Roald Amundsen: The First Man to Reach the South Pole
He made all the right moves, whereas Scott made many wrong ones
Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) was a Norwegian explorer who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, which he did in December 1911. History tells far fewer stories about him than it does about Robert Falcon Scott, who reached the pole a month later to find a Norwegian flag stuck in the ice, and who perished on the return journey.
The problem with Amundsen’s expedition, from the point of view of romance and history, is that there were not many problems.
Amundsen did not make many of the mistakes that Scott made. For example, he did not use heavy woollen clothing but lightweight furred skins. He also relied on dog teams for hauling sledges and not ponies, as Scott did.
The venture was carefully planned, with supply depots established at strategic points along the route. One factor that led to disaster for Scott’s party was that the supply depots were wrongly placed, which was not a mistake that Amundsen made.
Amundsen’s expedition did have one setback, with the first group that tried to reach the Pole being forced to turn back, but the second party, including Amundsen himself, reached its objective and returned safely to base camp.