0:00:06.480,0:00:11.430
Roald Amundsen had spent nearly two[br]years preparing his Arctic expedition.

0:00:11.430,0:00:16.210
He had secured funding from the Norwegian[br]Crown and hand-picked a trusted crew.

0:00:16.210,0:00:20.470
He’d even received the blessing of[br]the famed explorer Fridtjof Nansen,

0:00:20.470,0:00:25.950
along with the use of his ship, Fram, [br]specially constructed to withstand the ice.

0:00:25.950,0:00:31.280
Now, with the voyage departing, he had [br]one final announcement to his shipmates:

0:00:31.280,0:00:35.300
They were going to head in the[br]opposite direction.

0:00:35.300,0:00:36.840
By the early 20th century,

0:00:36.840,0:00:40.270
nearly every region of the globe had[br]been visited and mapped,

0:00:40.270,0:00:43.190
with only two key locations[br]remaining:

0:00:43.190,0:00:46.880
the North Pole, deep in the[br]frozen waters of the Arctic region,

0:00:46.880,0:00:51.170
and the South Pole, nestled within a[br]recently discovered icy continent

0:00:51.170,0:00:53.680
in the vast Antarctic Ocean.

0:00:53.680,0:00:56.050
A veteran of several expeditions, [br]

0:00:56.050,0:00:59.630
Amundsen had long dreamed of[br]reaching the North Pole.

0:00:59.630,0:01:02.570
But in 1909, amidst his preparations,

0:01:02.570,0:01:07.240
news came that the American explorers[br]Frederick Cook and Robert Peary

0:01:07.240,0:01:10.570
had staked rival claims[br]to the achievement.

0:01:10.570,0:01:13.090
Instead of abandoning the planned voyage,

0:01:13.090,0:01:19.690
Amundsen decided to alter its course to[br]what he called “the last great problem.”

0:01:19.690,0:01:22.930
But Amundsen’s crew weren’t [br]the only ones kept in the dark.

0:01:22.930,0:01:27.190
British naval officer Robert F. Scott had[br]already visited the Antarctic,

0:01:27.190,0:01:31.090
and was leading his own [br]South Pole expedition.

0:01:31.090,0:01:36.120
Now, as Scott’s ship Terra Nova [br]reached Melbourne in 1910,

0:01:36.120,0:01:40.860
he was greeted with the news[br]that Amundsen was also heading south.

0:01:40.860,0:01:44.640
Reluctantly, Scott found himself pitted[br]against the Norwegian

0:01:44.640,0:01:48.540
in what the newspapers [br]called a ‘race to the Pole.’

0:01:48.540,0:01:51.910
Yet if it was a race,[br]it was a strange one.

0:01:51.910,0:01:56.130
The expeditions left at different times[br]from different locations,

0:01:56.130,0:01:59.750
and they had very different [br]plans for the journey.

0:01:59.750,0:02:03.010
Amundsen was focused solely[br]on reaching the Pole.

0:02:03.010,0:02:05.100
Informed by his Arctic exploration,

0:02:05.100,0:02:08.310
he drew on both Inuit and [br]Norwegian experience,

0:02:08.310,0:02:12.360
arriving with a small team of[br]men and more than a hundred dogs.[br]

0:02:12.360,0:02:15.570
His explorers were clothed[br]in sealskin and furs,

0:02:15.570,0:02:18.728
as well as specially[br]designed skis and boots.

0:02:18.728,0:02:21.348
But Scott's venture was more complicated.[br]

0:02:21.348,0:02:24.898
Launching an extensive scientific [br]research expedition,

0:02:24.898,0:02:28.118
he traveled with over three times [br]more men than Amundsen,

0:02:28.119,0:02:32.619
alongside over 30 dogs, [br]19 Siberian ponies,

0:02:32.619,0:02:36.109
and three state-of-the-art[br]motorized sledges.

0:02:36.109,0:02:37.979
But these additional tools and bodies

0:02:37.979,0:02:41.699
weighed down the ship as it battled[br]the storms of the southern ocean.

0:02:41.699,0:02:44.449
And as they finally began to lay supplies,[br]

0:02:44.449,0:02:47.989
they found both their ponies and [br]motor-sledges ineffective

0:02:47.989,0:02:50.809
in the harsh ice and snow.

0:02:50.809,0:02:55.189
In the spring of 1911, after waiting out[br]the long polar night,

0:02:55.189,0:02:57.569
both parties began the journey south. [br]

0:02:57.569,0:03:00.709
Scott’s team traveled [br]over the Beardmore Glacier,

0:03:00.709,0:03:04.799
following the path of Ernest Shackleton's[br]earlier attempt to reach the pole.

0:03:04.799,0:03:09.549
But although this course had been[br]documented, it proved slow and laborious.

0:03:09.549,0:03:12.149
Meanwhile, despite an initial false start,

0:03:12.149,0:03:17.119
Amundsen’s five-man team made good time[br]using a previously uncharted route

0:03:17.119,0:03:20.139
through the same Transantarctic Mountains.[br]

0:03:20.139,0:03:21.939
They stayed ahead of Scott’s team,

0:03:21.939,0:03:26.669
and on December 14, arrived first[br]at their desolate destination.

0:03:26.669,0:03:30.669
To avoid the ambiguity that surrounded[br]Cook and Peary’s North Pole claims,

0:03:30.669,0:03:33.579
Amundsen’s team traversed[br]the area in a grid

0:03:33.579,0:03:36.699
to make sure they covered[br]the Pole’s location.

0:03:36.699,0:03:38.609
Along with flags and a tent marker,

0:03:38.609,0:03:44.029
they left a letter for Scott, which would[br]not be found until over a month later.

0:03:44.029,0:03:46.301
But when Scott’s party[br]finally reached the pole,

0:03:46.301,0:03:49.161
losing the ‘race’ was[br]the least of their problems. [br]

0:03:49.161,0:03:53.901
On the way back towards the camp,[br]two of the five men succumbed to frostbite

0:03:53.901,0:03:56.101
starvation, and exhaustion.

0:03:56.101,0:03:59.341
The remaining explorers hoped for a[br]prearranged rendezvous

0:03:59.341,0:04:01.111
with a team sent from their base,

0:04:01.111,0:04:05.471
but due to a series of mishaps, [br]misjudgements and miscommunications,

0:04:05.471,0:04:07.571
their rescue never arrived.

0:04:07.571,0:04:12.851
Their remains, along with Scott’s diary,[br]would not be found until spring.

0:04:12.851,0:04:15.612
Today, scientists from various countries[br]

0:04:15.612,0:04:18.732
live and work at Antarctic [br]research stations.

0:04:18.732,0:04:22.092
But the journeys of these early[br]explorers are not forgotten.

0:04:22.092,0:04:25.892
Despite their divergent fates,[br]they are forever joined in history,[br]

0:04:25.892,0:04:29.550
and in the name of the research[br]base that marks the South Pole.