On this day in 1911 – The Norwegian Roald Amundsen together with his teammates (Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting) become the first men to reach the South Pole.

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  2. Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, (born 16 July, 1872, Borge, near Oslo, Norway—died 18 June, 1928?, Arctic Ocean) was a Norwegian explorer who was the first to reach the South Pole, the first to make a ship voyage through the Northwest Passage, and one of the first to cross the Arctic by air.

    He was one of the greatest figures in the field of polar exploration.

    When Amundsen left Norway in June 1910 no one but his brother knew that he was heading for the South Pole instead of the North. He sailed the Fram directly from the Madeira Islands to the Bay of Whales, Antarctica, along the Ross Sea. The base he set up there was 100 km closer to the pole than the Antarctic base of the English explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who was heading a rival expedition with the same goal.

    An experienced polar traveler, Amundsen prepared carefully for the coming journey, making a preliminary trip to deposit food supplies along the first part of his route to the pole and back. To transport his supplies, he used sled dogs, while Scott depended on Siberian ponies.

    Amundsen set out with 4 companions, 52 dogs, and 4 sledges on 19 October, 1911, and, after encountering good weather, arrived at the South Pole on December 14. The explorers recorded scientific data at the pole before beginning the return journey on December 17, and they safely reached their base at the Bay of Whales on January 25, 1912.

    Scott, in the meantime, had reached the South Pole on 17 January, but on a difficult return journey he and all his men perished.

    An excellent book on the topic of Antarctic exploration in the beginning of the 20th century is Roland Huntford’s [The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/549488.The_Last_Place_on_Earth).

  6. At first I was like whaat it has only been 100 years… But then I thought it must have been preeetty hard without all the equipment we have today!

  7. One interesting fact about the Scott expedition is that the crew members were chosen because of their military rank, not according to fitness, or skills.

  9. Two bold men, two very different approaches:

    Amundsen: empirical, practical, not trying to reinvent the wheel. Proven explorer, good leader. He lived with the inuits in the North and incorporated their expertise in its explorations: dogs, fur coats, light sleds, fatty food, skis, snow shoes. Move fast, in and out, no side quests. Mission accomplished.

    Scott: experimental, theoretical, hierarchical – heroic, top-down, unfocused, inexperienced. Undistinguished officer in the Royal Navy. Inadequate. Quite incompetent. Poneys, motorized sleds, cotton clothes, heavy sleds, English foods, not enough gasoline.

    We all know the outcome.

  11. And he became the first Norwegian president of Portugal under the name of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Great man indeed

  12. Say what you want about Scott, but the man had guts.

    His last journal found near his frozen body is haunting.

  14. Interesting/important fact. These are very difficult conditions, and everything was planned meticulously in Amundsen’s expedition.

    How to bring all the dogs and what will they eat? The dogs can eat animalics and seals found along the way.

    The dogs themselves were also culled along the expedition(!), according to the plan; the culled docs became food for the remaining dogs and the crew. Their upbringing was controlled from the start to make them safe to eat. This was another smart use of limited resources to make the trip work safely.

    This is mentioned in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_Amundsen_and_Scott_expeditions

    They make the comparison to a rocket that has stages. And yes, along the trip you have less cargo the further you get, so you can eat some of the dogs since you have less to carry.

  17. >Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of our tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

    >It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write any more.

    >R. Scott. Last Entry

    >For God’s sake look after our people.

    29th March 1912

  19. After Amundsen‘s and Scott‘s expeditions, it was not until October 1956, some 45 years later, that again men stood at the South Pole. And some people wonder why we haven’t been back to the Moon in the last 50 years…

  20. I read the book “Ice Ghosts” recently–was so horrified to learn that the Franklin expedition was dressed in only regular British navy clothing. Thin, cheap boots, wool coats. It never occurred to them to study how the native peoples of northern Europe and North America survived. Or even to use the water proof slickers and lanolin heavy sweaters/jumpers worn by their own fisherman. Yes, the Franklin Expedition was in 1845–But the Sami existed.

  25. Also let’s remember his “competitor”, Robert Falcon Scott, who died along the return from the South Pole. Robert also made it a few weeks after Amundsen. When his body was found, they found he had collected fossils along the way that proved Antarctica once was a forested continent. That’s ought worth something.

  26. People give Scott too much shit imo. Yeah some of the planning he did was quite poor, but there was also a lot of unlucky coincidences involved, like the weather being far more cold than usual in what is already the coldest part of the world. And his team still managed to reach the pole itself and actually came very close to making it back to safety as well

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