Ice block expedition of 1959
Encyclopedia
The ice block expedition of 1959 was a publicity stunt
carried out by the Norwegian
insulation
material producer Glassvatt (today called Glava AS
). Responding to a challenge from the radio station Radio Luxembourg
, Glassvatt decided to equip a truck to bring a three-ton block of ice from Mo i Rana
by the Arctic Circle
, to Libreville
by the Equator
. There was no form of refrigeration
applied, and the expedition was intended to display the efficiency of the insulating glass wool
used. The truck also brought 300 kg of medicines to the hospital of Albert Schweitzer
in Lambaréné
.
The expedition then was followed by a worldwide press corps, and great crowds of spectators gathered in various European cities along the route. Crossing the Sahara
, where the truck repeatedly got stuck in the sand, proved both a dangerous and laborious task. Once the truck had made it through the desert, however, and reached its final destination, it was revealed that the ice block had lost no more than 11% of its original weight. The expedition was an enormous success, judged both by the end result and by the media attention generated for the company, and has been called "the world's greatest publicity stunt". To mark the 50th anniversary of the event in 2009, the company made the original documentary of the expedition available online. They also released a new interview with the expedition's leader Sivert Klevan, who was 84 years old at the time of the interview.
launched a challenge to transport three tons of ice from the Arctic Circle
to the Equator
. The radio station would award 100,000 francs
for each kilogram (at the time, US$
202.55 per kilogram; $1,487.19 or €1,120.19 per kg in 2009 currency) that remained at the destination; the only condition was that no form of refrigeration
should be used. Managing director Birger Natvik at the Norwegian
insulation
material company Glassvatt (today Glava AS
) saw the announcement and suggested that the company take on the challenge. He estimated that by isolating the ice with glass wool
("glassvatt" in Norwegian
) made from fibreglass, the driver could make several million francs. Once Radio Luxembourg realised the potential loss, they retracted the offer. By this point, however, the planned expedition had received so much attention that Glassvatt decided to go through with it anyway. Among the other sponsors were Shell
, who provided the fuel, and Scania, who provided the truck. Altogether, sponsors from eight countries financed the expedition, including Glassvatt's French
mother company, the Saint-Gobain
corporation. The French sponsors wanted a French truck to be used, but the Norwegians insisted on a Scandinavian one. The latter position won through, and a Scania-Vabis
was selected for the task. The expedition's leader later admitted that a French truck probably would have been more suitable for driving in the desert. On 22 February 1959, at 9:15 am, the expedition left Mo i Rana.
Responsibility for the expedition was given to Sivert Klevan, an engineer with a good instinct for public relations. The ice was to be procured from the glacier Svartisen
, and a glaciologist
was brought along to give advice. It soon became clear that the entire three-ton block could not be brought out in one go. Instead, 200 kg blocks were cut out with a chainsaw, carried away on a sled, and flown by helicopter down to the town centre. There they were melted together to make a block of ice weighing 3,050 kg. The block was placed in a specially constructed iron container, which was insulated with wood and glass wool. The container was placed on top of a truck that would carry it all the way to the Equator, accompanied by a van carrying equipment and a sedan with a film crew.
. There it was greeted by a great ceremony at Studenterlunden
in front of the University
. The truck was loaded with 300 kg of medicines, to the value of NOK
50,000. These medicines were to be delivered to the hospital of humanitarian Albert Schweitzer
in Lambarene
, near the final destination of Libreville
, the capital of Gabon
. From Oslo the expedition continued to Helsingborg
in Sweden
and Copenhagen
in Denmark
, where more medicines were brought along. For public relations purposes the expedition made its way through several European cities including Hamburg
, Cologne
, The Hague
and Brussels
and was received with ceremony and much attention everywhere. In Belgium
a problem arose over a missing customs declaration for the ice, but this was solved when a customs official agreed to accompany the cars through the country. Klevan later received a personal apology for this inconvenience, conveyed by the Norwegian foreign minister Halvard Lange
from Lange's Belgian colleague and personal friend.
