April 19, 2011

Wednesday, 19 April 1911

A snowed-under Framheim in the moonlight, April 1911. [1]

The sun set for the winter at Framheim.

Rather than dig out the hut from its accumulation of snow, wrote Amundsen, "we began to extend our premises. Along the axis of the house, facing west, a huge snowdrift had formed just in front of the entrance. It was our intention ... to remove it. At the last moment, it occurred to me that we could possibly use the drift and escape the work of shovelling and carting it away. We have now started to excavate it and arrange a direct connection with the house through an underground passage. By digging downwards, we can obtain all the space we need. Provisionally, we are digging out a carpenter's workshop for Bjaaland and Stubberud.... I think the idea is good!" [1]


Notes:

[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket. This is one of the glass slides that was coloured in for use in Amundsen's lectures in 1912.
[2] Roald Amundsen, diary, [20 April, 1911], quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.104.

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