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by Sonya Procenko Børge Ousland crossed the North Pole from Russia to Canada, 2 000 kilometres with and without skies. Swimming must he do also and he did it also.
"I had to create a completely new world, reshape myself to become an integrated part of the ice."
- Børge Ousland, National Geographic/Norge, 26/3-29/4 2002 Norwegian adventurer Børge Ousland's frosty face is frozen across a recent National Geographic magazine cover. He crossed the North Pole from Russia to Canada in 2001 and chronicles the journey in the article and his book Alene over Nordpolen. Nansen, Amundsen, Sverdrup and LarsenMany credit Fridjof Nansen as Norway's first great modern adventurer, launching Norway's polar expeditions and research. In 1888, he crossed the Greenland icecap on skis, an outstanding accomplishment at the time. Those very wooden skis can still be seen at Holmenkollen's Ski Museum. Generations and generations of adventurers have been been inspired by Nansen's adventurous feats. After Greenland, in 1893, he set out on his first North Pole expedition on polar ship FRAM, to allow it to freeze firmly into the drift ice, close to the New Siberian Islands, returning three years later to Norway via the straits between Greenland and Spitsbergen. At the same time, he and crew member Hjalmar Johansen made a bid for the North Pole on skis before adverse conditions turned them back, they spent the winter on Franz Josef Land and rejoined the FRAM 17 months later. Roald Amundsen, inspired by Nansen, became the first man to navigate the Northwest Passage from end to end, rounding Canada and Alaska, in 1903-1906 aboard his ship Gjøa. The expedition's scientific work included mapping the magnetic North Pole and studies of the culture of the Netsilik. Amundsen launched further expeditions including FRAM to the Antarctic in 1910 and polar vessel Maud over the Northeast passage in 1918. Although he tried unsuccessfully to reach the North Pole by plane in 1925, he finally reached it in 1926 in an airship with American Ellsworth and Italian Nobile. Amundsen it is believed may be the first person to have reached both the North and South Poles. Otto Sverdrup commanded the second FRAM expedition, 1898-1902, to the islands of North America, namely Axel Heiberg and Ringnes Islands, which became part of Canada in 1926. He had been second-in-command on the first expedition, taking over command when Nansen and Johansen made their bid for the North Pole. "The expeditions they carried out, and the manner in which they did so, gave a great boost to Norwegian self-confidence and Norway's sense of national identity at a time when union with Sweden was nearing a breaking point," Rasmus Hansson writes in Norway and the Polar Regions. "So polar research played its part in the re-establishment, after several hundred years, of Norway as an independent nation." Henry Larsen, born September 30, 1899, on the island of Herføl, south of Fredrikstad, Norway, was a young boy when his fellow countryman Roald Amundsen was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage in 1905-1906. Fascinated with tales of the Canadian Arctic, Larsen travelled to the West Coast of Canada and served as navigator for two voyages on one of the few trading vessels plying Arctic waters. During this time he gained experience dealing with the variable conditions of the Arctic seas and became well acquainted with the Inuit, mastering the skills necessary to survive in this, the harshest of lands. Larsen came to Canada in 1924, became a Canadian citizen, and in 1928 joined the RCMP. He was appointed master of St Roch in 1928. A floating detachment, the ship was staffed primarily by non-seamen. St Roch supplied RCMP posts in the western Arctic, carried out regular police activities and responded to emergencies. As representatives of the Canadian Government, among other duties, crew members acted as game wardens, postal handlers, custom and tax officials, registrars of shipping, and general welfare officers. Henry Larsen's most notable achievement was the completion of two voyages with St Roch through the Northwest Passage * Eastbound in 1940-42, originally as part of Canada’s war effort. * Westbound in 1944 using the uncharted more northerly route through Prince of Wales Strait. Canada’s sovereignty over the Canadian Arctic was reconfirmed. Most of the crew had little or no prior marine training. It was largely due to Larsen’s skill, resourcefulness and fine personality that they survived. He attributed their success to the discipline and spirit of comradery within the RCMP. What is not commonly known is that Larsen conducted the earliest salinity readings of the western Arctic Ocean, collected marine invertebrates and pre-Inuit artifacts. He was the first to make a colour movie record of Arctic life. These and the large archive of still photos Larsen and his crews built up provide an amazing historical record. Helge Ingstad, Wilderness KingLate Norwegian legend Helge Ingstad was an adventurer of the first degree. From fur trapper to Governor of Svalbard, Norway's Arctic Archipelago to Viking expert to studying the Apaches in Arizona and New Mexico, Norwegian media described his life as "100 adventurous years". Many Canadians know him and his wife Anne Stine Ingstad for their discoveries in 1960 of L'Anse aux Meadows of the first Viking settlement in North America. Decades earlier, though, in the 1920s, Ingstad ventured into Canada's North, fur trapping near the Great Slave Lake. An eight-volume series of Ingstad's books have been republished, one of which tells