In Paris
the expedition was escorted by police through the streets, and the crew members were invited to dine with the mayor. From Paris the truck continued to Marseille
. There it was lifted aboard the freighter "Sidi Mabrouk", that sailed the cargo to Algiers
. In Algiers a special crane had to be obtained to lift the truck weighing a total of sixteen tons, including the ice onto the shore. The container was drained at this point to see how much of the ice had melted. In spite of unusually hot European weather for the season, only four litres of water had been shed.
was considered particularly perilous at the time because of guerilla
forces hiding in the mountains. The medicines carried by the truck would have been valuable loot for these groups, and for the first part of the desert the expedition was accompanied by the French Foreign Legion
. The instruction the men received was "No stops, drive for your lives, even if you get a flat tire." The crossing passed without violent incidents, however, and greater problems were presented by the elements. There were no roads in the desert, and the truck was heavily loaded and not especially adapted to the conditions. Several times it got stuck in the desert sand; the crew had to place steel plates underneath for traction and spend hours digging out the sand from under the wheels. This took a great toll on the men, who had a limited supply of water, in temperatures approaching 50 °C. The crew spent most nights in oases
along the way, but on occasion also slept in sleeping bags in the sand.
At one point the expedition met a tribe of Tuaregs and greeted them by offering their camel
s water from the container. According to the commentary in the documentary film, the camels had never tasted anything as delicious as the Norwegian glacier water. This was not entirely true; the water was contaminated by the glass wool and tar paper
, and it was barely drinkable. The expedition arrived at the Hoggar Mountains
near the Tropic of Cancer
after fourteen days of travelling. A measurement at that point showed a loss of 96 litres of water. Once the Sahara was traversed, after 7500 km (4,660 mi) of driving, 177 litres had melted away. On average 15 litres melted each day in the desert.
and met with Albert Schweitzer
. Klevan later described the meeting with Schweitzer as the greatest moment of the entire expedition. Later, the hospital received 500 kg of Norwegian klippfisk
(dried and salted cod), a particular favourite with the hospital's patients. The medicines were handed over, and the container was opened. Even though the drainage had been monitored throughout the expedition, there was still great excitement associated with seeing the result firsthand. The block of ice turned out to be almost entirely intact.
The expedition arrived at its final destination of Libreville
on 21 March, after twenty-seven days. The block of ice was found to weigh 2,714 kg; it had lost only 336 kg along the way. Though it was unclear how much time the expedition would take, Klevan had initially estimated a loss of 10%; the end result was approximately 11%. A French representative of the company met the crew in Libreville. A personal friend of President Charles de Gaulle
, he presented an offer to drive the ice back to Paris. If the crew accepted, the President himself would have received the crew under the Arc de Triomphe
. The men, however, were too exhausted at that point to contemplate such an offer. Instead, arrangement were made for the vehicles to be brought back by freight, while the crew would fly home. The ice was cut up and divided between the citizens of Libreville, for whom this was a rare commodity. Klevan, always conscious of promotional opportunities, brought a portion of the ice back home with him. This ice was subsequently used in drinks served to journalists at the première of the expedition documentary back home in Oslo.
The expedition had been an enormous success, both in accomplishing the goal it had set out to accomplish, and by generating worldwide press coverage for the company and its product. The venture was reported on as far away as India
. In 1979, Oslo Marketing Association commemorated the ice block expedition with a special event titled "The world's greatest publicity stunt". To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event in 2009, Glava AS made the original documentary of the expedition available online. They also released a newly recorded interview with Sivert Klevan, who by that time was 84 years old.
Publicity stunt
A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...
carried out by the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
insulation
Thermal insulation
Thermal insulation is the reduction of the effects of the various processes of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Heat transfer is the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature...
material producer Glassvatt (today called Glava AS
Glava
Glava AS is a Norwegian industrial company with headquarters in Askim. The name is a portmanteau of the Norwegian word glassvatt, meaning glass wool. Glass wool used as insulation material is the company's main product. Production takes place at the company's production facilities in Askim and...
