First Crossing of Greenland: The Gamble that Launched Arctic Exploration (Endeavour) [Paperback]

Fridtjof Nansen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2001 | Series: Endeavour

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The visionary Norse explorer' -- Jon Krakauer

A man in a million -- Edward Wymper, Conqueror of the Matterhorn

Book Description

This two-volume work chronicles the first successful crossing of the Greenland interior by Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) and five colleagues over two months in 1888. The books cover their journey to Greenland as well as the journey westward across the 'inner ice', and also include appendices detailing the expedition's discoveries. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Gibson Square (November 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190393303X
• ISBN-13: 978-1903933039
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,565,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Skiing Across Greenland, December 28, 2007

By 

E. S Winskill (Tacoma, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First Crossing of Greenland (Paperback)

Fridthof Nansen in this book did more to bring skiing to the larger world than any other individual. Until his Greenland crossing on skis, few outside of Norway, or Scandinavia at the most, had heard of skiing, although of course it had existed there for centuries. The early chapter of the book on skis and "skilobing" (skiing) is a marvelous account of the sport, and particularly of Sondre Norheim and the Telemarkers who revolutionized it as recreation.
Nansen writes the book in what can only be called a charming tone. He makes the crossing of the icecap seem easy, and indeed, most of the harrowing detail of the expedition relates to the efforts of the party after being dropped off at sea on the east coast of Greenland, through the ice floes with great difficulty, to an eventual landing and a hard climb up to the central ice plateau. There is also considerable detail given about the way of life of the Eskimo and Danish inhabitants of the Greenland west coast, where Nansen and his party overwintered after the crossing.
A classic of "cold exploration" and a lively style and good read after more than a century.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy from this publisher, January 14, 2010

By 

Tiberiu V. Popa - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The First Crossing of Greenland (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Do not buy from this publisher. The book looks like it was printed from Google Books on a home printer. It is missing half the book and all the pictures and the pages and paragraphs are not formatted properly. If you own a printer you are better off printing the PDF from Google Books. I am forced to return this book, even though I've been looking forward to reading it for weeks.