|
So far 9 expeditions from several different nations have attempted this stunt before, but failed! Until two brave Norwegian came. So the 10th expedition succeeded, but not without dramatic.
It is three months since the Norwegians Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen reached land in Canada, exhausted, thin and happy. These men set off on their way to cross the Arctic the 16th February. They started in Severnaya Zemlya in Russia and hoped to reach the Ward Hunt in Canada through the North Pole in June.
The two brave men encountered the biggest challenges you can imagine as extreme cold, frosty winds, moving icebergs, and big holes in the ice with open water. Humans are not created to walk around up here, but Rune and Torry had an unforgettable weapon; an incredible stamina and a good sense of black humour help them to overcome all the obstacles. Sometimes they also became rewarded with fantastic experiences of the nature.
The last part was incredible dramatic. The weather was bad. The plain, which should pick them up, was chartered to another mission. So they ran out for food, water and fuel for warming up. This expeditions can be described as an effective slim cure: Torry reduces his weight with 32 kg, and Rune went down 21 kg when they became weighted in Resolute Bay in Canada.
Two brave Norwegians who conquered the arctic, and accomplished something that no one has done before.
Rune and Torry (photos seen on the Norwegian TV2`s website:www.tv2.no)
Rune and Torry sat their feet on land in Canada the 3rd June, also 109 days after they started the expedition from Siberia. No one else have earlier succeed to cross the whole Polar Ocean, and absolute not without deliveries of food, water and equipment during the tour. The finish was dramatic to the last second!
In an interview with the Norwegian Television TV2 on their web site, they tell about the dramatic finish: 200 metres before they reached their target destination, they encountered a big iceberg, so they have to struggle for many hours to come trough the ice blocks.
So the plain landed, as they not had requested, and with the people who should pick them up. This plane landed on the Canadian side and started to speak to them standing on the Russian side. Finally this expedition succeeded. A documentation film from Rune's and Torry`s expedition was showed on TV2.
Think about that: these two men crossed the arctic on ski unsupportet - without deliveries during their tour. They took an incredible risk, but fortunately they survived everything. To be the first is always an historical event!
Stein Morten Lund, 15 September 2000
Additional information
Read other reports about arctic expeditions on our website.
Other links:
National Maritime Museum (Greenwich in London).
Exhibition: 14 September 2000 - 30 September 2001 South: the race to the Pole is about the 'heroic age' of Antarctic exploration, from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the First World War.
The exhibition focuses on the expeditions of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/
|
E-mail this
Print this
