I think that Nansen is the one that has
meant the most for me and my own
expedition I wanted to follow in answers
footsteps and I always wanted to see for
myself what is behind the horizon I
always had that drive in me to cross
these areas it’s almost impossible
really and I can’t understand enhanced
and managed to do that I knew I could do
it physically but mentally was i strong
enough
thank you all for coming here great to
see so many founder way here to listen
to my stories which today will be mainly
about my expedition to Franz Josef land
also the circumnavigation of the Arctic
which we did a couple of years ago we
have of course these two great explorers
Roald Amundsen it’s rich of Nansen and
of these two there is no doubt who was
the greatest polar explorer that was
obviously wrong Amundsen because he was
the first man to reach the South Pole
14th of December 1911 but of these two
for me personally I think that Manson is
the one that has meant the most for me
and our own expedition he believed that
there was a current moving across the
Arctic Ocean and to prove that he set
off to do the drift himself with the
ship the Fram and the frame is a wooden
ship but it was constructed in such a
way that it would be lifted up instead
of being crushed by the ice as so many
ships before had done with often fatal
consequences so obviously many people
thought that this was mere suicide but
Nansen he was not a man who hesitated
and he in 1893 he put his plan into life
they realized when we were about half
way that they were not going to drift
across the North Pole itself and in
those days North Pole was and conquered
and when you have a ship up there follow
provisions that is a chance not to be
missed so Nansen what does he do he
brings it takes his companion Johansen
and leave Fram in an attempt to reach
the North Pole and that is of course a
great plan but the backside of that plan
is that when you leave a ship up there
and Arctic Ocean in the end of the
eighteen hundred’s you will never find
that ship again so these two guys they
had to manage by himself with just what
they could bring with them all the way
from up there and back to civilization
and after about five months in the pack
guys they didn’t quite reach the North
Pole
they came a bit on the way but then they
had to turn back to scramble onto land
somehow and after five months in the
pack ice
they reached unexplored northern parts
of Franz Josef land which is this group
of Island here just east of Spitsbergen
Russian territory they came up here and
it was already August winter was setting
in and they dug into the ground and
miraculously survived that winter and
this is one of Nance’s own pictures from
the wintering on jackson island on franz
josef and that’s his winter hat right
there and the next spring they continued
onward and just by chance
really they met an English expedition on
Cape flora led by Frederick Jackson and
this I strongly believe saved nonsens
life and they were able to join his ship
back to Norway now Nansen the trip he
did with Fram was obviously a great
accomplishment a great plan but the trip
that Nansen Andrew Hansen did true franz
josef van i really think he’s the
greatest expedition that has been done
in Arctic exploration and I really
wanted to follow in their footsteps to
see what they saw experience the same
nature and the hardship and ignore Berg
and me had already talked about during a
trip to Franz Josef land so we teamed up
and in 1993 we were able to get
permission from the Russian authorities
to do an expedition up there so we
chartered a helicopter and flew all the
way up to nonsens wintering camp at
Franz Josef land and nonsense he
described this as an oasis of the Arctic
and I think he must be in a very
positive guy
because I have never been a place so
barren and this latest as this really we
were actually tree on this trip Agner
and also this huge Greenland dog Sarek
so he could pull his own sled and he
also doubled as a polar bear guard at
night since he had to sleep outside of
the tent after about a week into the
trip we encountered a heavy storm out
there nothing that we couldn’t handle
but we got a little bit frozen and and
tired and Zurich was not feeling a
strong as he maybe we should have and on
the way we knew that we were an
abandoned polar station military station
and we thought okay maybe we can pop by
and find a house lit a fire and dry up a
bit so we decided to do that and before
we left Russia everyone we met said that
this station is abandoned there is no
people there but when we came there we
saw people not only a few there was a
whole community living there we were
after a few formalities which is normal
when you enter one of the most secret
bases of the north we very very welcomed
and could dry up a bit and also loosen
up a bit there we actually one of the
officers at the birthday parties we were
dancing along in our big ski boots and
having great fun and of course Herrick
he was everyone’s favorite pet and and I
think he found his twin soul in the sky
so we had a great time on this base but
if there was one thing I was to complain
about it was the toilet facilities
