NORGE THE FIRST VESSEL TO FLY OVER THE NORTH POLE

Today, The Grandma has read about the Norge, the Italian-built airship which becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole, on a day like today in 1926.

The Norge was a semi-rigid Italian-built airship that carried out the first verified trip of any kind to the North Pole, an overflight on 12 May 1926.

It was also the first aircraft to fly over the polar ice cap between Europe and America. The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen, the airship's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and the wealthy American adventurer and explorer Lincoln Ellsworth who, along with the Aero Club of Norway, financed the trip, which was known as the Amundsen-Ellsworth 1926 Transpolar Flight.

Norge was the first N-class semi-rigid airship designed by Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile and its construction began in 1923. 

As part of the sales contract to the Aero Club, the airship was refitted for Arctic conditions. The pressurised envelope was reinforced with metal frames at the nose and tail, with a flexible tubular metal keel connecting the two. This was covered with fabric and used as storage and crew space. Three engine gondolas and the separate control cabin were attached to the bottom of the keel. Norge was the first Italian semi-rigid to be fitted with the cruciform tail fins first developed by the Schütte-Lanz company.

On 15 April 1924, the N-1 was carried away from its base at Ciampino aerodrome by a violent wind gust. Two soldiers and a mechanic, who were unable to let go from the mooring lines, were carried 300 feet and dashed to death.

In 1925, Amundsen telegraphed Nobile asking to meet him at Oslo, where he proposed an airship trip across the Arctic. With a contract in place, Nobile modified the already completed N-1 for flight in arctic weather. As the expedition was being financed by the Aero Club of Norway, the refitted N-1 was christened the Norge, in English, Norway.

On 29 March 1926 at a ceremony at Ciampino aerodrome the Norge was handed over to the Aero Club of Norway. The flight north was due to leave Rome on 6 April but was delayed due to strong winds and departed at 09:25 on 10 April. The ship arrived at RNAS Pulham Airship Station in England at 15:20; because of the bad weather was not moored in the hangar until 18:30. Delayed again by weather, the Norge left Pulham for Oslo at 11:45 on 12 April.

At 01:00 on 15 April 1926, the Norge left Ekeberg in Oslo for Gatchina near Leningrad; after a 17-hour flight, the airship arrived at 19:30, delayed by dense fog along the way. Following the arrival at Gatchina, Nobile announced that the Norge would remain in the airship shed for a week for engine overhaul and maintenance; this included the addition of collapsible rubber boats for emergency use. Although scheduled to leave Gatchina as soon as the weather allowed after 24 April, the departure was delayed another week as the mooring mast at King's Bay, Spitsbergen had not yet been completed due to adverse weather.

The Norge finally left Gatchina at 09:40 on 5 May to proceed to Vadsø in northern Norway, where the airship mast is still standing today. The expedition then crossed the Barents Sea to reach King's Bay at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. There Nobile met Richard Evelyn Byrd preparing his Fokker Trimotor for his North Pole attempt.

Nobile explained the Norge trip was to observe the uncharted sea between the Pole and Alaska where some believed land was; at the time he thought Robert Edwin Peary had already reached the pole. This would be the last stop before crossing the pole. The dirigible left Ny-Ålesund for the final stretch across the polar ice on 11 May at 9:55.

The 16-man expedition included Amundsen, the expedition leader and navigator; Nobile, the dirigible's designer and pilot; Lincoln Ellsworth, American outdoorsman and expedition sponsor, and polar explorer Oscar Wisting who served as helmsman. Other crew members were 1st Lt. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, navigator; 1st Lt. Emil Horgen, elevatorman; Capt. Birger Gottwaldt, radio expert, Dr Finn Malmgren of Uppsala University, meteorologist; Fredrik Ramm, journalist; Frithjof Storm-Johnsen, radioman; Flying Lt. Oscar Omdal, flight engineer; Natale Cecioni, chief mechanic; Renato Alessandrini, rigger; Ettore Arduino, Attilio Caratti and Vincenzo Pomella, mechanics. Nobile's little dog, Titina, also came aboard as mascot.

On 12 May at 01:25 (GMT) the Norge reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice.

On 14 May, the Norge reached the Inupiat village of Teller, Alaska, where in view of worsening weather, the decision was made to land there rather than continue on to Nome, approximately 70 miles away. The airship was reportedly damaged somehow during the landing and was dismantled and shipped back to Italy.

The three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole -by Frederick Cook in 1908, Robert Peary in 1909, and Richard E. Byrd in 1926 (just a few days before the Norge)- are all disputed as being either of dubious accuracy or outright fraud. Some of those disputing these earlier claims therefore consider the crew of the Norge to be the first verified explorers to have reached the North Pole.

