Mention the name Borge Ousland, and you get immediate respect from those familiar with polar exploration. He is the first person to have done an unsupported solo crossing of the Antarctic via the South Pole, among many other things cold. Last month, Ousland, 57, and fellow explorer Mike Horn completed a grueling, 87-day expedition across the Arctic Ocean in the dark of the polar night, experiencing temperatures below - 40 F. We thought it would be interesting to catch up with the Norwegian for some perspective. Below are edited excerpts from a longer conversation.
Borge Ousland and Mike Horn.
Jim Clash: For the layman, what were the goals of this particular expedition, and were they met?
Borge Ousland: Mike and I wanted to do a classical, old-style polar expedition, crossing the North Pole by entering and exiting the ice by boat. The last time this was tried was when Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen left the polar ship Fram in 1895. Nansen and Johansen did not, however, reach the North Pole, so this challenge remained undone up to now. It was a battle from day one, but we made it unsupported.
Clash: What makes this polar crossing different from others in the past?
Ousland: No one has completed a trek across the polar ocean in this style before, and no one has done an expedition up there that time of year. We probed unknown territory, so to speak.
Clash: How does one manage to get along with someone else (this time, Mike Horn) under such extreme conditions in such close quarters for such long periods of time?
Ousland: On a trip like this, you are really dependent on each other, and even if we are different we learned to focus on each other’s strong sides where our common goal is all that matters.
Clash: What are you afraid of, and how do you handle fear?
Ousland: You have to leave your fears behind on a trip like this. The focus is on survival. There is only room for that fear that keeps you safe and alive, and that helps you deal with immediate danger. We were beyond rescue for most of this trip, and wouldn’t have made it if we were going to be afraid all the time.
Clash: How serious is the frostbite you all experienced?
Ousland: I was doing okay, just a bit of frostbite on my nose, but Mike got serious frostbite on both of his thumbs, that got infected. He had to drain puss from his thumb every day toward the end.
Clash: Was there a moment when you thought the expedition would not be able to be completed?
Ousland: Yes, I must admit there were times I didn’t think we would make it. We were drifted back, and the dark made travel over drifting ice and crossing leads of open water so much more difficult. But we stuck to the plan and never gave up. We had to stretch it a bit toward the end - we had food for 85 days and it took us 87. When we reached the boat, we had 370 grams of food and a half of a fuel bottle left.
Clash: How cold did it get, and how did you deal with the relentless darkness?
Ousland: We had three periods of - 40 or colder, and that’s serious. Everything becomes increasingly more difficult in those temperatures. Nothing dries up when there is no sun. We had to sleep in a plastic bag to prevent moisture entering the sleeping bag material, and every night it took more than an hour to brush our clothing free of ice. Especially getting out of our warm sleeping bags in the morning was a nightmare in those temperatures. In a way, we got used to the dark, but living with headlamps for two months does something to your mind - you get so much more tired, also mentally.
Clash: What’s next for Borge Ousland?
Ousland: Now it’s time to relax and reflect, and not least spend time with my family. I have my resort Manshausen www.manshausen.no in the northern part of Norway, where I will devote my spare time to developing further.