that’s ladies rooms to the left er and
men’s rooms to the right and I’m glad I
was not there when spring came finally
we had of course to keep on going spring
was coming and coming to Alexandra
Ireland which released the last island
before that open stretch between
Spitsbergen and Franz Josef land begins
we entered really impenetrable pack ice
and what has happened here is that
strong winds pushed ice up against the
land is broken everything and then the
wind had shifted and flushed out the
remaining ice so there were really not
many places to stay what happened next
is that the ice floor we camped at
loosen from land it did touched yourself
from land and in 24 hours we drifted 40
kilometres south into the barren sea
where all eyes eventually will melt and
we tried to find a safe place to cap on
we were not three weeks into the trip
but from here everything started to
deteriorate around us and this is just a
few moments later so this trip it was a
great trip but it ended with a rescue
helicopter from small bird and I can’t
help feeling and that it was one no two
Franz Josef land and I wanted revenge I
wanted to get back there and to complete
his journey and to follow in ances
footsteps that’s what I wanted to do and
it actually took 14 years before I was
back in nineteen oh sorry 2007 together
with this guy Thomas Ulrich and this
time we wanted to do this trip in full
that meant to do the whole nine Stan
Johansen journey so we started at the
North Pole first of May 2007 and skied
south and that meant that we had to
cross more than 1,000 kilometers of
drifting ice just before we
and so this was a huge undertaking and
as you know ice conditions has really
changed up there since the early days
when I did my first expeditions it’s
thinner eyes it breaks off more
frequently and it also becomes more open
water but the closer we came to land the
adverse conditions and some places that
were absolutely not possible neither to
ski or tripled and we just had to fight
our way through really really heavy and
dense pack ice which were moving around
and what happens when you have this
crushed ice and you’re obviously whisky
towards the summer it doesn’t freeze
anymore it get crushed by the ice by the
powers of the ice and then it just stays
open and to cross these areas like this
it’s almost impossible really and I
can’t understand how Nantz tundra has
managed that I had great respect for
their wintering but what they achieved
up there that’s really amazing without
the swimsuit without with just wooden
skis and and kayak made of canvas that
they managed to get through this Eris is
really something special
after about one and a half months we
finally saw land and when you’ve been
away for a long time on the pack ice
that’s a great moment and really magical
moment with lots of feelings them all
NASA actually cleaner doors also they’re
Sumatra Hoshi there I’ll um firstly I
didn’t launch my onsen so that I don’t
know that there are these so l prefer
what I did
so when finally the ice became to the
ice edge you know the ice just stopped
and was just water but then we could
transform over kayaks we skied and also
paddled from one island to the other
river in the middle of June now so
everything was melting around us but it
was also much more wildlife than you
have in the winter so the the sky was
just filled with birds like mosquitoes
breeding on every cliff we went by and
also of course lots of polar bears and
we met about 40 of them on this
expedition and when you meet a polar
bear out skiing that’s fine because you
see them at a distance normally and you
have time to sort out who is who is the
boss but when you’re in your tiny little
tent trying to sleep that’s not always
so easy with this just this thin fabric
between yourself and those padded
footsteps outside and Tamas his his is a
snorer he snores quite a lot but that is
not enough to scare away a polar bear so
it happened sometimes when you open the
zipper in the morning and there was just
this big white piece of fur standing
outside
to paddle in single car so it’s
obviously faster but you’re also much
more exposed you can capsize something
and can happen we might be far apart
from each other and you’re also more
vulnerable for for these guys to walrus
not wear when they’re on land relaxing
they’re not dangerous on land but when
you meet him in the water it can be
dangerous and non-standard several
walrus attacks one time we got a touch
straight to his kayaks kayak and when
you enter into his territory he is
actually likely to attack you and that’s
actually one of the main reasons why we
preferred paddling together in the
beginning of July we came to Nansen and
Ronson’s
wintering place at Cape Noriega which is
cold no on Jackson Island and it was
summer so we could see a little bit of
what was there and they when they came
here in the fall 1895 they were out of
food had no fuel left for the stove and
they dug down in the ground and they
made walls of stone and they found this
piece of wood on the beach which they
put animal skins across to make a roof
and during that autumn they hunted of
course to get food for the winter and
during that winter they ate 19 polar