More information: Ocean Sky Journal

We must always remember
with gratitude and admiration
 the first sailors who steered their vessels
through storms and mists,
and increased our knowledge
of the lands of ice in the South.

Roald Amundsen

KÍLIAN JORNET & MERCHE A.H. JONES, SUMMITS OF LIFE

Merche Addams Holmes Jones

Today, The Grandma wants to rest a little in her English studies. She wants to dedicate this post to the person who has shared more time with her in these last years: Merche Addams-Holmes-Jones.

Merche A.H. Jones is a twister chaser who loves climbing and x-treme sports. Now, she is participating in one of the most important of her competitions and The Grandma and all the members of her families want to cheer her up to the victory.

Merche is Norwegian. Roald Amundsen is Norwegian, too. Norwegian people love nature and respect it. They are great explorers, climbers and runners although, nowadays, the best trail runner and ski mountaineer is Kílian Jornet, a man who Merche knows very well and admires a lot. Both of them have something in common, their summits of life.

More information: Visit Norway

Kílian Jornet Burgada, born 27 October 1987 in Sabadell, is a professional trail runner, ski mountaineer and long-distance runner.

He is a six-time champion of the long-distance running Skyrunner World Series and has won some of the most prestigious ultramarathons, including the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, Grand Raid, the Western States Endurance Run and the Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run.

Kílian Jornet, Hardrock

Jornet holds the fastest known time for the ascent and descent of Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Denali and Everest.

Jornet was born in Sabadell, a Catalan city near Barcelona. He grew up in Refugi de Cap de Rec, a mountain hut at 2000 meters in the Pyrenees at the cross-country Lles ski resort in Lles de Cerdanya, where his father was a hut keeper and mountain guide. At the age of three he climbed Tuc de Molières, a three-thousander in the Pyrenees. By the age of five he climbed Aneto 3,404 m, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees, and a year later he climbed his first four-thousander, the Breithorn (4,164 m) in Switzerland.

He started ski mountaineering in 1999, and competed for the first time at the La Molina race of the Spanish Cup in 2000. In 2003, he became a junior member of the Spanish national ski mountaineering team, and has raced as a senior since 2007. Jornet studied at the University of Perpignan Via Domitia.

More information: Kílian Jornet

Jornet has been recognised as an elite athlete since 2004 by the Catalan and Spanish sports councils. For his achievements in the junior class ski mountaineering team, he won the Catalan sports award in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

In 2005 he set a course record of 2:30:57 for the race to the 4,015-metre summit of the Dôme de Neige des Écrins. He was World Champion in the Buff SkyRunner World Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009 becoming the youngest athlete to win this honour.

Merche A.H. Jones is winning the race

His sister Naila Jornet Burgada and his girlfriend Emelie Forsberg from Sweden also compete in ski mountaineering and skyrunning events.

On 7 September 2013 Jornet and Forsberg had to be rescued by the Peloton de Gendarmerie de haute montagne at 3,800 meters of altitude while attempting to climb the north face of the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif, wearing trail running shoes with crampons and a body stocking.

Since February 2016 Jornet and Forsberg are resident in Rauma municipality in Norway.

More information: Summits of my Life

Summits of My Life is Kilian Jornet's personal project, in which he is trying to set ascent and descent records for some of the most important mountains on the planet, and culminated with the record attempt on Mount Everest. This project includes:

-Kilimanjaro 5,895 m. On 29 September 2010, Jornet ascended and descended Kilimanjaro in a record time of 7 hours, 14 minutes. This record was broken on 13 August 2014, when the Ecuadorian mountain guide Karl Egloff ran up and down in 6 hours and 42 minutes on 13 August 2014.

Kílian is climbing down Mont Blanc

-Mont Blanc traverse, 4,810 m. In September 2012, Jornet completed the Innominata, a route linking Courmayeur and Chamonix, in 8 hours and 42 minutes. 

A previous attempt at ski crossing the Mont Blanc massif from Les Contamines to Champex in June 2012 resulted in the death of the French mountaineer Stéphane Brosse when a snow cornice collapsed under him.

-Mont Blanc. In July 2013, Jornet achieved the fastest known time for the ascent and descent from Chamonix in 4 hours and 57 minutes.

-Matterhorn, 4,478 m. In August 2013, Jornet achieved the fastest known time for the ascent and descent from Breuil-Cervinia in 2 hours and 52 minutes. He improved the previous fastest known time set by Bruno Brunod in 1995 by more than 20 minutes. He started climbing up the 14,962 ft peak during mid-afternoon local time, reaching the summit in 1 hour 56 minutes via the Lion Ridge from the Italian side.