). Responding to a challenge from the radio station Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (French)
Radio Luxembourg - 1933-1939 and 1951- is the name of a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933 as a daytime and evening service in the French language from Monday to Saturday and until 12 Noon on Sundays.The station closed down at the...
, Glassvatt decided to equip a truck to bring a three-ton block of ice from Mo i Rana
Mo i Rana
Mo i Rana is a town in the municipality of Rana, Nordland, Norway, located just south of the Arctic Circle and in the region Helgeland. The town is called "Mo i Rana" to distinquish it from other places named Mo - most notably the town of Mosjøen, also in Helgeland - though locally the town is...
by the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
, to Libreville
Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...
by the Equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
. There was no form of refrigeration
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...
applied, and the expedition was intended to display the efficiency of the insulating glass wool
Glass wool
Glass wool or fiberglass insulation is an insulating material made from fiberglass, arranged into a texture similar to wool. Glass wool is produced in rolls or in slabs, with different thermal and mechanical properties....
used. The truck also brought 300 kg of medicines to the hospital of Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
in Lambaréné
Lambaréné
Lambaréné is the capital of the political district Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon. The city counts 24,000 inhabitants and is located 75 kilometres south of the equator....
.
The expedition then was followed by a worldwide press corps, and great crowds of spectators gathered in various European cities along the route. Crossing the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
, where the truck repeatedly got stuck in the sand, proved both a dangerous and laborious task. Once the truck had made it through the desert, however, and reached its final destination, it was revealed that the ice block had lost no more than 11% of its original weight. The expedition was an enormous success, judged both by the end result and by the media attention generated for the company, and has been called "the world's greatest publicity stunt". To mark the 50th anniversary of the event in 2009, the company made the original documentary of the expedition available online. They also released a new interview with the expedition's leader Sivert Klevan, who was 84 years old at the time of the interview.
Background and preparations
In the autumn of 1958, Radio LuxembourgRadio Luxembourg (French)
Radio Luxembourg - 1933-1939 and 1951- is the name of a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933 as a daytime and evening service in the French language from Monday to Saturday and until 12 Noon on Sundays.The station closed down at the...
launched a challenge to transport three tons of ice from the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
to the Equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
. The radio station would award 100,000 francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
for each kilogram (at the time, US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
202.55 per kilogram; $1,487.19 or €1,120.19 per kg in 2009 currency) that remained at the destination; the only condition was that no form of refrigeration
Refrigeration
Refrigeration is a process in which work is done to move heat from one location to another. This work is traditionally done by mechanical work, but can also be done by magnetism, laser or other means...
should be used. Managing director Birger Natvik at the Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
insulation
Thermal insulation
Thermal insulation is the reduction of the effects of the various processes of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Heat transfer is the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature...
material company Glassvatt (today Glava AS
Glava
Glava AS is a Norwegian industrial company with headquarters in Askim. The name is a portmanteau of the Norwegian word glassvatt, meaning glass wool. Glass wool used as insulation material is the company's main product. Production takes place at the company's production facilities in Askim and...
) saw the announcement and suggested that the company take on the challenge. He estimated that by isolating the ice with glass wool
Glass wool
Glass wool or fiberglass insulation is an insulating material made from fiberglass, arranged into a texture similar to wool. Glass wool is produced in rolls or in slabs, with different thermal and mechanical properties....