bears and those bones are holding my
hands is actually balls that these guys
chewed on during that winter and that
they managed to survive that wintering
it’s really amazing but then again they
wanted to survive that they wanted to
get back home there was no question
about it and in the end of the days is
these qualities this this this willpower
which is needed to go through such an
ordeal like this so we continued we
follow the whole of nonsence route all
the way down to Cape for every week
pull over cogs up on the beach and
settle down make camp wait for the
sailboat that was going to pick us up
now as you all know waiting time can be
a little bit boring sometimes but then
again when you’re being on the next
position for three months which is your
expedition partner you don’t really need
a lot to have fun you just make the best
out of it so we were camped there
and we didn’t have too much in reserve
and then we got a message that the book
was delayed not just one week the two
weeks delayed and we got hungrier and
hungrier and you know you’re hungry when
you get water in your mouth seeing a
polar bear but then again Franz Josef
land is just full of surprises were
together
hey hey exposition ha
you can say dopamine’s lippy Lynette
what are you doing here
we’ve come to see you did you know that
you’re the first people we seen in three
months
come on you taste different today
so that really saved the day for us but
the best day was still to come
and that was 13th of August finally we
saw sail in the horizon and this is
actually a friend of mine for life tour
life son who said his own private
sailboat from Oslo all the way to the
northern parts of Norway across the
Bering Sea to Franz Josef land to pick
us up isn’t it great to have such
friends it’s amazing and this is also
the really the best moment on the whole
expedition I think and we sail across
the barren sea again back to the
northern parts of Norway where I got on
my bicycle and cycled home to Oslo now
after managed to bike myself home to
Oslo I had a look on the satellite maps
of these areas we just have been true
and that is when I saw that both the
northeast and northwest passage was open
at the same time and that is also when I
got ID that it might be possible to sail
around the whole Arctic in one season
and this was obviously due to global
warming and I measure to measure the the
ice thickness up there since the early
90s for the Norwegian polar Institute
and and what we wanted to do with this
expedition was to show with a visual
example of what is happening with the
polar ice caps so we started to plan a
trip around the Arctic and with me I
asked were left or left zone who picked
us up on fresh Josef land to join and we
planned this trip together as a crew we
had a young Frenchman called Vincent
coal yard and also as a crew we held my
Russian friend stanislav the coast is
keen and 28th of july we set sail out of
the Murmansk Lord and into the power and
sea
so it’s very shallow
I’m trying to stabilize myself in
stabilized
whoa jumping over four meters my way we
met the first heavy pack ice outside the
time ear but nothing compared to what
you can read about in the history books
and actually one of the biggest problems
we had was fog because we had so much
open water but it became foggy and even
if we knew that there were passages
through these ice fields we sometimes
got stuck and had to retreat so we had
storms we had all kinds of weather of
course but through this enormous Lee
long Siberian Coast which just stretched
out forever we had also frequently very
very calm weather with almost no winds
and in these conditions the northern
passage really could show her potentials
in full two o’clock at night 16th of
August North autumn you love to see why
not
God knows where he comes from we got it
now people usually think about the ice
as something perón and desolated with
not much life at all but actually it’s
the opposite whenever we had ice there
was it was teeming with my life and
there was no ice there was no wildlife
at all so so the drift ice the pack ice
of the Arctic Ocean is really the big
engine in the future in up there and the
the pack ice actually acts as an upside
down bottom underneath the ice it’s
algae growing which again are our food
for shrimps and smaller animals which is
food for bigger animals like fish and
seeds and birds and of course whales and
polar bears and so on and polar bears
obviously has become the symbol of
what’s happening up there in the Arctic
but but it affects the whole food chain
from all animals and even if a polar
bear can swim long distances which he
obviously can do he will eventually need
ice to move on he will need us to catch
seals on he will need ice to breathe his
jongwan on so so the changes of the
Arctic is just happening too fast for
these animals to adapt 5th of September
Point Barrow and this is where we were
going to have a career change so it’s
time Muslera was going ashore and flew
back to moscow and all the beach we have
Vincent he who was eager and ready to
get on board now it was the Northwest
Passage obviously sailing and zigzagging
through quite difficult conditions
