Monica Kristensen Solås

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Monica Kristensen Solås (born 30 June 1950) is a Norwegian glaciologist, meteorologist and polar explorer. She was born in Torsby, Sweden, of Swedish/Norwegian parents, and moved as a child to Kongsvinger in Norway.

She is a physics graduate of the University of Tromsø, and has taken part in many expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. In 1986–1987 she was leader of an expedition to follow Roald Amundsen’s route to the South Pole, but was forced to turn back at 86 degrees south. A further expedition in 1993 set out, among other aims, to find Amundsen’s tent at the South Pole. One expedition member, Jostein Helgestad, was killed in a fall into a crevasse, and Kristensen Solås was widely criticised for failures in safety procedures.

She later worked in northern Norway and on Svalbard, and in January 2004 she became general secretary of Redningsselskapet (Norsk Selskab til Skibbrudnes Redning – the Norwegian Society for Rescue at Sea), a post she held until November 2005.

Monica Kristensen Solås is the author of many books, including Mot 90 Grader Syd (Towards 90 Degrees South) (1987).