his account. Prior to his death in 2001, The Canadian Press interviewed the adventure legend in his Oslo wood cabin style home. He described travelling by dog sled, surviving first in tents and later building a small log cabin while trapping wolves and white foxes. "It was a time when the Northwest Terroritories weren't even on the map," said Ingstad chuckling. "I have lived in a rather different way than most people…I had the opportunity to be a rich man but I didn't want it…I feel very lucky I lived the kind of life I wanted to live which enclosed my interests." Ousland, the 2001 North Pole Solo ExpeditionNo one has completed more solo expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic than Børge Ousland. The world-famous adventurer, a former marine jeger and deep sea diver, has been specializing in the polar regions since 1993. Ousland's most important expeditions, he says, have been: 2001 - Alone over the North Pole from Siberia to Canada; 1998 - Climbed Cho Oyo, Tibet 8200 meters; 1998 - Climbed Huani Potosi, Bolivia, 6200 meters; 1997 - Alone over the Antarctic, From Berkner Island to McMurdo; 1995 - Alone to the South Pole, From Berkner Island; 1994 - Alone to the North Pole, From Cape Arkitichesky, Siberia; 1993 - Through Frans Josef Land with Agnar Berg; 1990 - To the North Pole from Canada with Geir Randby and Erling Kagge; and 1986 - Crossed Greenland with Agnar Berg and Jan Morten Ertsaas. "It was my life's greatest solo expedition. I had prepared for two years, I was in top form. I was motivated. I had experience (in 1994 I had walked alone to the North Pole and in 1997 over the Antarctic via the South Pole). I was ready for the great test of manhood to ski, walk and swim from Russia to Canada…" he writes of his 2001 expedition. Starting at Cape Arktitjeskji on March 3, 2001, the highlights included: March 13, Polar Bear and two cubs; April 1, Coldest temperature of -41; April 23, Reaching North Pole; April 27, Longest swimming trip, 150 meters; April 30, Longest day stretch, 72 kilometres; May 20, Warmest temperature, -3 degrees; May 23, Reaching Ward Hunt Island. Finally, DAY 82, Ousland writes in his journal: "I can see the mountains in Canada lying like a row of teeth in the sun. Just eight kilometres to land….. DAY 82 - IT IS OVER I crossed from sea ice to land ice in the clear Polar Night. Farewell to the Arctic Ocean…I thought about the first week when the sled broke. The moral after this last trip: Never give up, even if everything looks hopeless. Never give up." The New SverdrupsCanadian Graeme Magor and his Canadian-Norwegian team retraced Otto Sverdrup's exploration of the Canadian Arctic 100 years later in 1999. Aboard the expedition vessel Northanger, Major and the seven-member team travelled to the north and spent one year on Ellesmere Island conducting scientific research. Magor, a 13-time Arctic explorer himself, became fascinated by Sverdrup on a 1985 trip to Ellesmere Island where he discovered a monument commemorating the 1898-1902 expedition. Research conducted there included a NASA psychology project on group dynamics. The expedition's education program attracted interest from 40 Canadian and Norwegian schools who could access lesson plans and worksheets on the expedition website www.sverdrup2000.org. "We want to bring the story of Otto Sverdrup and his life forward with his connection to Canada," Magor told The Canadian Press at the launch. "It's a common history Norway and Canada both share." Roy Willy JohansenArctic adventure expeditions are wrought with dangers, sometimes claiming lives. In August 2000, Norwegian kayaker Roy Willy Johansen didn't survive his solo quest kayaking from Greenland to Newfoundland. Johansen did make it across, reaching Angijak Island, off the eastern coast of Baffin Island, after leaving Sisimiut, Greenland in mid-July. He suffered severely, frostbitten feet that halted his expedition. After treatment in a Baffin Island's hospital, he flew to his father's Florida home to recuperate. Several weeks later, Johansen resumed the expedition, back kayaking in Iqaluit soon after died of natural causes. Lars Monsen, New Wilderness KingLars Monsen has assumed the title Norway's Wilderness King from Helge Ingstad. His most memorable expedition has been 175 encounters with grizzly bears in Alaska while researching his book, Expeditions in Bear Land. For several years, Monsen has established himself as one of Norway's foremost wilderness experts, publishing widely. Currently, on his Across Canada expedition, Monsen crossed northern Canada on foot and dogsled over three years. Monsen has endured many hardships, from deep hunger to a near-death polar bear attack. Liv Arnesen and the Great LakesLiv Arnesen has her own place in Norwegian adventure/polar history together with American Ann Bancroft. The two explorers became the first women to cross Antarctica in February 2001. Beginning in November 2000, the former school teachers ski-trekked for 97 days across Antarctica, dragging 100-kilogram sleds some 2,700 kilometres across mountain glaciers and polar plateau. This May, the daring duo are kayaking through the four Great Lakes, from Lake Superior's North Shore to the St. Lawrence Seaway beyond Lake Ontario in upstate New York. Arnesen and Bancroft, who have established dream factory Bancroft Arnesen Explore in Minneapolis, and their adventures can be followed on their website www.yourexpedition.com. At the Holmenkollen Ski Museum in Oslo, Arnesen's Antarctica expedition has been recognized as part of its permanent exposition.
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