actually because there is so much more
narrow channels up there than in the
east and this is a area where we of
course it was a challenge to save in
broad daylight
in September we got we had longer and
longer nights and we had to sail 24
hours should we be able to complete this
expedition before we froze there inside
the ice and we had to stand on deck with
the hand torch searching for ice and
that was I think the most hair-raising
thing we did on this expedition
finally 25th of September we came to
Pond Inlet and had completed both
passages still there were now five
thousand kilometres to go to back to
Norway and that was the goal to complete
the whole circle and that meant sailing
through some of the roughest waters in
the northern hemisphere the Baffin Bay
and North Atlantic we were now in
October so the stormy season had already
begun but we managed to push through and
finally 23rd of October we came sailing
into our own home fjord Oslo fjord and
it was a fantastic homecoming with lots
of people meeting us at the dock and
actually also from Nansen ship was back
there in the corner and also also
Amundsen ship to you it’s this one first
to sail the Northwest Passage so we
actually felt that kind of a nod of
accomplishment from these two giants but
I often get the question why why do you
do all these hard trips all this
suffering all the long time away from
home and and so on and yes
it’s I have to admit it is hard
sometimes especially when you’re
fighting the cold or the pack ice or
maybe the worst thing is waking up in
the morning after a nice dream and you
find yourself in the middle of the
Arctic Ocean with 1000 kilometers to go
that is not always so nice and it’s easy
to feel sorry for yourself which I
sometimes do it but then again
to be out there on all these expeditions
and and also shorter trips out in the
nature you are you relate to the
surroundings in in a totally different
way you’re present in your own life in a
different way I feel and I think one of
the secrets why I’m being able to cope
with the struggle I think that is really
the ability to to lift my hand to stop
to lift my head and look around me and
to see that I’m actually moving through
an art exhibition every day but you have
to lift your head to see it so I guess
then you can understand that this is my
life really and there is not just one
answer to the big question I think a
good answer is is because I’m having fun
out there I like it and another answer
is that I want to share and experience
this share these experiences with you
guys so thank you so much for coming
you
meant the most for me and my own
expedition I wanted to follow in answers
footsteps and I always wanted to see for
myself what is behind the horizon I
always had that drive in me to cross
these areas it’s almost impossible
really and I can’t understand enhanced
and managed to do that I knew I could do
it physically but mentally was i strong
enough
thank you all for coming here great to
see so many founder way here to listen
to my stories which today will be mainly
about my expedition to Franz Josef land
also the circumnavigation of the Arctic
which we did a couple of years ago we
have of course these two great explorers
Roald Amundsen it’s rich of Nansen and
of these two there is no doubt who was
the greatest polar explorer that was
obviously wrong Amundsen because he was
the first man to reach the South Pole
14th of December 1911 but of these two
for me personally I think that Manson is
the one that has meant the most for me
and our own expedition he believed that
there was a current moving across the
Arctic Ocean and to prove that he set
off to do the drift himself with the
ship the Fram and the frame is a wooden
ship but it was constructed in such a
way that it would be lifted up instead
of being crushed by the ice as so many
ships before had done with often fatal
consequences so obviously many people
thought that this was mere suicide but
Nansen he was not a man who hesitated
and he in 1893 he put his plan into life
they realized when we were about half
way that they were not going to drift
across the North Pole itself and in
those days North Pole was and conquered
and when you have a ship up there follow
provisions that is a chance not to be
missed so Nansen what does he do he
brings it takes his companion Johansen
and leave Fram in an attempt to reach
the North Pole and that is of course a
great plan but the backside of that plan
is that when you leave a ship up there
and Arctic Ocean in the end of the
eighteen hundred’s you will never find
that ship again so these two guys they
had to manage by himself with just what
they could bring with them all the way
from up there and back to civilization
and after about five months in the pack
guys they didn’t quite reach the North
Pole
they came a bit on the way but then they
had to turn back to scramble onto land
somehow and after five months in the
pack ice
they reached unexplored northern parts
of Franz Josef land which is this group
of Island here just east of Spitsbergen
Russian territory they came up here and
it was already August winter was setting
in and they dug into the ground and
