Thomas and Børge Following in the Tracks of History

Last week I mentioned that Thomas Ulrich and Børge Ousland had entered Franz Josef Land in their epic Polar expedition that saw them starting at the North Pole and traveling to Oslo, Norway via Siberia. At the time, I mentioned how they were following the footsteps of Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen, who back in 1895 attempted to reach the North Pole and were forced back into Franz Josef land as well. At that time, the area was unexplored, and largely never seen by man before. Nansen and Johansen ended up getting caught in the brutal Siberian Winter, and had to build a shelter to survive until Spring.

Today ThePoles.com is reporting that Thomas and Børge have found the cabin that Nansen and Johansen built. The structure is in ruins, but it's stone walls remain, and the structure of the roof ridge is still intact as well. They also found plenty of bones from dead polar bears and walruses, meat to survive the long cold winter.

Thomas and Børge are perhaps the two foremost Polar explorers of our time, but even they get weary from their journeys. They started out from the North Pole on May 1st, and now two months later, they are exhausted from their time out on the ice. They intend to take two days to rest at the Winter Hut before resuming their way South. Oslo is still a long way off, and they'll need their strength.