GREAT ADVENTURERS FROM THE LAND OF GREAT ADVENTURES
 

BØRGE OUSLAND.
          In the highly competitive world of polar exploration, Børge Ousland may be the most accomplished adventurer of all time. Trained in the risky profession of North Sea deep diver, and, like countryman and fellow explorer Rune Gjeldnes, a Special Forces member of the Norwegian Navy, Ousland took on extreme physical challenges at a young age. Then — in the tradition of great Norwegian polar explorers — he went to the ends of the earth seeking new challenges:

     • At 24 Ousland and two other divers duplicated the feat of Norway’s
        great polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen by skiing across Greenland’s ice
        sheet – about 500 miles coast to coast.

     • Four years later Ousland and Erling Kagge (see above) completed the
        first unassisted ski trip across the polar ice to the North Pole: 500
        miles in under two months.

     • After another four years, Ousland skied without support to the North
        Pole again, this time solo in just 52 days.
     • In 1995 his focus turned antipodal as Ousland attempted the first solo
        unsupported crossing of Antarctica, but was thwarted by frostbite after
        having reached the South Pole midpoint.

     • The next year Ousland returned to the Antarctic, and completed the
        solo crossing: 1700 miles in two months.

     • Returning north in 2001, Ousland crossed the Arctic ice solo from
        Russia to Canada by way of the North Pole in 82 days.

     • He has also conquered the challenge of extreme altitude, twice climbing
        above the 8,000 meter (about 26,250’) mark, summiting Cho Oyo
        (Nepal) in 1999 and falling just short of the summit of Everest in 2003.

     • With Swiss mountaineer Thomas Ulrich, also in 2003, Ousland became
        the first to cross the Patagonian ice field (Argentina) — third largest
        after Antarctica and Greenland — by kayak and ski.

     • At the old age (for polar explorers) of 43 Ousland and companion Mike
        Horn became the first to ski to the North Pole during the dead of the
        arctic winter despite extremely low temperatures and nearly constant
        darkness.

     • The next year Ousland (again with Thomas Ulrich) were dropped at the
        North Pole and worked their way across the drifting sea ice to Norway,
        where Børge continued on alone, eventually arriving home in Oslo by
        bicycle at summer’s end and at the age of 45.

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          Ousland, born May 31, 1962, grew up near OSLO. He remains an active adventurer, and makes a living from books (including: 1997’s “Alone across Antarctica”, 2001’s “Alone across the North Pole”, and 2006’s “Winter without Mercy”), films, articles, and speaking engagements about his adventures, partially supported by the National Geographic Society.
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