The First Crossing of Greenland Paperback – April 7, 2025

There was no choice of routes, "forward" being the only word. The order would be: — "Death or the west coast of Greenland"With his five companions, Nansen rowed ashore on the desolate east coast of Greenland. There was no turning back - they had to succeed in their goal of traversing the vast inland ice to the inhabited west coast or perish.They were pioneers - in exploring the inland ice, and in creating the concept of the modern polar expedition; inventing much of the required equipment in the process.This book is doubly interesting because of the meeting of Nansen and his team with the Greenlanders, and how they recognized that they had much to learn from them about living in the polar wastes.This was Fridtjof Nansen's first expedition, revealing him not only to be an eminent scientist and explorer, but also a fine author. He was the spiritual mentor to Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton and single-handedly made polar expeditions popular. Drawn to extremes, obstinate, and a restless Faustian character, he was a gifted writer, scientist and diplomat who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.This book is the slightly abridged single-volume version. It contains all original illustrations in high quality. It is not a low quality scan of old pages (as are all other currently printed versions). The text has been reformatted, and the images preserved. Read more