Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.