The United States, a nation of 300 million, won nine gold medals this year in the Winter Olympics. Norway, a nation of 4.7 million, also won nine. This was no anomaly. Over the years, Norwegians have won more gold medals in Winter Games, and more Winter Olympics medals over all, than people from any other nation.

There must be many reasons for Norway’s excellence, but some of them are probably embedded in the story of Jan Baalsrud.

In 1943, Baalsrud was a young instrument maker who was asked to sneak back into Norway to help the anti-Nazi resistance.

His mission, described in the book “We Die Alone” by David Howarth, was betrayed. His boat was shelled by German troops. Baalsrud dove into the ice-covered waters and swam, with bullets flying around him, toward an island off the Norwegian coast. The rest of his party was killed on the spot, or captured and eventually executed, but Baalsrud made it to the beach and started climbing an icy mountain. He was chased by Nazis, and he killed one officer.

He was hunted by about 50 Germans and left a trail in the deep snow. He’d lost one boot and sock, and he was bleeding from where his big toe had been shot off. He scrambled across the island and swam successively across the icy sound to two other islands. On the second, he lay dying of cold and exhaustion on the beach.

Two girls found and led him to their home. And this is the core of the story. During the next months, dozens of Norwegians helped Baalsrud get across to Sweden. Flouting any sense of rational cost-benefit analysis, families and whole villages risked their lives to help one gravely ill man, who happened to drop into their midst.

Baalsrud was clothed and fed and rowed to another island. He showed up at other houses and was taken in. He began walking across the mountain ranges on that island in the general direction of the mainland, hikes of 24, 13 and 28 hours without break.

A 72-year-old man rowed him the final 10 miles to the mainland, past German positions, and gave him skis. Up in the mountains, he skied through severe winter storms. One night, he started an avalanche. He fell at least 300 feet, smashed his skis and suffered a severe concussion. His body was buried in snow, but his head was sticking out. He lost sense of time and self-possession. He was blind, the snow having scorched the retinas of his eyes.

He wandered aimlessly for four days, plagued by hallucinations. At one point he thought he had found a trail, but he was only following his own footsteps in a small circle.

Finally, he stumbled upon a cottage. A man named Marius Gronvold took him in. He treated Baalsrud’s frostbite and hid him in a remote shed across a lake to recover.

He was alone for a week (a storm made it impossible for anyone to reach him). Gangrene invaded his legs. He stabbed them to drain the pus and blood. His eyesight recovered, but the pain was excruciating and he was starving.

Baalsrud could no longer walk, so Gronvold and friends built a sled. They carried the sled and him up a 3,000-foot mountain in the middle of a winter storm and across a frozen plateau to where another party was supposed to meet them. The other men weren’t there, and Gronvold was compelled to leave Baalsrud in a hole in the ice under a boulder.

The other party missed the rendezvous because of a blizzard, and by the time they got there, days later, the tracks were covered and they could find no sign of him. A week later, Gronvold went up to retrieve Baalsrud’s body and was astonished to find him barely alive. Baalsrud spent the next 20 days in a sleeping bag immobilized in the snow, sporadically supplied by Gronvold and others.

Over the next weeks, groups of men tried to drag him to Sweden but were driven back, and they had to shelter him again in holes in the ice. Baalsrud cut off his remaining toes with a penknife to save his feet. Tired of risking more Norwegian lives, he also attempted suicide.

Finally, he was awoken by the sound of snorting reindeer. A group of Laps had arrived, and under German fire, they dragged him to Sweden.

This astonishing story could only take place in a country where people are skilled on skis and in winter conditions. But there also is an interesting form of social capital on display. It’s a mixture of softness and hardness. Baalsrud was kept alive thanks to a serial outpouring of love and nurturing. At the same time, he and his rescuers displayed an unbelievable level of hardheaded toughness and resilience. That’s a cultural cocktail bound to produce achievement in many spheres.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/opinion/02brooks.html?hp

There's no doubt that human beings are all capable of significantly more than they exhibit. I used to get this point across to kids in high school when I would ask them to do something they were required to do and I would say, " The first one to do it 100% right gets 100 bucks!" They would scurry to do it quickly and badly, then they would complain that I cheated them.

I never had to. They never did anything with the thoroughness required to earn the money. A few came close with 95%, but very few.

I even broke it down and gave them a checklist. They still didn't do it. They missed items.

I told them if I had been a patient undergoing an operation, I would have died.

Slowly some of thm got the message most didn't. I tried to explain that 70% may be passing, but not on the operating table.

And we see that in our daily lives, which is why it makes no sense to preach any more. Some get it, some don't, it's gonna be their problem.

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Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
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1959 180D
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1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Have you driven a Fjord lately?

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
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Once. Drove to Hell and back. Even cooked on a Viking range and went Berserk when it was Stollen.

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Interesting that you mention it. Norway's national sport is skiing. We just did the Birkebeiner. (I had a bad race) My friends Dave and Josie reenacted the legend of the Birkebeiners on Saturday. This is her with the kid on her back.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

My mom once said..."10,000 swedes crept up a mountain to kill one dying norwegian"....or something similar.

I think it was a reference to an actual battle in WW2 or perhaps another war in which a vastly outnumbered group of Norwegians held off a numerically superior Swedish army.

Perhaps someone can elaborate.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Norway has Magnus Carlsen too. The best chess player in the world.

Of course that's arguable. Good thing it's settled over the chessboard.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I spent a couple of weeks with a large group from the Olso newspapers awhile back (1989). Hardest working bunch I have ever seen. Very friendly and welcoming. Was somewhat trying to get a job with their company, but wife vetoed it. (sdomthing about shoveling the snow five times a day) Only drawback was they all smoked like it was 1950. Hopefully, that has changed since then.

I recall it thus, having heard this version in my childhood. Doubtless there are many variants.

Ten thousand Swedes ran thru the weeds at the battle of Copenhagen,

Ten thousand Swedes ran thru the weeds chased by one Norwegian.

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Of course, WTF else is there to do in Norway in the winter?

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
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For a country with so much winter they sure have a small population.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Population tends to follow the food supply. With all that winter, short growing seasons, I guess.

I suspect Kuan was making a sly reference to the idea of folks making love in the winter more.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Go to Amazon and look up books like We Die Alone. There are many other similar books about unbelievable human escapes that will make you wonder if you could survive in similar conditions. A good one is The Long Walk about a Polish prisoner of the Russians who escaped from a gulag 500 miles north of Lake Baikal and walked from there to India. Another about a man that took 3 years to walk from the furtherest point in ne Russia all the way to Iran. Read about the whaling ship Essex, I believe that is the name, that was rammed by a whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was the event from which Moby Dick was taken.

This is the book I was talking about. http://www.neatorama.com/2010/03/04/the-4000-mile-walk-to-freedom/

Their are some pretty amazing story's out their. Its amazing what a determined person can do.

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