Mountaineers climbing the Everest summit ridge at sunrise

THESHACKLETONTROPHY

A crazy bet. A brutal race. An epic adventure

Not everyone will finish. Not everyone will come home the same.

[THE STORY][THE CHARACTERS][THE PLOT][THE AUTHOR]

Scroll ↓A novel by Daniel Akerman

A Commercial Adventure Thriller

Logline

Two best friends make a bet and join a race to reach the South Pole, North Pole and Everest in the fastest combined time. Then sabotage turns the contest lethal and love changes what they stand to lose.

The Story

The Race of a Lifetime

It starts with a bet.

Best friends Viktor Bolinsky and Eiger Davidson hear about a race unlike any they have encountered before. The Shackleton Trophy challenges three teams to reach the South Pole, North Pole and summit of Everest in the fastest combined time. For two men who have spent their lives chasing extraordinary experiences, the proposition is impossible to resist.

The clock starts in Antarctica. CASE is chasing rival team FOX when someone deliberately delays them. Then sabotage strikes again. As they move from pole to pole, and then on to Everest, every lost hour increases the pressure, while CASE leader Olaf Skinner’s determination to beat FOX hardens into obsession.

Viktor falls in love with Irina, a woman on FOX who comes under suspicion as the sabotage escalates. Eiger reconnects with Karla, the woman he loved years ago but failed to build a future with.

When a teammate dies, Viktor and Eiger face the first question that cannot be answered by a stopwatch: whether to continue. They do.

By Everest, the race has driven them into physical, psychological and emotional extremity. Speed and endurance are no longer enough. Sabotage has turned the contest lethal, while love has changed what they stand to lose.

They entered the Trophy to discover how fast they could go. Now they must confront a very different question:

What is worth stopping for?

$Line of skiers crossing fractured polar sea ice$

Characters

The people caught in the race.

Olaf Skinner

A polar legend who has spent a lifetime believing there is a solution to every problem. But his decades-long rivalry with Carlton is turning ambition into obsession, and the race keeps giving him reasons to push harder.

Viktor

Restless, charismatic and always moving toward the next experience. Viktor enters the Trophy carrying a loss he has never learned to face. Then Irina gives him something he did not expect to find in a race: a reason to imagine what comes after it.

Eiger

Viktor's oldest friend and the steadier of the two. Eiger has spent years being the man who knows when enough is enough, until the Trophy brings him face to face with Karla and a decision he walked away from years ago.

Carlton Cox

Olaf's oldest rival, but not his mirror. Where Olaf pushes, Carlton calculates. Their competition has lasted for decades. On Everest, the difference between them becomes a matter of more than winning.

Irina

Smart, capable and tired of being judged before she is known. Irina enters the race determined to be measured by what she can do, until sabotage makes her the easiest person to suspect. Viktor sees something else.

Karla

The woman Eiger once loved and then left waiting. Years later, the Trophy brings them back into each other's orbit. Eiger knows what he wants this time. Karla has every reason not to believe him.

Roped climbers ascending a wind-scoured summit ridge

“The clock doesn't stop because of the weather.”

— OLAF

Plot

Three poles. One race clock.

Three teams race across three of the most extreme environments on Earth. The race clock runs from the start of the South Pole leg to the fifth climber reaching the summit of Everest.

Every hour counts. Every delay carries forward. Fastest combined time wins.

Think you could win it?

Explore the official race site, read the rules and register your own expedition team.

[JOIN THE RACE]

Map showing the three poles: North Pole, South Pole, and Mount Everest

“If you lead Everest like the North Pole, I do not follow.”

— VIKTOR

Author

Daniel Akerman

Daniel Akerman has firsthand experience including skiing to the North Pole and trekking to Everest Base Camp among many other adventure trips.

He began drafting this story when taking a Creative Writing class at UCLA, and has spent his career in media, communication and marketing, with storytelling at the center of his work.

Daniel is a Swedish-born writer with deep ties to the United States, where he attended high school in Arizona and later studied film at Columbia College Hollywood besides various classes at UCLA and Stanford.

He now spends much of his time in Chamonix, France. The Shackleton Trophy is his first novel.

Curious how this book came to be? →

“You always saw what was happening, Eiger. You just never did anything about it.”

— KARLA

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Is this based on a true story?

The whisky is. In 2007, century-old bottles were found frozen and perfectly preserved under the floorboards of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic hut — real history. The race, the brand, and the teams are entirely invented for this novel.

How did the idea start?

In a UCLA creative writing class, right after my own North Pole trip, writing about that trip for an assignment. A year later, at Everest Base Camp, I met a former rugby player who'd just completed all three poles — not against a clock, but the idea stuck. This book is what happened when it wouldn't let go.

Have you actually done any of this?

Some of it. I've skied to the North Pole and trekked to Everest Base Camp — trips that planted the idea for this book years before it became one. I have not, for the record, raced anyone there.

Why three poles?

In the exploration world, the North Pole, South Pole and summit of Everest are sometimes called the Three Poles, representing the northernmost, southernmost and highest points on Earth. The novel takes that real-world idea and turns it into a race against accumulated time.

Why Chamonix?

It's where I personally spend a lot of time, but also the center of alpinism with a long history of adventure and the perfect location for preparing for the three poles.

Are Meridian Distilleries and The Ernest whiskey real?

No. Entirely fictional, created for this story — see the disclaimer below for full details.

“The mountain has already made the decision, Olaf. You're the only one still arguing.”

— CARLTON

Excerpt

Some races are won at the finish line. This one starts revealing its cost long before anyone gets there.

When do you keep moving, and when do you finally stop?