An exceptional polar expedition in an era of daring explorations of the far north and far south is featured in the January 2009 National Geographic magazine, “1,000 Days in the Ice.” The explorer, Fridtjof Nansen of Norway, was a neuroscientist, zoologist, artist, writer, and national hero, following his crossing of Greenland on skis, before he decided to be the first person to reach the North Pole. He believed he could arrive there by allowing his ship to be frozen in Arctic seas and drift with the currents east to west.  

Nansen designed a steam-powered, wooden schooner, named Fram, to withstand Arctic ice and provide safety and some comfort for the scientist and his crew — electric arc lights powered by a windmill on deck, an automatic organ, a 600-volume library, and provisions for five years. The expedition took three years,1893 to 1896.

In the second year of his journey, Nansen realized that drifting on the Fram would not take them to the pole. With one crew member he set out on a harrowing journey by kayak, skis, and sleds across sea ice. He went further north than any explorer before him, but he did not reach the pole. However, from his observations and scientific readings of the ice and waters he crossed, he established that the Arctic was an ocean, not, as previously thought, a shallow sea.

Readers of the article in print or online will appreciate one of the scientist’s many skills — photographer. Reproduced in the magazine are photos of the Fram frozen in ice, with the windmill in sight, crew members on deck, and Nansen taking readings of the water temperature. There is also a shot of the crew posing with Nansen and his sled dogs before he began his trek on the ice.

The explorer-scientist and his crew returned separately but safely some three years after they set off. Nansen went on to continue his writing and his scientific work, to become Norway’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and a high commissioner for refugees of the League of Nations, and to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

The well-designed Fram took Roald Amundsen to Antarctica in 1911 for his first journey to the South Pole. (The ship’s name was the title for a play about Nansen by Tony Harrison, which was produced in London’s National Theatre in 2008.)

Also in the January issue is the saga of two adventurers who recently followed miles of Nansen’s route over sea ice. With better cameras and color film, they can show what it is and was like to travel on Arctic ice, meeting some polar bears along the way.