French polar forwardings

The French polar Expéditions (or ExPol for the close friends) was the structure which organized in France forwardings of scientific research for the Arctique and the the Antarctic of 1947 until in the years 1970, or 1992. It was created and animated by the French explorer and ethnologist Paul-Emile Victor.

Institutional history

In 1947, Paul-Emile Victor proposes with the government to organize scientific exhibitions with the Greenland and in Ad3elie coast (the Antarctic). The government then entrusts the organization of the French polar missions to him which will bear the name of French polar Forwardings.

In January 1992, French polar Forwardings amalgamate with the Mission of research of the southern and antarctic Lands French within a Groupement of public interest (GIP), the French Institut for polar research and technology or IFRTP which will become then IPEV, polar Institut French Paul-Emile Victor .

a friendly association of French polar Forwardings perpetuates the memory of these forwardings and its initiators.

History of forwardings of the EPF

1948 : first countryside of French polar Forwardings to the Greenland. It makes it possible to establish Port Victor and to install first camps to advance towards the center of the Inlandsis.
1949: second countryside of the EPF in Greenland. It makes it possible to convey in the center of the ice cap, by caterpillars " Weasels" , a large team which, with material released by plane, builds in the ice an underground station of wintering.
Winter 1949-1950: first wintering of a team of the EPF (8 members) in Greenland. The only precedent is the German experiment of the winter 1930-1931, which had finished tragically ( Greenland central station of Michel Bouché, Grasset, 1952).
Winter 1950-1951: second wintering of the EPF (9 members) to the Greenland.
August 1st

See too

Bibliography and catalog of films

Film of the forwarding of 1949: Greenland, 20.000 miles on the ices , realized by Marcel Ichac and Jean-Jacques Languepin.
Book Greenland central station of Michel Stopped, prefaced by Paul-Emile Victor, Grasset, 1952.

External bonds

Site of the friendly association of French Polar Forwardings.
Of the personal memories of the EPF
Memories