Inuit women carrying an umiak (women's boat) One of the pictures from the expedition to Greenland in the period July 1888 to May 1889. Fridtjof Nansen together with 5 other Norwegian participants crossed Greenland in the course of a 42-day skiing trip from the east to the west coast. The expedition was forced to spend the winter, and this gave Fridtjof Nansen a chance to get to know the native inhabitants, and to study the Inuit way of life.