Happy birthday to a great Norwegian Explorer - Monica Kristensen Solås!

Now she is working as a manager in the government owned mining company Kings Bay, but she is still keen to do research work in the future. Recently she met leaders from the entire world's institutes for polar research. There is no doubt: that woman has really guts! This though woman has been in charge of big expeditions to almost all the cold areas in the world, and she is highly respected for her expeditions.

With Kristensen Solås we can draw parallels to Fridtjof Nansen, an another Norwegian polar explorer. He was the first to think of the Arctic as a sea, and in 1888 he was the first man to cross the Greenland ice cap on skis. He came closer to the North Pole than anyone before and was the inspiration of future explorers. Some people consider him to be the father of polar travel. Then Kristensen Solås has to be the Mother of Polar Travel.

She has been awarded many times, but she had her downsides. In 1993/94 on an Arctic expedition, one of her close colleague's perished in an accident. The main target for the expedition was to find the remains of a tent left by the great Norwegian polar traveller Roald Amundsen.

She received financial aids from main suppliers to the Olympic Games in Lillehammer (Norway 1994). Unfortunately Kristensen Solås and her colleagues failed in their efforts on the expedition. In addition they had to cover all the costs themselves, and it was a big burden to bear. Last year she did research work about pollution in South America and the Fremstredet (Frem strait).

Monika Kristensen Solås is still going strong! It only remains one more thing to say: happy birthday to the brave Mona Kristensen Solås, and good luck further with your work and research. We look forward to follow your new expeditions and explorations!

Stein Morten Lund, 30 June 2000