· Essays · 6 min read
Berserk: in Amundsen’s footsteps, and the cost of the ice
The 2011 loss of the yacht Berserk in the Ross Sea, and what it says about preparation in the Norwegian polar tradition.
Essays
Notes on Norwegian polar history, science, and the voyages that drew the line we plan to sail.
· Essays · 5 min read
The race that method won: Amundsen and Scott
Why Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole and came home while Scott's party died, and the discipline Meridian Polar sails under.
· Essays · 5 min read
Death or the west coast: Nansen crosses Greenland
Fridtjof Nansen's 1888 crossing of the Greenland ice cap, the wrong way round, and the founding of the Norwegian method of polar travel.
· Essays · 5 min read
The real cargo: Maud and the science that outlived the voyage
How Harald Sverdrup's seven years of measurement aboard Maud reached all the way to the D Day forecast, and the founding story of Meridian Polar.