miraculously survived that winter and
this is one of Nance’s own pictures from
the wintering on jackson island on franz
josef and that’s his winter hat right
there and the next spring they continued
onward and just by chance
really they met an English expedition on
Cape flora led by Frederick Jackson and
this I strongly believe saved nonsens
life and they were able to join his ship
back to Norway now Nansen the trip he
did with Fram was obviously a great
accomplishment a great plan but the trip
that Nansen Andrew Hansen did true franz
josef van i really think he’s the
greatest expedition that has been done
in Arctic exploration and I really
wanted to follow in their footsteps to
see what they saw experience the same
nature and the hardship and ignore Berg
and me had already talked about during a
trip to Franz Josef land so we teamed up
and in 1993 we were able to get
permission from the Russian authorities
to do an expedition up there so we
chartered a helicopter and flew all the
way up to nonsens wintering camp at
Franz Josef land and nonsense he
described this as an oasis of the Arctic
and I think he must be in a very
positive guy
because I have never been a place so
barren and this latest as this really we
were actually tree on this trip Agner
and also this huge Greenland dog Sarek
so he could pull his own sled and he
also doubled as a polar bear guard at
night since he had to sleep outside of
the tent after about a week into the
trip we encountered a heavy storm out
there nothing that we couldn’t handle
but we got a little bit frozen and and
tired and Zurich was not feeling a
strong as he maybe we should have and on
the way we knew that we were an
abandoned polar station military station
and we thought okay maybe we can pop by
and find a house lit a fire and dry up a
bit so we decided to do that and before
we left Russia everyone we met said that
this station is abandoned there is no
people there but when we came there we
saw people not only a few there was a
whole community living there we were
after a few formalities which is normal
when you enter one of the most secret
bases of the north we very very welcomed
and could dry up a bit and also loosen
up a bit there we actually one of the
officers at the birthday parties we were
dancing along in our big ski boots and
having great fun and of course Herrick
he was everyone’s favorite pet and and I
think he found his twin soul in the sky
so we had a great time on this base but
if there was one thing I was to complain
about it was the toilet facilities
that’s ladies rooms to the left er and
men’s rooms to the right and I’m glad I
was not there when spring came finally
we had of course to keep on going spring
was coming and coming to Alexandra
Ireland which released the last island
before that open stretch between
Spitsbergen and Franz Josef land begins
we entered really impenetrable pack ice
and what has happened here is that
strong winds pushed ice up against the
land is broken everything and then the
wind had shifted and flushed out the
remaining ice so there were really not
many places to stay what happened next
is that the ice floor we camped at
loosen from land it did touched yourself
from land and in 24 hours we drifted 40
kilometres south into the barren sea
where all eyes eventually will melt and
we tried to find a safe place to cap on
we were not three weeks into the trip
but from here everything started to
deteriorate around us and this is just a
few moments later so this trip it was a
great trip but it ended with a rescue
helicopter from small bird and I can’t
help feeling and that it was one no two
Franz Josef land and I wanted revenge I
wanted to get back there and to complete
his journey and to follow in ances
footsteps that’s what I wanted to do and
it actually took 14 years before I was
back in nineteen oh sorry 2007 together
with this guy Thomas Ulrich and this
time we wanted to do this trip in full
that meant to do the whole nine Stan
Johansen journey so we started at the
North Pole first of May 2007 and skied
south and that meant that we had to
cross more than 1,000 kilometers of
drifting ice just before we
and so this was a huge undertaking and
as you know ice conditions has really
changed up there since the early days
when I did my first expeditions it’s
thinner eyes it breaks off more
frequently and it also becomes more open
water but the closer we came to land the
adverse conditions and some places that
were absolutely not possible neither to
ski or tripled and we just had to fight
our way through really really heavy and
dense pack ice which were moving around
and what happens when you have this
crushed ice and you’re obviously whisky
towards the summer it doesn’t freeze
anymore it get crushed by the ice by the
powers of the ice and then it just stays
open and to cross these areas like this
it’s almost impossible really and I
can’t understand how Nantz tundra has
managed that I had great respect for
their wintering but what they achieved
up there that’s really amazing without
the swimsuit without with just wooden
skis and and kayak made of canvas that
they managed to get through this Eris is
really something special
