They left Cape South-West on 14th April with loads of about 550 lb. on each sledge, and reached the new land on the 17th. A sound was discovered between the new land and North Cornwall, which was already known. It received the name of “Hendriksen’s Sound.” They passed through this sound, and reached the south-west point of what was afterwards named “Amund Ringnes Land,” and followed the coast northward. On the 23rd April, land was seen in the west and south-west, and they decided to drive west. They arrived next day at Nathorst Peninsula, and this new land received the name of “Ellef Ringnes Land.” The sound between this and the land they had left was named after Hassel. Towards the west and south-west still another land was seen, and was called “King Christian’s Land.” The sound between the two latter was called “Danish Sound,” and they passed through this and drove north. At the most northern point of the land, the trend began to be east and then south. They followed the coast-line until 20th May, when they saw land in the east, which proved to be “Amund Ringnes Land,” the northern point of which they reached on 24th May. They then made for Axel Heiberg Land, and reached Cape South-West on 29th May.
On the new land they had explored they saw reindeer and ptarmigan, and the tracks of bears, foxes, wolves, and hares. They reached the Fram on 6th June.
The summer work was now commenced, such as dredging and botanising, and a trip was made to North Devon.
As summer advanced, the party became anxious about the prospects of the Fram getting free from Gassefiord, as it was intended to return to Norway that year. An attempt was made to bore the ice on 12th August, but it ended in failure. On the 26th the Fram advanced a thousand yards, but on the 27th it could only make three ship’s lengths. By 5th September the ship had gone about 10 miles through the ice, but some 6 miles of ice was still between it and the open water. They had now to give up all hope of getting free that year, and had to make preparations to spend their fourth polar night.
Again the winter was passed in hard work for the coming spring. It was intended, in case a ship might come into Jones Sound in search of the Fram, to build cairns and leave a record of the expedition on Cone Island, and on different points in the sound. It was also intended to send a sledge-expedition to Beechy Island, partly to correct their chronometers, and partly to look at the dépôts left there half a century before. Schei and Sverdrup were to go north and map the tracts west of Greely Fiord.
On 1st April 1902 three parties went off. The patent dog-food was nearly finished, and they had to carry stockfish instead, which weighed much heavier. Trusting to being able to obtain bears, Sverdrup did not take blubber nor meat. No bears were obtained when expected, and the dogs soon became very weak. It was not until the 10th April that a bear was seen and shot.
Instead of travelling over the heavy ice towards Smorgrautberget, Sverdrup kept to the east shore, and then steered straight across Greely Fiord to Blaafjeld, in the south of Grant Land. They kept to the east side of a pressure-ridge which stretched straight across the fiord, and seemed to be the boundary between the fast ice of the previous year on Greely Fiord and the drift-ice outside.
When near land, the ice became heavy, and it was with great difficulty that advance could be made. West of Blaafjeld they passed into a fiord where a large number of hares were seen. It was the pairing season, and they were scampering about in all directions. Sverdrup supposed they had lost their heads from love, and he slyly remarks that this is a thing which may happen to others besides hares. The fiord was named “Harefiord.”
On 30th April they set off from the headland on the west side of the fiord. In the evening they camped near the most westerly foreland they had seen the previous year from Smorgrautberget. Next day they reached another fiord and entered it for a short distance, but as they were anxious to ascertain the extent of land to the west they did not venture to its head. Next day the land trended about due north, and when the weather cleared land was seen to the north-west, and they recognised they were in a bay. A straight line was made for the part farthest off, which was reached on the 6th May. Sverdrup here ascended a height, and found that he was on an island separated by a narrow sound from the land in the east. From a point about 3 miles north of the camp, the land turned to the north-east. North and west of this land, only sea could be made out. To the south was Axel Heiberg Land. Sverdrup built a cairn to mark their farthest north, as he had now decided to return. The latitude was found to be 81° 40′.
In returning, a course was made across Fridtjof Nansen Sound to the northern extremity of Axel Heiberg Land. In passing south they proved that Schei Island was really an island, and not a peninsula. Some polar oxen were shot and the dogs feasted, and the way south was covered at a good speed. When Bay Fiord was reached, they entered it and explored it to its head, where they arrived on 29th May.