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“Everything went like a dance,” said Roald Amundsen in what would have to rank as one of the understatements of the Century. He was referring to the race for the South Pole, which his team had just won ahead of the British team led by Captain Robert Scott. The two nations had been battling it out for the honor of reaching the Pole first since the beginning of the Century.
The news of the 39 year old Captain Amundsen and his four Norwegian Antarctic Expedition compatriots took three and a half months to reach England. That was longer than the expedition itself took. On October 20th, 1911 the five men had set out with 52 dogs from their winter quarters. As they set out from their winter quarters, their sledges were loaded with food and equipment. Setting the pace at 25 kilometers per day, it took the hardy Norwegians 53 days to reach the South Pole. This made the date of their historic achievement December 14th, 1911.
The goal of Roald Amundesn had never been to be the first man to reach the South Pole. Rather, it was the North Pole that the Norwegian had long had his sights on reaching before any other man. But that hope was dashed when Robert Peary had reached the North Pole in 1909. Immediately switching his focus to the other end of the world, he sailed south from Norway in June 1910.
Once the expedition set off from base camp they soon came to appreciate just what a frozen waste they had chosen to take on. One day the temperature dropped to a staggering minus 59 degrees Centigrade. The worst part of the journey, according to Amundsen himself, was across a hollow, frozen sea which he called ‘The Devil’s Dancing Room.’ They had to be extremely careful not to fall through the ice. One man and two dogs did just that, but were able to be rescued.
By the 8th of December, they had reached the spot where, in 1909 Englishman Ernest Shackleton had given up in his attempt to reach the Pole. The journey had so far taken the Norwegians 10,000 feet up into a Mountain stretch that Amundsen named in honor of Queen Maude. When they finally reached the Pole on December 14th, the five explorers gathered around their national flag and each grabbed a hold as it was planted in the snow.
Captain Robert Falcon Scott was leading the British Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition at the same time. However, Scott’s base camp was 60 miles behind Amundsen’s. This added distance allowed Amundsen to beat Scott by over a month. The British explorers finally reached their destination on January 17th, 1912. They were bitterly disappointed to find the Norwegian flag already there. That disappointment, however, was short lived. All five of the British explorers got caught in a blizzard on the Ross Ice Shelf on the return journey. All five of them died.
Roald Amundsen himself died in a flying accident at the north Pole in 1928.
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