First to South Pole 100 yr anniversary Amundsen-Scott Station Amundsen’s Youth
~50 miles south of Oslo. * 4th son in a family of relatively affluent shipowners and captains. * Father died when he was 14. * Mother wanted him to be doctor. * Mother died when he was 21, freeing him to pursue life as explorer. * Loved outdoors and skiing. * Driven to be exceptionally physically fi...
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Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
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1889
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Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.657.467 http://opl.ucsb.edu/tommy/pubs/Amundsen_Talk_Nordic_v3.pdf |
Summary: | ~50 miles south of Oslo. * 4th son in a family of relatively affluent shipowners and captains. * Father died when he was 14. * Mother wanted him to be doctor. * Mother died when he was 21, freeing him to pursue life as explorer. * Loved outdoors and skiing. * Driven to be exceptionally physically fit. Trained in army. Borge is near Fredrikstad Amundsen as a young boy Amundsen’s Inspirations * As youth, he was inspired by Nansen‟s crossing of Greenland and later Arctic Fram expedition. * He was in crowd welcoming Fridtjof Nansen home. See photograph at right. * Nansen a continual influence for all of Amundsen‟s life: * Nansen provided advice, encouragement. * Nansen allowed him to use Fram for Arctic expedition. But he surreptitiously sailed Fram to Antarctica for polar expedition. * Other inspirations: Sir John Franklin: doomed NW Passage expedition. “Secretly … I irretrievably decided to be an Arctic explorer.” from Amundsen‟s autobiography. Frederick Cook, controversial polar explorer. Nansen, Liv Nansen, and |
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