WEBVTT 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:11.430 Roald Amundsen had spent nearly two years preparing his Arctic expedition. 00:00:11.430 --> 00:00:16.210 He had secured funding from the Norwegian Crown and hand-picked a trusted crew. 00:00:16.210 --> 00:00:20.470 He’d even received the blessing of the famed explorer Fridtjof Nansen, 00:00:20.470 --> 00:00:25.950 along with the use of his ship, Fram, specially constructed to withstand the ice. 00:00:25.950 --> 00:00:31.280 Now, with the voyage departing, he had one final announcement to his shipmates: 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:35.300 They were going to head in the opposite direction. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:35.300 --> 00:00:36.840 By the early 20th century, 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:40.270 nearly every region of the globe had been visited and mapped, 00:00:40.270 --> 00:00:43.190 with only two key locations remaining: 00:00:43.190 --> 00:00:46.880 the North Pole, deep in the frozen waters of the Arctic region, 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:51.170 and the South Pole, nestled within a recently discovered icy continent 00:00:51.170 --> 00:00:53.680 in the vast Antarctic Ocean. 00:00:53.680 --> 00:00:56.050 A veteran of several expeditions, 00:00:56.050 --> 00:00:59.630 Amundsen had long dreamed of reaching the North Pole. 00:00:59.630 --> 00:01:02.570 But in 1909, amidst his preparations, 00:01:02.570 --> 00:01:07.240 news came that the American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary 00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:10.570 had staked rival claims to the achievement. 00:01:10.570 --> 00:01:13.090 Instead of abandoning the planned voyage, 00:01:13.090 --> 00:01:19.690 Amundsen decided to alter its course to what he called “the last great problem.” NOTE Paragraph 00:01:19.690 --> 00:01:22.930 But Amundsen’s crew weren’t the only ones kept in the dark. 00:01:22.930 --> 00:01:28.190 British naval officer Robert F. Scott had already visited the Antarctic, and was 00:01:28.190 --> 00:01:34.340 leading his own South Pole expedition. Now, as Scott’s ship Terra Nova reached 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:38.850 Melbourne in 1910, he was greeted with the news that Amundsen 00:01:38.850 --> 00:01:40.820 was also heading south. 00:01:40.820 --> 00:01:43.240 Reluctantly, Scott found himself pitted 00:01:43.240 --> 00:01:48.540 against the Norwegian in what the newspapers called a ‘race to the Pole.’ NOTE Paragraph 00:01:48.540 --> 00:01:51.910 Yet if it was a race, it was a strange one. 00:01:51.910 --> 00:01:56.610 The expeditions left at different times from different locations, and they had 00:01:56.610 --> 00:01:59.750 very different plans for the journey. 00:01:59.750 --> 00:02:03.010 Amundsen was focused solely on reaching the Pole. 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:08.310 Informed by his Arctic exploration, he drew on both Inuit and Norwegian experience, 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:12.360 arriving with a small team of men and more than a hundred dogs. 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:15.570 His explorers were clothed in sealskin and furs, 00:02:15.570 --> 00:02:18.728 as well as specially designed skis and boots. 00:02:18.728 --> 00:02:23.578 But Scott's venture was more complicated. Launching an extensive scientific 00:02:23.578 --> 00:02:28.118 research expedition, he traveled with over three times more men than Amundsen, 00:02:28.119 --> 00:02:32.619 alongside over 30 dogs, 19 Siberian ponies, 00:02:32.619 --> 00:02:36.109 and three state-of-the-art motorized sledges. 00:02:36.109 --> 00:02:37.979 But these additional tools and bodies 00:02:37.979 --> 00:02:41.699 weighed down the ship as it battled the storms of the southern ocean. 00:02:41.699 --> 00:02:46.289 And as they finally began to lay supplies, they found both their ponies and 00:02:46.289 --> 00:02:50.809 motor-sledges ineffective in the harsh ice and snow. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:50.809 --> 00:02:55.189 In the spring of 1911, after waiting out the long polar night, 00:02:55.189 --> 00:02:57.569 both parties began the journey south. 00:02:57.569 --> 00:03:00.709 Scott’s team traveled over the Beardmore Glacier, 00:03:00.709 --> 00:03:04.799 following the path of Ernest Shackleton's earlier attempt to reach the pole. 00:03:04.799 --> 00:03:09.549 But although this course had been documented, it proved slow and laborious. 00:03:09.549 --> 00:03:12.149 Meanwhile, despite an initial false start, 00:03:12.149 --> 00:03:17.119 Amundsen’s five-man team made good time using a previously uncharted route 00:03:17.119 --> 00:03:20.139 through the same Transantarctic Mountains. 00:03:20.139 --> 00:03:21.939 They stayed ahead of Scott’s team, 00:03:21.939 --> 00:03:26.669 and on December 14, arrived first at their desolate destination. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:26.669 --> 00:03:30.669 To avoid the ambiguity that surrounded Cook and Peary’s North Pole claims, 00:03:30.669 --> 00:03:34.579 Amundsen’s team traversed the area in a grid to make sure they 00:03:34.579 --> 00:03:38.609 covered the Pole’s location. Along with flags and a tent marker, 00:03:38.609 --> 00:03:44.029 they left a letter for Scott, which would not be found until over a month later. 00:03:44.029 --> 00:03:46.301 But when Scott’s party finally reached the pole, 00:03:46.301 --> 00:03:49.161 losing the ‘race’ was the least of their problems. 00:03:49.161 --> 00:03:53.901 On the way back towards the camp, two of the five men succumbed to frostbite 00:03:53.901 --> 00:03:56.101 starvation, and exhaustion. 00:03:56.101 --> 00:04:00.341 The remaining explorers hoped for a prearranged rendezvous with a team sent 00:04:00.341 --> 00:04:04.141 from their base, but due to a series of mishaps, misjudgements and 00:04:04.141 --> 00:04:07.571 miscommunications, their rescue never arrived. 00:04:07.571 --> 00:04:12.851 Their remains, along with Scott’s diary, would not be found until spring. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:12.851 --> 00:04:15.612 Today, scientists from various countries 00:04:15.612 --> 00:04:18.732 live and work at Antarctic research stations. 00:04:18.732 --> 00:04:22.092 But the journeys of these early explorers are not forgotten. 00:04:22.092 --> 00:04:25.892 Despite their divergent fates, they are forever joined in history, 00:04:25.892 --> 00:04:29.550 and in the name of the research base that marks the South Pole.