a deed that lifts us above the grey monotony of daily life; a view
over shining plains, with lofty mountains against the cold blue sky,
and lands covered by ice-sheets of inconceivable extent; a vision
of long-vanished glacial times; the triumph of the living over the
stiffened realm of death. There is a ring of steeled, purposeful
human will -- through icy frosts, snowstorms, and death.

For the victory is not due to the great inventions of the present
day and the many new appliances of every kind. The means used are
of immense antiquity, the same as were known to the nomad thousands
of years ago, when he pushed forward across the snow-covered plains
of Siberia and Northern Europe. But everything, great and small, was
thoroughly thought out, and the plan was splendidly executed. It is
the man that matters, here as everywhere.

Like everything great, it all looks so plain and simple. Of course,
that is just as it had to be, we think.

Apart from the discoveries and experiences of earlier explorers --
which, of course, were a necessary condition of success -- both
the plan and its execution are the ripe fruit of Norwegian life
and experience in ancient and modern times. The Norwegians' daily
winter life in snow and frost, our peasants' constant use of ski and
ski-sledge in forest and mountain, our sailors' yearly whaling and
sealing life in the Polar Sea, our explorers' journeys in the Arctic
regions -- it was all this, with the dog as a draught animal borrowed
from the primitive races, that formed the foundation of the plan and
rendered its execution possible -- when the man appeared.

Therefore, when the man is there, it carries him through all