More information: UTMB Montblanc

-Denali, 6,168 m. In June 2014 Jornet completed the fastest known time for the ascent and descent with a time of 11 hours and 48 minutes using both skis and crampons, breaking the previous record by 5 hours and 6 minutes.

-Aconcagua, 6,960 m. In December 2014 Jornet set a record for climbing and descending Aconcagua from Horcones, the nearest road, at Puente del Inca, and back, in 12 hours and 49 minutes. Jornet's record was broken in February 2015, again by Karl Egloff, who completed the route in 11 hours and 52 minutes.

Merche A.H. Jones

-Elbrus, 5,642 m. Jornet made an attempt in 2013 to set the fastest known time for the ascent and descent from Azau but was forced to turn back by bad weather. The fastest known time for the ascent is 3:23:37 set in 2010 by Andrzej Bargiel, while the record time for ascent and descent is 4:20:45, set on 7 May 2017 by Karl Egloff.

-Mount Everest, 8,848 m. Jornet planned an attempt for September 2016, but after 3 weeks of acclimatizing at base camp on the north side of Mt Everest at 6,000m, the weather started to change and snow accumulations increased the risk of avalanche, so the attempt was cancelled. 

He returned in 2017 and successfully summited Mount Everest at midnight, local time, on 22nd May. Climbing without fixed ropes or supplemental oxygen, he reached the top via a new route in 26 hours from base camp. On May 27 he reached the summit again from advanced base camp in 17 hours, about 15-20 minutes slower than the records from this camp set by Hans Kammerlander and Christian Stangl in 1996 and 2006, respectively.

More information: Everest Trail Race

I am not afraid to fail; to get lost, 

to dream, to be myself, to find. 

I am not afraid to live.

Kílian Jornet

ROALD E. AMUNDSEN: EXPEDITION TO THE BOTH POLES

Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (16 July 1872–18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole.

Amundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, to reach both poles. He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–06) in the Arctic.

Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99) as first mate. This expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache using the ship the RV Belgica, became the first expedition to winter in Antarctica. The Belgica, whether by mistake or design, became locked in the sea ice at 70°30′S off Alexander Island, west of the Antarctic Peninsula. 

More information: Nansen Amunsen

Amundsen next planned to take an expedition to the North Pole and explore the Arctic Basin. Finding it difficult to raise funds, when he heard in 1909 that the Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had claimed to reach the North Pole as a result of two different expeditions, he decided to reroute to Antarctica. 

Roald Amundsen

Amundsen left Oslo for the south on 3 June 1910. Nearly six months later, the expedition arrived at the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf , then known as the Great Ice Barrier, at a large inlet called the Bay of Whales, on 14 January 1911. 

Amundsen established his base camp there, calling it Framheim. Amundsen eschewed the heavy wool clothing worn on earlier Antarctic attempts in favour of adopting Inuit-style furred skins.

Using skis and dog sleds for transportation, Amundsen and his men created supply depots at 80°, 81° and 82° South on the Barrier, along a line directly south to the Pole. The painful retreat caused a quarrel within the group, and Amundsen sent Johansen and the other two men to explore King Edward VII Land.

More information: Oceanwide Expeditions

A second attempt, with a team made up of Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, Oscar Wisting, and Amundsen, departed base camp on 19 October 1911. They arrived at the edge of the Polar Plateau on 21 November after a four-day climb. 

Roald Amundsen in the Antarctic Peninsula

On 14 December 1911, the team arrived at the Pole (90° 0′ S). Amundsen named their South Pole camp Polheim, meaning Home on the Pole. Amundsen renamed the Antarctic Plateau as King Haakon VII’s Plateau. They left a small tent and letter stating their accomplishment, in case they did not return safely to Framheim.

Amundsen's expedition benefited from his careful preparation, good equipment, appropriate clothing, a simple primary task, an understanding of dogs and their handling, and the effective use of skis. 

More information: Tom Crean Discovery

Amundsen wrote about the expedition in The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the 'Fram,' 1910–12 (1912).

Amundsen disappeared with five crew on 18 June 1928 while flying on a rescue mission in the Arctic. They were seeking missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship Italia had crashed while returning from the North Pole. 

With the Norwegian flag in the South Pole, 1911

Afterward, a wing-float and bottom gasoline tank from Amundsen's French Latham 47 flying boat, which had been adapted as a replacement wing-float, were found near the Tromsø coast. It is believed that the plane crashed in fog in the Barents Sea, and that Amundsen and his crew were killed in the crash, or died shortly afterward. 

The search for Amundsen and team was called off in September 1928 by the Norwegian Government and the bodies were never found. 

More information: The Guardian

We must always remember with gratitude and admiration the first sailors who steered their vessels through storms and mists, and increased our knowledge of the lands of ice in the South. 

Roald Amundsen