Martin Hoff Ekroll (16 February 1865 – 15 May 1916) was a Norwegian merchant, mountaineer and Arctic explorer.

Biography

Ekroll was born on 16 February 1865 in the village of Skroven in the islands of

Lofoten Lofoten ( , ; ; ) is an archipelago and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches, and untouched lands. T ...

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

, Norway. He operated a fishing station at

Kabelvåg , , or is a village in Vågan Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the southern shore of the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago. Kabelvåg lies about to the southwest of the town of Svolvær, the administrat ...

on the island of

Austvågøya Austvågøya is the northeasternmost and largest of the larger islands in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county, Norway. It is located between the Vestfjorden and the Norwegian Sea. The island of Vestvågøya lies to the southwest and the ...

. In 1891 he published a plan for an expedition to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

(in ). He funded and organized an expedition to the island of

Edgeøya Edgeøya (), anglicised as Edge Island, is a Norway, Norwegian island located in southeast of the Svalbard archipelago; with an area of , it is the third-largest island in this archipelago. An Arctic island, it forms part of the Søraust-Svalbard ...

, located in the

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

1894–1895. At Edgeøya, the bay of Ekrollhamna and the headland of Martinodden are both named after him. He made a first ascent of the mountain of

Vågakallen Vågakallen is a mountain in Vågan Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It has a height of about , and is located in the island of Austvågøya in the Lofoten archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island ...

on the island of Austvågøy about 1885. In 1888 he made a failed attempt of climbing the mountain of

Stetind or is a mountain in Narvik Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located about northeast of the village of Kjøpsvik. The mountain has very smooth sides reaching all the way to the fjord. Stetinden has an obelisk-shape which gives it ...

. Ekroll died on 15 May 1916.

References

1865 births 1916 deaths People from Vågan Norwegian merchants Norwegian polar explorers Norwegian mountain climbers 19th-century Norwegian businesspeople {{Norway-bio-stub