiobook version.

Alive by Piers Paul Read

For a long time, I wasn’t sure this book really fit my definition of a cold weather disaster. Yes, it’s cold. Yes, there's disaster. But the people aboard the Fairchild flight from Uruguay to Chile weren't explorers or mountaineers knowing that when they woke up that morning, they would be risking their lives. The passengers on this doomed plane were mostly young rugby players on their way to a tournament when they crashed high in the Andes. At the end of the day, however, the struggle to survive in the cold is too compelling to omit. Read recounts the events respectfully, not shying away from the discussion of cannibalism or the deep faith that helped 16 people stay alive.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

If you were wondering which book is my favorite, here it is. The 1996 climbing season on Mt. Everest was one of the deadliest in history, and on the day mountaineer and author Jon Krakauer reached the summit, 8 climbers died. It’s a horribly painful story, but Krakauer’s exceptional writing helps make sense of the technical aspects and the drive to go to impossible places, while also bringing home the heartbreaking tragedy of it all. Not just a great cold weather disaster book, but one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read.

I could keep going, but I should probably stop. Although, you might also want to check out In the Kingdom of Ice, Everest 1922, Madhouse at the End of the Earth, Dead Mountain and this list of over 50 more cold weather adventures. There. Now I really am done. I think I’ll pour myself a steaming cup of coffee and maybe grab a blanket.