Olav Bjaaland

Olav Bjaaland, 1910

This picture was taken by Bjaaland von Amundsen, Hanssen, Hassel and Wisting at the South Pole (from left to right)

Olav Olavson Bjaaland (born March 5, 1873 in Morgedal ; † June 8, 1961 ibid) was a Norwegian skier who, together with Roald Amundsen and three other companions, was the first to reach the South Pole .

Life

Olav Bjaaland was born on the farm of his parents Olav Olavsson Bjaaland (1831-1893) and Gunhild Bjaaland (1846-1933). His marriage to Aasne Djuve (1889-1953) remained childless.

In his time, Bjaaland was one of Norway's best skiers in both the alpine and Nordic disciplines. Among other things, he won the combined ranking at Holmenkollen in 1902 and was awarded the Holmenkollen Medal in 1912 . In 1908 he was one of the founders of the Norwegian Ski Association.

On his way to a competition in Chamonix, France in 1909, he happened to meet the polar explorer Roald Amundsen in Lübeck . Bjaaland's reputation as a skier and his practical skills as a carpenter impressed Amundsen so much that he offered Bjaaland a chance to take part in his North Pole expedition. Bjaaland agreed, but did not know at the time that the destination of Amundsen's Fram expedition would be Antarctica . Together with Jørgen Stubberud , he played a leading role in setting up the Framheim base camp in the Bay of Whales on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf , and was responsible for the repair and improvement of ski and sledging equipment. Together with Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen , Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting , he reached the South Pole as a sledge driver on December 14, 1911. After the Antarctic expedition, Bjaaland turned down Amundsen's offer to take part in an expedition to cross the Northeast Passage .

He remained loyal to skiing in later years. He ran a ski factory in Kviteseid and was Norway's first official ski jumping judge in 1915 . On February 13, 1952, he lit the torch for the VI in Morgedal . Olympic Winter Games in Oslo . In his honor, Mount Bjaaland in Antarctica bears his name.

literature

• Roald Amundsen : The South Pole . John Murray, London 1912 (Volume I. Textarchiv - Internet Archive and Volume II. Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Ragnar Kvam: In the shade. The story of Hjalmar Johansen, the "third man" between Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen . Berlin Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8270-0321-0 .

Web links

Commons : Olav Bjaaland  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Olav Olavsen Bjaaland (1873–1961). Biographical information on the homepage of the Frammuseum (English)
• Olav Bjaaland. , Entry in the store norske leksikon (Norwegian)
• Bjaaland lights the torch for the 1952 Olympic Winter Games , report on the homepage of Anne-Gry Blikom and Eivind Molde about Sondre Norheim (English)