From one of the world’s most renowned cave divers, a firsthand account of exploring the earth’s final frontier: the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planetMore people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest, and we know more about deep space than we do about the depths of our oceans. From one of the top cave divers working today—and one of the … working today—and one of the very few women in her field—Into the Planet blends science, adventure, and memoir to bring readers face-to-face with the terror and beauty of earth’s remaining unknowns and the extremes of human capability.
Jill Heinerth—the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg and leader of a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations—has descended farther into the inner depths of our planet than any other woman. She takes us into the harrowing split-second decisions that determine whether a diver makes it back to safety, the prejudices that prevent women from pursuing careers underwater, and her endeavor to recover a fallen friend’s body from the confines of a cave. But there’s beauty beyond the danger of diving, and while Heinerth swims beneath our feet in the lifeblood of our planet, she works with biologists discovering new species, physicists tracking climate change, and hydrogeologists examining our finite freshwater reserves.
Written with hair-raising intensity, Into the Planet is the first book to deliver an intimate account of cave diving, transporting readers deep into inner space, where fear must be reconciled and a mission’s success balances between knowing one’s limits and pushing the envelope of human endurance.
more
Fascinating, riveting, and lyrically written, a memoir of something nearly everyone is too scared to attempt.
Into the Planet is a breathtaking thrill-ride into a deeper world that exists within this one. Few people have witnessed the sublime beauty of labyrinthine underwater caves or the inside of an iceberg — to venture in for even a glimpse is to put your life at risk — but Jill Heinerth knows these realms intimately. She is the ultimate guide, and her courage and heart are as evident in her writing as they are in her groundbreaking explorations. Clear your schedule if you pick up this book, because you will not be able to put it down.
Jill Heinerth has always loved the water, even though she almost drowned as a toddler. As an adult, she discovered scuba diving. She was a partner in a successful marketing firm, had a nice apartment that she rarely saw, and wasn’t very happy. She decided to walk away from it all, move to the Cayman Islands, and become a dive instructor. Cave diving grabbed her attention and she started down a path that led to her diving for National Geographic and earning world records.
I don’t even remember why I added this to my library wishlist but I’m so glad I did! I’m not a very good swimmer, much less a diver, but I still found Heinerth’s experiences fascinating.
She writes beautifully about what keeps her going back in the water, even after many of her friends have passed away on dives. She loves the beauty of those remote natural areas and knowing that she’s seeing things that no one has seen before. Her experiences lead her to become a conservationist and she writes of the importance of protecting our water resources. It’s all interesting to me.
She’s very clear about the dangers of the sport. She recovers bodies of experienced friends who maybe got a bit too comfortable and forgot to do one small, but crucial, safety check. Sometimes bad luck and natural forces work against these divers. To illustrate how easily things can go wrong, she even writes about getting “The Bends” and one instance when rescuers were called out to find her on an easy dive.
Cave diving is not completely divorced from her personal life so she does share that it’s hard to find a romantic partner who supports and understands her passion. Her work definitely took a toll on her marriage. She also writes about how difficult it is to be a woman in a male-dominated sport. Early in her career, others overlook her accomplishments and focus on her husband like she’s just some sort of appendage instead of a diver in her own right. Internet trolls belittle projects she works on. She’s open about her self-doubt back then but now she’s confident in her abilities and takes full ownership of her work. I found this part of her story particularly empowering.
Ms. Heinerth does necessarily have to use some technical jargon in the book but she always explains what she means and keeps it to a minimum. I really appreciated that.
I listened to the audiobook, which the author reads herself. Her narration was a bit too earnest for my taste but she otherwise did a very capable job.
I highly recommend this for armchair explorers who want a glimpse of a world that few humans will ever see.
It’s not often one gets to read a true-life adventure book by a woman explorer. Jull Heinearth won my attention from the first pages and held it throughout with this often suspenseful story of how she pursued her passion for discovery in the underwater world of our planet. She is a calculated risk-taker, meaning she approached all her dives with minute preparation to the nth detail, and that undoubtedly accounts for why she always came back from her multi-hour dives. when so many have been lost. I also devoured the highly informative aspect of this book as I learned so much about cave diving and the fascinating technological developments in this field over the decades. Thank you, Jill, for sharing your life story; it is compelling!
This book leaves you breathless over and over! It is a huge understatement to say she has lived her life’s dream to the fullest. One of my favorite books of recent time.
This book was amazing in that it let the reader know about something they will never do or experience.Cave diving is dangerous and the book illustrated this very well. The reader will learn a great deal about underwater diving by reading this true description.
An amazing autobiography on a topic I knew little about. Literally held my breath through most of the book.
A claustrophobic nightmare but fascinating, nonetheless
Personally I do not understand how anyone could do the things in this book. I am very claustrophobic (but must be slightly masochistic to read and enjoy books such as this).
Cave diver Jill Heinerth is also an underwater explorer, writer, photographer, filmmaker, and educator. She has dived in underwater caves all over the world and also in caves under an iceberg in Antarctica. She has become an advocate for protecting fresh water resources.
This was a fascinating book and an insight into the mind of an adventurer I would never want to emulate. I tell you this woman has mucho ba**s.
Her story starts in 1967 and goes through to 2018.
I highly recommend this non-fiction story to all adventurers and armchair adventurers out there.
I received this book from Ecco Books through Edelweiss in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
I can guarantee you one thing: Jill Heinerth will not look back on her life with any regrets about a lack of bravery or passion. In this gripping, life-of-gusto story, we plunge into Heinerth’s eccentric world of death-defying caves, and into her inner sanctum forged by the thrill of discovery. I read wide-eyed, page after page.
[Into the Planet] chronicles, in chiseled prose, a lifetime pursuing science and discovery in exploration’s most lethal and least forgiving discipline. Time and again, Heinerth has ventured into realms where mishaps can, quite literally, take your breath away. Just reading about her exploits can do the same — happily with less final results.