Product Description

First successful crossing of Greenland whose reliance on skis was the launching pad for modern polar expeditions by Nansen, Scott and Amundsen. After the successful publication of his biography (1998) and his brilliant polar journal Farthest North (2000), Nansen has in the past years recaptured his reputation as 'a modern Viking' (Daily Mail) which he enjoyed a century ago. This book is an abridgement of the two volumes of journals he edited of his daring crossing of the icy, treacherous snow plains of Greenland. At the time no one had ever succeeded in penetrating the depths of Greenland and his ideas for crossing, upwards with dogs, which would be eaten on the way, and downwards by skiing, were received with scathing contempt as contemporary thinking favoured large expenditions with numerous servants for survival.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #504332 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'A man in a million!' Edward Wymper, Conqueror of the Matterhorn

From the Publisher
Before Nansen’s journey, the vast, impenetrable arctic regions were exasperating nineteenth-century explorers. For four centuries no one had been able to come up with a means of conquering them; Greenland, their first stepping-stone, had repelled an armada of scientists who had tried to conquer its glaciers: some lost their lives, none of them left a trace of their mammoth expeditions.

Nansen, an over-confident adolescent thought he knew better in 1882. Convinced that one could succeed on skis, a sport which had only recently become popular in Norway and was practically unknown elsewhere, he set about organising an expedition so modest that it consisted of only six members who would pull their own sledges. Denied a grant that was usually forthcoming for an expedition of this type, he arranged for his own transport via two steam passages before being dropped off somewhere in the icy waters in front of the Arctic coast of Greenland.

Astonishingly enough, he did become the first human to witness the ghostly Arctic world in its treacherous, solitary splendour, and live to tell about it. His success made him a living legend at the age of twenty eight and his methods changed Arctic exploration forever, opening the way to the conquests by his later acolytes Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. Nansen’s amazing expedition diaries of 1890 are now being republished for the first time together with the captivating expedition photographs he himself made during the voyage.

About the Author
Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), mentor to Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton, single-handedly made polar expeditions as popular as they are now. Drawn to extremes and a restless Faustian character, he was a gifted writer, scientist and diplomat who received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Customer Reviews

You must read this, astonishing!
If you thought arctic discovery was a carefully planned exercise, dominated by captains, beards and government prestige projects, think again! For centuries but in earnest since the beginning of the nineteenth century, no advance was made until twenty-two-year old Nansen thought in 1822 of the clever idea of using skis to cross the arctic ice fields. Skiing had only recently become popular in Norway, so he had a headstart on all the others trying to conquer the first bit of the arctic, Greenland. He was a complete unknown at the time and, though we now think of him as brilliant, people thought him a nutcase. But what really sets this beautiful book apart, is the crisp lyrical language in which he describes what the arctic area looked like. We are so used through television and photographs to what it looks like, but it was all completely new to him. Nowadays, Nansen would no doubt be up there with Jon Krakauer or Paul Theroux. Like them he spawned a raft of other writers and travellers: Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, etc. Amazing when you think of it. I cannot recommend this book enough.

First Crossing
This is a fascinating book. Not one second passes when the reader is not excited by the amazing adventure Nansen undertook. It also reads very well for a book written by an explorer as opposed to a proffesional writer, possibly even better, and the descriptions in it are vivid and enchanting. The incorporation of photos of the expedition is also very interesting.
However, it is let down slightly by the fact that there are so many spelling mistakes in the translation. But overall, an excellent read, and I would recommend anyone with a spirited sense of adventure to read it.