Ice fall in Norway

by Ranulph TWISLETON-WYKEHAM-FIENNES

In Autumn 1970 Ranuph Fiennes lead an extraordinary expedition to Jostedals glacier in Norway. He and his companions parachuted down onto the dangerous ice surface, their purpose being to survey the glacier and estimate its rate of movement since the last survey, and also to collect specimens of the miniscule forms of life which survive in that bleak environment. Having completed their research programme in dreadful weather, they had to climb down a sheer icefall, and then negotiate a river full of rocks and rapids in rubber dinghies which they were testing. This is Fiennes's story of the expedition.

Genres: Travel

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Admittedly, I have a soft spot for Ranulph Fiennes writing (although this is only the third of his books I have read), but this was a great read.

Essentially, Fiennes is looking to retire from the military as there are no wars on, and decides that he can set himself up for expeditions where he takes new outdoor adventure equipment and field tests it, offering promotion and expert opinion on the quality of this equipment (think: clothing, inflatable boats, tents, boots, etc). Combine this with some sponsored research (eg survey work, supporting scientists, gathering samples etc) and it sounds like a dream job for an adrenaline junky who is young and fit, right?

So that is what he does. He decides that the Jostedals glacier in Norway is a good place to start. A recent geological survey failed to gain some critical information on one of the glacial edges, so the surveying of this is the primary goal. Add to that the logistics, which mean the amount of equipment is too much to carry up there, let along carry down, and he expands the expedition to include parachuting in, to land on a small, safe landing zone at the head of the glacier, and to get out again they brought sledges to be manually towed out across the Briksdalsbre galcier - better suited as it has a more regular downward slope (pulling the sledges uphill would be impossible). To make things more exciting, there is a large lake at the foot of this glacier, which empties the glacial melt into a river, which they decided to tackle with inflatable boats.

All that remained was to find qualified surveyors who could parachute, ice and rock climb, and man 3 person inflatable boats, all at a high level. Each of these elements by themselves were dangerous, but all three made this a near impossible mission! Of course, not everything went to plan...

Fiennes has his balance right in his writing. He doesn't over-inflate the achievements or successes, but is honest in his failures and where he lacked planning or fore-thought, or where luck played its part. It is a non-stop adventure, and really enjoyable to read.

5 stars

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiennes has the best adventures, and writes of them relatively modestly. Ice Fall in Norway certainly isn't the greatest adventure of his life, but it is magnificent and the first one he undertook professionally. Fiennes left a peacetime military career he found largely underwhelming and lacking in adventure, enlisted and trained a very haphazard team for a first foray into paid (or at least sponsored) professional exploration and adventure, and forced them into situations so dangerous that my hands became sweaty at times with fear. This is his tale of that first professional trip, wherein he takes to remote Norway to survey the Jostedal glacier, which his team come close to dying on - not for the first time in the book.

I found minor faults with the book: its lack of photographs made appreciating the magnitude of the feat difficult until I ended up googling many of the areas concerned (not helped by the modesty of his descriptions), and I felt that it suffered slightly from being written retrospectively decades on from the actual event, when Fiennes' fame was at its height.

An informative and entertaining tale of raw, near-death adventure.