Wanny Woldstad

Wanny Woldstad (January 15, 1893 – October 26, 1959) was the first female hunter on the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

Early life and career Wanny Woldstad was born Ivanna Margrethe Ingvardsen in Sommarøy, Norway, in 1893. Around 1915, she married Othar Jacobsen, with whom she had two sons, Alf and Bjørvik. Othar died during the Spanish flu pandemic, in 1918, and she briefly remarried Martin Mikal Woldstad.

Svalbard expeditions In 1932, Woldstad was recruited for an expedition to Svalbard led by Anders Sæterdal, immediately accepting the offer to join. With this, she became the first female trapper in the remote archipelago.

Some of her male peers on the trip were skeptical that Woldstad, at only tall, could keep up, but she was an excellent hunter, having previously won trophies for marksmanship. As a trapper, Woldstad generally focused on the area around the bay of .

She died in 1959, after being hit by a truck in Sørkjosen.