Two stories of exploration mixed with folly and audacity, after the jump …….
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As a child, I was always drawn to stories of exploration and derring-do in the face of adversity … and in this past Sunday’s NY Times magazine, there were several. Two in particular stood out — interestingly, both took place in the 20th Century — and here is an overview of both. (However, do read the articles … they are not all that long and yet feel comprehensive).
World War II provided ample opportunity for amazing journeys … and one of the Times articles recounted the story of a commando in the Norwegian resistance movement named Jan Baalsrud— born in Oslo in 1917 — who led a group of resistance fighters who loaded a boat with explosives to blow-up a Nazi air control tower. They were betrayed by a shopkeeper, had to scuttle their boat before it could be captured and Baalsrud was the only member of his party who managed to escape on March 29, 1943 … though he was certainly pursued.
His nine-week struggle to escape from northern Norway to freedom in unoccupied Sweden has become the stuff of legends; his trip is noted in various hiking trails in Norway. He had to negotiate his way through snow and ice on foot, skiing, sledding, hobbling (as frostbite set in) and even being carried on a stretcher past enemy soldiers. He risked the lives of the people he entrusted to help him along the way … and luckily, he always asked those who took the risk (and chose not to turn him in). ¾ of the way through, he amputated several of his toes to prevent gangrene from spreading. This 350-mile route is almost impassable in winter, yet he pulled it off.
Robert Kolker tells the story you won’t want to miss at this link— and he spoke with his descendants to learn more of the story. My favorite passage was this:
On the fourth day, he found his way to lower ground and a small village called Furuflaten. He saw a house and stumbled inside. This turned out to be Baalsrud’s great stroke of luck. The house belonged to the sister of Marius Gronvoll, an active member of the resistance. A building nearby was a German military headquarters; he just as easily could have barged in there, and his story would have ended.
Instead, in a remarkably coordinated effort, many in the village came together to help harbor the fugitive and get him on his way, all without the Germans noticing.
His story was recounted first by a British journalist and Royal Navy officer named David Howarth, in a book entitled We Die Alone from 1955. A second effort came from a Norwegian (a second cousin of Baalsrud) named Tore Haug, in the book Defiant Courage: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance written in 2001. According to the NY Times story, the Hollywood-based Dutch-Norwegian director Harald Zwart (“Pink Panther II”) plans a 2017 film on Baalsrud’s adventure, so this hopefully will make his story more widely known.
Jan Baalsrud lived in melancholy much of his life; wondering at the fate that allowed him to live (rather than his comrades) and only made a trip back to the northern fjords in 1987, shortly before his death in Dec, 1987 at the age of 71.
Jan Baalsrud during WW-II .. … and much later in lifeThe second story concerned itself with Polar exploration and actually took place in the late 1960’s (and thus not ancient history). I have often written in this space about my fascination with Polar exploration … but always with the South Pole, as Antarctica is a continent, with great stories to tell.
By contrast, the North Pole is not a place on land: rather, ice floes that prevent a marking of a destination. And also, who was the first to reach it is a matter of doubt: as Robert Peary’s voyage in 1909 (sponsored by the National Geographic Society) was shrouded in mystery, his logs suggested distances covered that experts thought not humanly possible, and in 1988 the Times withdrew its 1909 story crediting Peary, as new evidence seemed to cast major doubts on his claim.
It turns out that the first party to reach the North Pole via the surface (and not via aircraft) that could be positively verified was a 1968 expedition via snowmobiles — with several Americans and one Canadian reaching there — with a U.S. Air Force jet to check their position.
What makes this story so compelling (besides some of the hardships and near calamities) was that this group was led by Ralph Plaisted, an experienced explorer naturalist …. insurance salesman from Minnesota. Here’s how it came about:
The Big Idea, as it became known, was born in a pub called the Pickwick overlooking Lake Superior in Duluth in 1966. Ralph Plaisted, a barrel-chested 39-year-old insurance salesman, was having a beer with an acquaintance, a local doctor named Art Aufderheide. They were discussing plans for a seal-hunting trip by dog sled in the far north of Canada.
Tall and husky, with a walrus-like mustache, Plaisted suggested they should go on snowmobiles, which were then a newfangled winter recreational vehicle; he was convinced that the machines, branded Ski-Doos, would transform life for the Inuit in the region. Aufderheide didn’t care for snowmobiles. He thought the noisy machines would intrude on the solemn silence of the Arctic.
‘‘If snowmobiles are so good,’’ Aufderheide countered, ‘‘why couldn’t you do something really spectacular with one — like drive it to the North Pole?’’
Plaisted didn’t speak. He’d grown up reading about polar adventures in the pages of National Geographic magazine. Now, apparently in the throes of a midlife crisis, he sat looking at his beer and imagined himself in the Minneapolis newspapers.
‘‘To hell with seal hunting,’’ Plaisted said. ‘‘Let’s go to the North Pole!’’
As Yakov Smirnoff would say ………. “Wotta country!”
The crew (Plaisted 2nd in back row)The story is rather complex, yet not to worry: just read Guy Lawson’s story at this link— but one key member of the crew was a mechanic (with expertise in these new snowmobiles) named Walter Pederson, who kept these machines operating in some dire times. The crew was international, as the Ski-Doos for the trek were donated by the Québec firm Bombardier, provided a family member could join: Jean-Luc Bombardier — which had the benefit of making the trek not solely a “Yankee imperialist” trip to lay claim to the North Pole.
Suffice it to say: on April 20, 1968 at 11:00 AM … here is the Air Force pilot:
“This is Lark 47 on approach to the North Pole,’’ the pilot of the jet called on the radio. He began to count down from 10 as Plaisted came into view below. ‘‘I see them dead ahead. Four, three, two, one, North Pole. Dead on. Every direction from where you fellows are is south.’’
You might be wondering (as I did) why this group did not become famous — especially since they did have photographers to chronicle the journey. It turns out that Ralph Plaisted was unwilling to relinquish rights to the story to the National Geographic Society upon their return … and it was they (and only they) who could have made their claims truly become publicly-accepted knowledge.
There was a book about the group entitled First to the Pole and hopefully (like Jan Baalsrud) it is to be hoped that their story someday makes it to the silver screen.
Of the four who reached the North Pole: most have died (including Ralph Plaisted in 2008) … one who is still alive (although suffering from dementia) is the crew’s mechanic Walter Pederson, now in a dementia facility as Guy Lawson writes:
‘‘The hospital called and said that Dad was saying crazy things,’’ his son told me. ‘‘They said he told them he’d been to the North Pole on a snowmobile.’’ The younger Pederson laughed. ‘‘I told them that part was true.’’
US-Canada mission from 1967-1968Let’s close with a song to recognize the premise of this essay: The Who’s song Amazing Journey from their landmark Tommy album.
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In the diary by Brainwrap about the War of the Spouses via Twitter, Begone entertained us enormously with this comment!And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the Mid-day Open Thread, one of those expressing satisfaction with the genocide sentence handed down to former Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was gchaucer2 — who noted the contrast with sentencing here in the USA. And in the diary by ericlewis0 about a criminal investigation into the activities of Blackwater founder Erik Prince — for possible money laundering operations … vzfk3s warns that legal actions he took in the past may yet shield him in the future.And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
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