Fridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Nansen began his adult life adventuring through the Arctic north amidst the horizon-stretched snowy plains and the endless summer sunshine and winter darkness. One early adventure led to the honor of becoming the first person ever to cross Greenland. He then made a valiant effort to reach the North Pole, coming close, the closest anyone had ever come.
These journeys made him a hero to many. But he would take his fearless spirit into other fields in later years of life, becoming a humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Born in 1861 outside of Christiania, then part of Norway under union with Sweden, now Oslo, Fridtjof grew up roaming the woods and skiing across the snow-covered hills of the countryside. Such was the life in this region, where winters were long and the roads sparse. "I have myself been accustomed to the use of ski since I was four years old," he later wrote.
He appreciated the experience of skiing, though. Writing,
"I know of no form of sport which so evenly develops the muscles; which renders the body so strong and elastic; which teaches so well the qualities of dexterity and resource; which in an equal degree calls for decision and resolution, and which gives the same vigour and exhilaration to mind and body alike."