after about one and a half months we
finally saw land and when you’ve been
away for a long time on the pack ice
that’s a great moment and really magical
moment with lots of feelings them all
NASA actually cleaner doors also they’re
Sumatra Hoshi there I’ll um firstly I
didn’t launch my onsen so that I don’t
know that there are these so l prefer
what I did
so when finally the ice became to the
ice edge you know the ice just stopped
and was just water but then we could
transform over kayaks we skied and also
paddled from one island to the other
river in the middle of June now so
everything was melting around us but it
was also much more wildlife than you
have in the winter so the the sky was
just filled with birds like mosquitoes
breeding on every cliff we went by and
also of course lots of polar bears and
we met about 40 of them on this
expedition and when you meet a polar
bear out skiing that’s fine because you
see them at a distance normally and you
have time to sort out who is who is the
boss but when you’re in your tiny little
tent trying to sleep that’s not always
so easy with this just this thin fabric
between yourself and those padded
footsteps outside and Tamas his his is a
snorer he snores quite a lot but that is
not enough to scare away a polar bear so
it happened sometimes when you open the
zipper in the morning and there was just
this big white piece of fur standing
outside
to paddle in single car so it’s
obviously faster but you’re also much
more exposed you can capsize something
and can happen we might be far apart
from each other and you’re also more
vulnerable for for these guys to walrus
not wear when they’re on land relaxing
they’re not dangerous on land but when
you meet him in the water it can be
dangerous and non-standard several
walrus attacks one time we got a touch
straight to his kayaks kayak and when
you enter into his territory he is
actually likely to attack you and that’s
actually one of the main reasons why we
preferred paddling together in the
beginning of July we came to Nansen and
Ronson’s
wintering place at Cape Noriega which is
cold no on Jackson Island and it was
summer so we could see a little bit of
what was there and they when they came
here in the fall 1895 they were out of
food had no fuel left for the stove and
they dug down in the ground and they
made walls of stone and they found this
piece of wood on the beach which they
put animal skins across to make a roof
and during that autumn they hunted of
course to get food for the winter and
during that winter they ate 19 polar
bears and those bones are holding my
hands is actually balls that these guys
chewed on during that winter and that
they managed to survive that wintering
it’s really amazing but then again they
wanted to survive that they wanted to
get back home there was no question
about it and in the end of the days is
these qualities this this this willpower
which is needed to go through such an
ordeal like this so we continued we
follow the whole of nonsence route all
the way down to Cape for every week
pull over cogs up on the beach and
settle down make camp wait for the
sailboat that was going to pick us up
now as you all know waiting time can be
a little bit boring sometimes but then
again when you’re being on the next
position for three months which is your
expedition partner you don’t really need
a lot to have fun you just make the best
out of it so we were camped there
and we didn’t have too much in reserve
and then we got a message that the book
was delayed not just one week the two
weeks delayed and we got hungrier and
hungrier and you know you’re hungry when
you get water in your mouth seeing a
polar bear but then again Franz Josef
land is just full of surprises were
together
hey hey exposition ha
you can say dopamine’s lippy Lynette
what are you doing here
we’ve come to see you did you know that
you’re the first people we seen in three
months
come on you taste different today
so that really saved the day for us but
the best day was still to come
and that was 13th of August finally we
saw sail in the horizon and this is
actually a friend of mine for life tour
life son who said his own private
sailboat from Oslo all the way to the
northern parts of Norway across the
Bering Sea to Franz Josef land to pick
us up isn’t it great to have such
friends it’s amazing and this is also
the really the best moment on the whole
expedition I think and we sail across
the barren sea again back to the
northern parts of Norway where I got on
my bicycle and cycled home to Oslo now
after managed to bike myself home to
Oslo I had a look on the satellite maps
of these areas we just have been true
and that is when I saw that both the
northeast and northwest passage was open
at the same time and that is also when I
got ID that it might be possible to sail
around the whole Arctic in one season
and this was obviously due to global
warming and I measure to measure the the
ice thickness up there since the early
90s for the Norwegian polar Institute
and and what we wanted to do with this
expedition was to show with a visual
example of what is happening with the
polar ice caps so we started to plan a
