Viking Magazine - February 2017 - 20

the 1980s, Eric Larsen
was growing up in
the rolling, green hills
of Wisconsin in a NorwegianAmerican
family that spent a lot
of time outdoors hiking, biking
and camping. He also enjoyed a great deal of freedom and
permission to roam. As a teenager, he and a friend took a
canoe and explored the bounty of lakes and rivers of the
region, planning their own trips and relishing the challenge of
portaging - a canoeing tradition that dates back to Native
American and the French-Canadian voyageurs who were the
first Europeans to explore the Upper Midwest.
" I was pretty average in every way possible, but I loved
camping and being outside, " says Larsen, now 45 and
living in Boulder, Colo. " My buddy and I planned our own
canoe trips, as we simply wanted to be outside and be on
an adventure. Sometimes that meant canoeing down a local
creek and portaging across Main Street.
" I was just very curious, and I read a lot, " he says. " I read
a lot of historical novels, modern-day accounts and adventure
stories about Arctic/Antarctic exploration. I was really
interested in that. "
A year and a half after graduating from St. Olaf College in
Northfield, Minn., where he majored in biology and minored
in environmental studies, Larsen
moved to Grand Marais, Minn., on
the North Shore of Lake Superior,
where he took a job at the legendary
Gunflint Lodge as a dog musher.
" I had absolutely no experience as
a dog musher! " he recalls, laughing. " But that spring, I got
the opportunity to travel all the way up to the Northwest
Territory in Canada. I was about 24. That was one of my first
experiences up near the Arctic Circle. "
Larsen's passion for remote and freezing climates emerged
right after his college years when he worked as a backcountry
ranger in Alaska. But it was that first dogsledding expedition
in the extreme cold of Canada's far north that really lit the
fire under the budding explorer.
Twenty years later and now a father of two, published
author and world-renowned polar adventurer, Larsen is
pursuing a passion that's bigger than any expedition to the
North Pole, the South Pole or the summit of Mt. Everest:
education. Larsen's overall mission is to connect people to
the planet's last great frozen places and to raise awareness
around the environmental issues that are impacting them.
" My background is in environmental education, " says
Larsen, also a mountaineer and expedition guide. " My
goal with expeditions is to use them as a springboard for
In 2009, Eric Larsen began
an unprecedented journey
to the top and bottom
of the world. During
a continuous 365-day
period, Larsen mounted
major expeditions to the
North and South Poles
and the summit of Mt.
Everest. Larsen is the only
person to have completed
this feat in a one-year
time span.
20 VIKING FEBRUARY 2017
sonsofnorway.com
Starting from the edge of
the Antarctic continent
on the Filchner Ice Shelf,
Larsen and his team skied
730 miles to the South Pole
in 48 days, arriving on
Jan. 2, 2010.
Eric and his team skied,
snowshoed and swam
roughly 550 miles from
Cape Discovery, Ellesmere
Island to the North Pole in
51 days, arriving on
April 22, 2010.
Climbing with a small
Sherpa team, Larsen
summited Mt. Everest
on Oct. 15, 2010.
PHOTO THIS PAGE: ERIC LARSEN. PHOTOS OPPOSTIE PAGE (TOP TO BOTTOM, RIGHT TO LEFT): ERIC LARSEN, RYAN WATERS, RYAN WATERS, SAM BRICKER, ERIC LARSEN, RYAN WATERS

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Viking Magazine - February 2017

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