Polar Exploration and Roald Amundsen

Who was the first to discover the South Pole? What stories lie behind the exploration? What did they discover?

A Little Bit About Amundsen

Amundsen's Signature

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was born on the 16th July 1872 in Borge, Østfold in Norway. His family were ship-owners and captains in Borge, a town in between Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg. His mother pressured him to become a doctor and made him stay away from ships and maritime industry. Amundsen kept this promise, until she died when he was 21. Then, he quit his medical studies for a life at sea. He was greatly inspired by Fridtjof Nansen and had a lifelong desire to explore places like Greenland and the Poles. However, he disappeared 18th  June 1928 when he was flying a plane with Norwegian pilot Leif Dietrichson, French pilot René Guilbaud, and three more Frenchmen, looking for missing members of Nobile's crew, whose new airship Italia had crashed while returning from the North Pole. The plane was found near the Tromsø coast and it is thought that the plane crashed whilst travelling through fog, but Amundsen's body was never found. The investigation was called off in September of that year. But, in 2004 and late August 2009, unsuccessful searches were performed by the Royal Norwegian Navy.

What Happened

On the 14th December 1911, Roald Amundsen arrived in Antarctica. He arrived 5 weeks before the English team led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen set off from Antarctica's Bay of Whales on 19th October 1911. He had 52 dogs to pull the expeditions supplies and he had 4 other people with him.

Roald Amundsen

The base Framheim, February 1911

Amundsen raced to the North Pole in 1909 but preparations for this expedition were disrupted when the rival American explorers Captain Frederick Cook and Robert E. Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole first. Because of this, Amundsen decided to change plans, and to start the race to the South Pole. However, he wasn't sure how his supporters would react and so kept his plans a secret. Therefore, even in June 1910, many of his crew still thought that they were going to explore the Arctic. 

When they arrived there, Amundsen positioned his Antarctic base, called "Framheim", in the Bay of Whales on the Great Ice Barrier. After months of preparation and a false start that could of lead to a disaster, the team finally set out in October 1911. 

Amundsen and his team explored Antarctica and many places there are named after him:

• The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is named jointly with his rival
• Amundsen Sea, off the coast of Antarctica
• Amundsen Glacier, in Antarctica
• Amundsen Bay, in Antarctica
• Mount Amundsen, in Antarctica