The dangerous and daring race for the South Pole - Elizabeth Leane

Roald Amundsen had spent nearly two
years preparing his Arctic expedition.

He had secured funding from the Norwegian
Crown and hand-picked a trusted crew.

He’d even received the blessing of famed
explorer Fridtjof Nansen, along with the

use of his ship Fram, specially
constructed to withstand the ice.

Now, with the voyage departing, he had
one final announcement for his shipmates:

They were going to head in the
opposite direction.

By the early 20th century, nearly every
region of the globe had been visited and

mapped, with only two key locations
remaining: the North Pole, deep in the

frozen waters of the Arctic region,
and the South Pole, nestled within a

recently discovered icy continent
in the vast Antarctic Ocean.

A veteran of several expeditions,
Amundsen had long dreamed of

reaching the North Pole.
But in 1909, amidst his preparations,

news came that American explorers
Frederick Cook and Robert Peary had staked

rival claims to the achievement.
Instead of abandoning the planned voyage,

Amundsen decided to alter its course to
what he called “the last great problem.”

But Amundsen’s crew weren’t
the only ones kept in the dark.

British naval officer Robert F. Scott had
already visited the Antarctic, and was

leading his own South Pole expedition.
Now, as Scott’s ship Terra Nova reached

Melbourne in autumn 1910, he was greeted
with the news that Amundsen

was also heading south.
Reluctantly, Scott found himself pitted

against the Norwegian in what the
newspapers called a ‘race to the Pole.’

Yet if it was a race,
it was a strange one.

The expeditions left at different times
from different locations, and they had

very different plans for the journey.
Amundsen was focused solely

on reaching the Pole.
Informed by his Arctic exploration,

he drew on both Inuit and Norwegian
experience, arriving with a small team of

men and more than a hundred dogs.
His explorers were clothed in sealskin

and furs, as well as specially
designed skis and boots.

But Scott's venture was more complicated.
Launching an extensive scientific

research expedition, he traveled with
over three times more men than Amundsen,

alongside over 30 dogs, 19 Siberian
ponies, and three state-of-the-art

motorized sledges.
But these additional tools and bodies

weighed down the ship as it battled
the storms of the southern ocean.

And as they finally began to lay supplies,
they found both their ponies and

motor-sledges ineffective
in the harsh ice and snow.

In the spring of 1911, after waiting out
the long polar night, both parties began

the journey south.
Scott’s team traveled over the Beardmore

Glacier, following the path of Ernest
Shackleton’s earlier attempt

to reach the pole.
But although this course had been

documented, it proved slow and laborious.
Meanwhile, despite an initial false start,

Amundsen’s five-man team made good time
using a previously uncharted route through

the same Transantarctic Mountains.
They stayed ahead of Scott’s team,

and on December 14, arrived first
at their desolate destination.

To avoid the ambiguity that surrounded
Cook’s and Peary’s North Pole claims,

Amundsen’s team traversed the area in
a grid to make sure they

covered the Pole’s location.
Along with flags and a tent marker,

they left a letter for Scott, which would
not be found until over a month later.

But when Scott’s party finally reached
the pole, losing the ‘race’ was

the least of their problems.
On the way back towards camp, two of

the five men succumbed to frostbite,
starvation, and exhaustion.

The remaining explorers hoped for a
prearranged rendezvous with a team sent

from their base, but due to a series of
mishaps, misjudgements and

miscommunications, their rescue
never arrived.

Their remains, along with Scott’s diary,
would not be found until spring.

Today, scientists from various countries
live and work at Antarctic

research stations.
But the journeys of these early

explorers are not forgotten.
Despite their divergent fates,

they are forever joined in history,
and in the name of the research

base that marks the South Pole.