("glassvatt" in Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
) made from fibreglass, the driver could make several million francs. Once Radio Luxembourg realised the potential loss, they retracted the offer. By this point, however, the planned expedition had received so much attention that Glassvatt decided to go through with it anyway. Among the other sponsors were Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, who provided the fuel, and Scania, who provided the truck. Altogether, sponsors from eight countries financed the expedition, including Glassvatt's French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
mother company, the Saint-Gobain
Saint-Gobain
Saint-Gobain S.A. is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of construction and high-performance materials.The company has its head...
corporation. The French sponsors wanted a French truck to be used, but the Norwegians insisted on a Scandinavian one. The latter position won through, and a Scania-Vabis
Scania-Vabis
Scania-Vabis was a Swedish truck and car manufacturer. The company was formed from a merger of Scania with the firm of Vabis in 1911. The car production ended in 1929...
was selected for the task. The expedition's leader later admitted that a French truck probably would have been more suitable for driving in the desert. On 22 February 1959, at 9:15 am, the expedition left Mo i Rana.
Responsibility for the expedition was given to Sivert Klevan, an engineer with a good instinct for public relations. The ice was to be procured from the glacier Svartisen
Svartisen
Svartisen is a collective term for two glaciers located in northern Norway. The system consists of two separate glaciers,* Vestre Svartisen , which is the second largest glacier on the Norwegian mainland after Jostedalsbreen* Østre Svartisen , which...
, and a glaciologist
Glaciology
Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...
was brought along to give advice. It soon became clear that the entire three-ton block could not be brought out in one go. Instead, 200 kg blocks were cut out with a chainsaw, carried away on a sled, and flown by helicopter down to the town centre. There they were melted together to make a block of ice weighing 3,050 kg. The block was placed in a specially constructed iron container, which was insulated with wood and glass wool. The container was placed on top of a truck that would carry it all the way to the Equator, accompanied by a van carrying equipment and a sedan with a film crew.
Through Europe
The first stop for the expedition was OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. There it was greeted by a great ceremony at Studenterlunden
Studenterlunden
Studenterlunden is a park in the city center of Oslo, Norway. It is surrounded by Karl Johans gate, Stortingsgata, Universitetsgata and Frederiks gate. Within the park lays the National Theatre. It also contains one of the entrances to Nationaltheatret Station of the Oslo Metro and Nationaltheatret...
in front of the University
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
. The truck was loaded with 300 kg of medicines, to the value of NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
50,000. These medicines were to be delivered to the hospital of humanitarian Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
in Lambarene
Lambaréné
Lambaréné is the capital of the political district Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon. The city counts 24,000 inhabitants and is located 75 kilometres south of the equator....
, near the final destination of Libreville
Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...
, the capital of Gabon
Gabon
Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...
. From Oslo the expedition continued to Helsingborg
Helsingborg
Helsingborg is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 97,122 inhabitants in 2010. Helsingborg is the centre of an area in the Øresund region of about 320,000 inhabitants in north-west Scania, and is Sweden's closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, where more medicines were brought along. For public relations purposes the expedition made its way through several European cities including Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and was received with ceremony and much attention everywhere. In Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
a problem arose over a missing customs declaration for the ice, but this was solved when a customs official agreed to accompany the cars through the country. Klevan later received a personal apology for this inconvenience, conveyed by the Norwegian foreign minister Halvard Lange
Halvard Lange
Halvard Manthey Lange was a Norwegian diplomat, politician and statesman.He became a member of the Norwegian Labour Party in 1927. Two years later, in 1929, he earned a Master of Arts degree...
from Lange's Belgian colleague and personal friend.
In Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
the expedition was escorted by police through the streets, and the crew members were invited to dine with the mayor. From Paris the truck continued to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
. There it was lifted aboard the freighter "Sidi Mabrouk", that sailed the cargo to Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
. In Algiers a special crane had to be obtained to lift the truck weighing a total of sixteen tons, including the ice onto the shore. The container was drained at this point to see how much of the ice had melted. In spite of unusually hot European weather for the season, only four litres of water had been shed.