trip around the Arctic and with me I
asked were left or left zone who picked
us up on fresh Josef land to join and we
planned this trip together as a crew we
had a young Frenchman called Vincent
coal yard and also as a crew we held my
Russian friend stanislav the coast is
keen and 28th of july we set sail out of
the Murmansk Lord and into the power and
sea
so it’s very shallow
I’m trying to stabilize myself in
stabilized
whoa jumping over four meters my way we
met the first heavy pack ice outside the
time ear but nothing compared to what
you can read about in the history books
and actually one of the biggest problems
we had was fog because we had so much
open water but it became foggy and even
if we knew that there were passages
through these ice fields we sometimes
got stuck and had to retreat so we had
storms we had all kinds of weather of
course but through this enormous Lee
long Siberian Coast which just stretched
out forever we had also frequently very
very calm weather with almost no winds
and in these conditions the northern
passage really could show her potentials
in full two o’clock at night 16th of
August North autumn you love to see why
not
God knows where he comes from we got it
now people usually think about the ice
as something perón and desolated with
not much life at all but actually it’s
the opposite whenever we had ice there
was it was teeming with my life and
there was no ice there was no wildlife
at all so so the drift ice the pack ice
of the Arctic Ocean is really the big
engine in the future in up there and the
the pack ice actually acts as an upside
down bottom underneath the ice it’s
algae growing which again are our food
for shrimps and smaller animals which is
food for bigger animals like fish and
seeds and birds and of course whales and
polar bears and so on and polar bears
obviously has become the symbol of
what’s happening up there in the Arctic
but but it affects the whole food chain
from all animals and even if a polar
bear can swim long distances which he
obviously can do he will eventually need
ice to move on he will need us to catch
seals on he will need ice to breathe his
jongwan on so so the changes of the
Arctic is just happening too fast for
these animals to adapt 5th of September
Point Barrow and this is where we were
going to have a career change so it’s
time Muslera was going ashore and flew
back to moscow and all the beach we have
Vincent he who was eager and ready to
get on board now it was the Northwest
Passage obviously sailing and zigzagging
through quite difficult conditions
actually because there is so much more
narrow channels up there than in the
east and this is a area where we of
course it was a challenge to save in
broad daylight
in September we got we had longer and
longer nights and we had to sail 24
hours should we be able to complete this
expedition before we froze there inside
the ice and we had to stand on deck with
the hand torch searching for ice and
that was I think the most hair-raising
thing we did on this expedition
finally 25th of September we came to
Pond Inlet and had completed both
passages still there were now five
thousand kilometres to go to back to
Norway and that was the goal to complete
the whole circle and that meant sailing
through some of the roughest waters in
the northern hemisphere the Baffin Bay
and North Atlantic we were now in
October so the stormy season had already
begun but we managed to push through and
finally 23rd of October we came sailing
into our own home fjord Oslo fjord and
it was a fantastic homecoming with lots
of people meeting us at the dock and
actually also from Nansen ship was back
there in the corner and also also
Amundsen ship to you it’s this one first
to sail the Northwest Passage so we
actually felt that kind of a nod of
accomplishment from these two giants but
I often get the question why why do you
do all these hard trips all this
suffering all the long time away from
home and and so on and yes
it’s I have to admit it is hard
sometimes especially when you’re
fighting the cold or the pack ice or
maybe the worst thing is waking up in
the morning after a nice dream and you
find yourself in the middle of the
Arctic Ocean with 1000 kilometers to go
that is not always so nice and it’s easy
to feel sorry for yourself which I
sometimes do it but then again
to be out there on all these expeditions
and and also shorter trips out in the
nature you are you relate to the
surroundings in in a totally different
way you’re present in your own life in a
different way I feel and I think one of
the secrets why I’m being able to cope
with the struggle I think that is really
the ability to to lift my hand to stop
to lift my head and look around me and
to see that I’m actually moving through
an art exhibition every day but you have
to lift your head to see it so I guess
then you can understand that this is my
life really and there is not just one
answer to the big question I think a
good answer is is because I’m having fun
out there I like it and another answer
is that I want to share and experience
this share these experiences with you
guys so thank you so much for coming
you
Please follow and like us: