Posted: Jul 02, 2007 11:45 am EST
(ThePoles.com) Remember the Mars expedition announcement last week where it was mentioned that Vikings sailed and rowed to Greenland, and probably America, in tiny ships long before Columbus? History is not far from the future, and less even from the present: Borge & Thomas are currently traveling in he footsteps of Fridtjof Nansen; who continued the Viking legacy in 1882 by crossing to Greenland waters in a sealing ship.

Nansen crossed the Greenland icecap on skis 6 years later (east to west) and funny enough that’s what Eric, Sarah and Curtis are doing just now (although south-north). And as you know, Tara is currently drifting across the Arctic ice. Nansen did that too, sort of, and that's how his biggest voyage began: In 1893 he sailed Fram (the ship later used by Amundsen to Antarctica) to the Arctic. Fram, just like Tara today, was allowed to freeze and drift north through the sea ice.

No turning back

Nansen too shot for the North Pole, but one year into the trip it became clear that Fram wouldn't make it there. At 84° 4´ Nansen and his friend Hjalmar Johansen therefore left the ship and continued north on foot.

The two men started out on March 14, 1895 with three sleds, two kayaks and a bunch of dogs. They reached 86° 14´ N one month later and then turned back, expecting to find land at 83°N. No such luck though, and that's when the kayaks came handy for it took open water crossings until July 24, when they finally found some islands.

They over wintered there, building a hut of local rock and moss and hunting walrus and polar bears. And that's where we find Ousland and Ulrich today:

In the picture they’re at the ruins of the hut where Nansen and Johansen wintered in Franz Josef Land for seven months from August 1895 on. In their latest entry, the two modern day explorers report:

"It was an incredible moment"
28th of June, day 59.

"Finally we have reached the winter hut of Nansen and Johansen! We didn’t have to round Cape Norway but went through the mountains and used our kayaks only for the last half an hour. It was an incredible moment when we reached the ruins of the winter hut of the two pioneers standing 20 m from the shoreline: Rests of its walls built with stones are still there, then we discovered the huge wooden roof ridge over which they had tightened walrus skins."

"We found polar bear and walrus bones around; the two ate a lot of meat. That’s the place where they wintered for seven months, it’s incredible to see it and to realize they hadn’t lost courage and didn’t get mad here! A very impressive place."

"By reaching it, we have accomplished another big goal of our expedition! On our way, we see many polar bears; this morning we had a visit of one which seemed to be kind of a grandfather polar bear with grey beard. To make a change, we tried out our pepper spray and clouted him a good dose of it – we didn’t see him anymore for the whole day … Our various polar bear protection systems really work perfectly. The only problem: We are really totally worn out and now will take one or two rest days in this place.”

Nanuk leaving traces?

Børge and Thomas are lucky to see the place. They received permit to 'land' only after 45 days skiing there from the North Pole. The Russian archipelago has been a restricted area for decades. In 2005 VICAAR managed to wrestle a permit out of two presidents and a deputy speaker (incl Putin!) for the FJC expedition which set out to explore the wilderness in the footsteps of the 1874 discoverers, K. Weyprecht and J. V. Payer.

The men were guided by the infamous dog "Nanuk" who made a bad rep for himself for being chased around the camp by polar bears and hitching rides on the expedition sleds. Perhaps some of the bones Borge and Thomas found at Nansen's hut could be remains of Nanuk rather than the ancient explorers? Only Nanuk knows and he won't bark.

Norwegian Børge Ousland and Swiss Thomas Ulrich departed the North Pole on May 1, hoping to reach Norway by crossing Siberia’s Franz Josef Land on the way. Because the team is going unsupported, they are hauling food and gas for three months.

Børge Ousland was born in Oslo, Norway in 1962. Thomas Ulrich was born in Interlaken, Switzerland in 1967.

The archipelago of Franz Josef Land is under Russian military regulations and has been closed for outsiders since early 1930. Very few expeditions have visited the islands. No one has skied from north to south after Nansen. Borge has previously done two expeditions to Franz Josef Land: In 1993 he skied through the islands from east to west and in 2004 he was expedition leader on the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn.

In March 1895 Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen left the Polar ship 'Fram' to try to reach the North Pole. They reached the furthest north record at 86 degrees 14 minutes north. From this position they turned south and in August, they reached the undiscovered northern parts of Franz Josef Land. But it was too late in the year to continue, and with few provisions left they were forced build a stone hut on Franz Josef Land, and survive the winter under very primitive conditions, living off the land. On their onward journey in June they met a British expedition led by Frederick Jackson on Cape Flora, who informed them that they were not anywhere near Spitzbergen where they were headed; but on Franz Josef Land. Finally, Nansen and Johansen made it back to Vardø in the north of Norway.

Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat; Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

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