Crossing the Sahara
Crossing the SaharaSahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
was considered particularly perilous at the time because of guerilla
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
forces hiding in the mountains. The medicines carried by the truck would have been valuable loot for these groups, and for the first part of the desert the expedition was accompanied by the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
. The instruction the men received was "No stops, drive for your lives, even if you get a flat tire." The crossing passed without violent incidents, however, and greater problems were presented by the elements. There were no roads in the desert, and the truck was heavily loaded and not especially adapted to the conditions. Several times it got stuck in the desert sand; the crew had to place steel plates underneath for traction and spend hours digging out the sand from under the wheels. This took a great toll on the men, who had a limited supply of water, in temperatures approaching 50 °C. The crew spent most nights in oases
Oasis
In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
along the way, but on occasion also slept in sleeping bags in the sand.
At one point the expedition met a tribe of Tuaregs and greeted them by offering their camel
Camel
A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
s water from the container. According to the commentary in the documentary film, the camels had never tasted anything as delicious as the Norwegian glacier water. This was not entirely true; the water was contaminated by the glass wool and tar paper
Tar paper
Tar paper is a heavy-duty paper used in construction. Tar paper is made by impregnating paper with tar, producing a waterproof material useful for roof construction. It can be distinguished from Roofing felt:Asphalt-saturated felt. Roofing felt has been in use for over a hundred years...
, and it was barely drinkable. The expedition arrived at the Hoggar Mountains
Ahaggar Mountains
The Ahaggar Mountains , also known as the Hoggar, are a highland region in central Sahara, or southern Algeria, along the Tropic of Cancer. They are located about 1,500 km south of the capital, Algiers and just west of Tamanghasset. The region is largely rocky desert with an average...
near the Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Cancer
The Tropic of Cancer, also referred to as the Northern tropic, is the circle of latitude on the Earth that marks the most northerly position at which the Sun may appear directly overhead at its zenith...
after fourteen days of travelling. A measurement at that point showed a loss of 96 litres of water. Once the Sahara was traversed, after 7500 km (4,660 mi) of driving, 177 litres had melted away. On average 15 litres melted each day in the desert.
Arrival and aftermath
After approximately three weeks, the expedition arrived in LambarénéLambaréné
Lambaréné is the capital of the political district Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon. The city counts 24,000 inhabitants and is located 75 kilometres south of the equator....
and met with Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
. Klevan later described the meeting with Schweitzer as the greatest moment of the entire expedition. Later, the hospital received 500 kg of Norwegian klippfisk
Dried and salted cod
Dried and salted cod, often called salt cod or clipfish , is cod which has been preserved by drying after salting. Cod which has been dried without the addition of salt is called stockfish....
(dried and salted cod), a particular favourite with the hospital's patients. The medicines were handed over, and the container was opened. Even though the drainage had been monitored throughout the expedition, there was still great excitement associated with seeing the result firsthand. The block of ice turned out to be almost entirely intact.
The expedition arrived at its final destination of Libreville
Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon, in west central Africa. The city is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea, and a trade center for a timber region. As of 2005, it has a population of 578,156.- History :...
on 21 March, after twenty-seven days. The block of ice was found to weigh 2,714 kg; it had lost only 336 kg along the way. Though it was unclear how much time the expedition would take, Klevan had initially estimated a loss of 10%; the end result was approximately 11%. A French representative of the company met the crew in Libreville. A personal friend of President Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, he presented an offer to drive the ice back to Paris. If the crew accepted, the President himself would have received the crew under the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
. The men, however, were too exhausted at that point to contemplate such an offer. Instead, arrangement were made for the vehicles to be brought back by freight, while the crew would fly home. The ice was cut up and divided between the citizens of Libreville, for whom this was a rare commodity. Klevan, always conscious of promotional opportunities, brought a portion of the ice back home with him. This ice was subsequently used in drinks served to journalists at the première of the expedition documentary back home in Oslo.
The expedition had been an enormous success, both in accomplishing the goal it had set out to accomplish, and by generating worldwide press coverage for the company and its product. The venture was reported on as far away as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. In 1979, Oslo Marketing Association commemorated the ice block expedition with a special event titled "The world's greatest publicity stunt". To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event in 2009, Glava AS made the original documentary of the expedition available online. They also released a newly recorded interview with Sivert Klevan, who by that time was 84 years old.