The Great Antarctic Race
In the long and tragic history of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, prudent Roald Amundsen and the tragic Robert Falcon Scott outshine everyone else.
The South Pole was the final frontier in the 19th century. During the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration many brave souls tried conquering the white wasteland of Antarctic. Buried in the frozen hell, none lived to tell the tale.
Then, Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian and an ardent explorer of the polar regions conquered it in 1911. Amundsen was five weeks ahead of his closest rival Robert Falcon Scott, a British Royal Navy office. This victory,however, came at a bitter cost overshadowed by the tragic deaths of Scott and his team.
‘The Race to the South Pole’ and the Scott-Amundsen rivalry remains an oft-cited tale of human endurance and grit.
Amundsen’s initial plan was to reach the North Pole and claim it for Norway. But rival American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary beat him to it. Bitterly disappointed, Amundsen looked diametrically opposite — to the South Pole. News of the brilliant Robert Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition reached him. Amundsen resolved not to be beaten this time.
He anchored at the Bay of Whales and in January of 1911 established Framheim, his base camp for the conquest of the South Pole.
Amundsen’s conquest is a tale of passionless application of expertise and cold ambition. All he wanted was to be the first human to reach the South Pole. With meticulous planning and prudence, he wrote his name in the annals of history.
Amundsen was smart. He understood that he cannot defeat the violent continent by being naive and headstrong.
He set out to establish three supply depots stocked with tons of seal meal, gallons of paraffin oil, and sledge biscuits. These supply depots were setup at 80°, 81° and 82° South on the Ross Ice Shelf, along a line directly south to the Pole and would prove to be critical for the return journey.
After nine months of rigorous preparation, Amundsen pushed down south on September 8, 1911. This initial thrust proved disastrous as the weather pushed him back.
Amundsen retreated to Framheim and bid his time. But always, he worried about Scott’s expedition.
October 19, 1911, Amundsen set out for the South Pole with five men, four sledges, and fifty-two dogs. Amundsen planned to kill few dogs on the way and use them as a source for fresh meat.
As he crossed the icy world of Antarctica, Amundsen discovered — and named — the Axel Heiberg Glacier, a guiding point to the South Pole.
His progress was rapid, partly to the strategic use of skis and sled dogs.
At 10,600 ft of glacier at 85° 23', Amundsen and team began their final stage of the journey. Until then, the farthest any man had ever reached was 85° 23'. Amundsen passed this on December 8, 1911.
On December 14, 1911, Amundsen’s party reached 90° 0′ S, the South Pole, Earth’s southernmost part. Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole. He had beat Scott and his Terra Nova Expedition.
Amundsen christened the South Pole camp Polheim, ‘Home on the Pole’. He named the entire plateau surrounding the Pole as King Haakon VII’s Plateau, in honor of the King of Norway.
The party spent three days to fix the exact position of the pole and then ‘boxed’ it. They erected a small tent and left letters stating their accomplishment. Amundsen also left equipment for Scott along with a letter addressed to King Haakon that he requested Scott to deliver.
Robert Scott arrived five weeks later. His endeavor was not even half as easy as his rival’s. The return, not even close.
Scott was ‘bitten by the Pole mania’ in the golden days of the polar expeditions. Having set out to conquer the South Pole, Scott was inadvertently drawn into this deadly race by Amundsen.
All it took was a telegram from Amundsen informing Scoot of his ambition.
“BEG TO INFORM YOU FRAM PROCEEDING ANTARCTIC — AMUNDSEN.”
Scott was in charge of the Terra Nova Expedition; officially, the British Antarctic Expedition.
A mission doomed since beginning, on it way from New Zealand to Antarctica, the ship Terra Nova was trapped for twenty days in ice pack. It only got worse when they reached the Bay of Whales to see Framheim, Amundsen’s base named after his ship the Fram (“Forward”).
Scott’s approach to conquer the South Pole was starkly different than Amundsen’s. Where Amundsen relied on skis and sled dogs, Scott hedged his bets on Manchurian ponies and motorized sledges. Scott intended to reach the Pole via the Beardmore Glacier, pioneered by Ernest Shackleton. He relied on having the experience of a ‘known path’.
Scott’s journey proved to be long and arduous. His men pulled their own sledges and they lost ponies along the way. The group also ran out of provisions — they did not have the foresight, or prudence, of Amundsen to set up depots.
Scott’s South Pole conquest was marked by despair, loss, and a grueling struggle against Antarctica. It was a disaster.
Scott reached the South Pole (90° 0′ S) on January 17, 1912.
He was five weeks behind Amundsen.
The 1,300 km journey back to the Bay of Whales was never to be.
Petty Officer Edgar Evans was the first casualty of Scott’s polar party. On the journey back at Beardmore Glacier, he succumbed to exhaustion, cold, and frostbite. Meanwhile, in another unfortunate turn of events, the Terra Nova docked at Bay of Whales. They directly disobeyed orders to go further south to pick up Scott and his party!
With 670 km to go, the party ran into bad weather. Snow blinded, they lost dog-teams to the fury of the cold, harsh winds. Captain Lawrence Oates was the second to perish. Afflicted with gangrene and frostbite, he walked from his tent into a blizzard.
The worst was yet to come. March 19, 1912 and 38 km from their original location, a fierce blizzard stopped them again. Scott and remaining team spent nine days without supplies. Frozen fingers, lack of light, and the malicious ferocity of the snow left them stranded.
Scurvy claimed them one by one. Until, on March 29, 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, perished.
Dying on the continent he almost conquered, Scott left letters for his wife and mother. Nearly eight months later, the corpses of the Terra Nova Expedition team were found. Scott was presumed the last to die. He died tragically on the ice. Fighting for every mile he gained, he eventually lost to the wrath of the Antarctic.
Roald Amundsen won the Race to the South Pole, but Scott emerged heroically triumphant in his death. The continent’s brutal forces still remain an open challenge.
Originally published in Vol. 01, July-August 2013, Meet the City, a bimonthly luxury & lifestyle magazine published by Panchshil.
