"Forward" as rallying cry, the muscles are tensed, the heart beats, and the blood rolls through the veins, the head is lifted and the back is straightened."
- Godfred Hansen -
The expedition
The expedition goes from Gjoa Haven in northern Canada, where Amundsen let the ship Gjøa freeze into the ice during his voyage through the Northwest Passage, to Glenelg Bay. The route is about 1,100 km and will be covered on skis and without resupply in approximately 50 days, starting middle of March 2025.
I will follow in the footsteps of the guys who set out from Gjøa and mapped the east coast of Victoria Island. This was an incredible feat and a lesser-known part of Norwegian polar history. Cape Nansen was the northernmost point on this expedition. Here they built a cairn that I hope to "rediscover" on my trip - and perhaps help solve a mystery about where Cape Nansen really is.
The route I will follow is the same as the guys from Gjøa followed, but instead of turning around at Cape Nansen I will complete the trip along the coast - all the way to Glenelg Bay. I will be the first to walk this route in its entirety!
The trip is a tribute to those who went before and filled in the white areas on the map. Hardy men who set out into the unknown, but whose names have not been given the place they deserve in the story of Norway's exploration of the Arctic and the Northwest Passage.
There will be great experiences in nature and hard work. I will encounter pack ice, pressure ridges, low temperatures and Arctic wildlife - and I am looking forward to it!
More about Cape Nansen and Haakon VII's coast below.
Roald Amundsen The Northwest Passage , 1907
Roald Amundsen The Northwest Passage , 1907
Cape Nansen and Haakon VII's coast
The east coast of Victoria Island was uncharted territory in Amundsen's time. The surrounding areas had already been mapped by British expeditions, but the east coast was a blank space on the map, both literally and figuratively.
In the spring of 1905, Godfred Hansen (Amundsen's second-in-command) and Peder Ristvedt (a meteorologist and engineer) set out into the unknown to map this entire coastline. They crossed the Victoria Strait westward and then turned north along the coast of Victoria Island. There they mapped new land and named many a formation after prominent Norwegians.
It would be two and a half months before Hansen and Ristvedt saw Gjøahavn again. With a pair of sleds each laden with over 200 kg, and with 12 dogs, they had by then fought their way 1400 kilometers through ice, cold and danger. This was a great achievement and a feather in the cap of the expedition - these were the only new lands mapped by the Gjøa expedition!
The aim of the expedition was actually to follow the east coast of Victoria Island all the way up to the north side of the island to Glenelg Bay (also called Wynniatt Bay or Wynniatt's furthest). In this way, Hansen and Ristvedt were to connect areas that had been mapped by previous expeditions. Hansen and Ristvedt chose to turn back on 26 May for fear of not reaching Gjøa before the ice melted.
They named the northernmost point they reached Cape Nansen, after one of the greatest heroes they knew. Here they also built a cairn where they left a message for those who might come later. The unknown coastline further up to Glenelg Bay was drawn on the map with a dotted line. I will finish the route 120 years later!