December 14, 1911: Roald Amundsen Reaches the South Pole

On December 14, 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team of four men became the first humans to reach the geographic South Pole, planting the Norwegian flag at the bottom of the world. After 99 days of grueling travel across Antarctica's frozen wilderness, Amundsen achieved one of the greatest geographical prizes in exploration history. This triumph came at the end of a secret race against British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, whose team would arrive 34 days later only to face a tragic fate on their return journey.

The Secret Race to the South Pole

Amundsen originally planned to reach the North Pole first, but when American explorers Robert Peary and Frederick Cook both claimed to have reached it in 1909, Amundsen secretly changed his target to the South Pole. He told almost no one, including his crew, until after they had already sailed south. British naval officer Robert Falcon Scott had publicly announced his own South Pole expedition, intending to claim the prize for Britain. When Scott learned that Amundsen was also heading south, a dramatic race began. The two expeditions used completely different strategies. Amundsen relied on dog sleds and studied Inuit survival techniques, while Scott used a combination of motorized sledges, ponies, and man hauling. Amundsen established his base camp at the Bay of Whales, 60 miles closer to the Pole than Scott's camp at Cape Evans.

The Journey Across Antarctica

Amundsen and his carefully selected team of five departed Framheim base camp on October 19, 1911, with four sledges pulled by 52 Greenland sled dogs. The team included expert skiers Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting. They traveled 15 to 20 miles per day across the Ross Ice Shelf, then climbed the treacherous Axel Heiberg Glacier to reach the polar plateau. Temperatures dropped to negative 76°F. The men wore fur clothing adapted from Inuit designs and ate a high calorie diet including pemmican, a concentrated mixture of dried meat and fat. Amundsen's meticulous planning included placing supply depots along the route, ensuring they never ran short of food or fuel. The dogs proved essential, handling the brutal conditions far better than Scott's motorized vehicles, which broke down, or his ponies, which struggled in the cold.

Reaching the South Pole

On December 14, 1911, at approximately 3:00 PM, Amundsen's team reached 90 degrees south latitude, the geographic South Pole. The landscape offered no dramatic features, just an endless white plateau of ice and snow. The men planted the Norwegian flag and named the plateau King Haakon VII's Plateau after Norway's king. They erected a small tent with a Norwegian flag on top and left a letter for Scott inside, asking him to forward it to the King of Norway in case Amundsen's team did not survive the return journey. The team took readings and observations to confirm their position, then spent three days conducting measurements in a 12 mile radius to ensure they had truly reached the mathematical point of the Pole. They celebrated with a special meal, though their emotions were surprisingly subdued after the long journey.

The Contrasting Fates

Amundsen's team began their return journey on December 17 and reached Framheim on January 25, 1912, with all five men healthy and 11 of their dogs still alive. Their expedition was a complete success. Meanwhile, Scott's team reached the Pole on January 17, 1912, devastated to find Amundsen's tent and the Norwegian flag already planted. Scott wrote in his diary: "The worst has happened. All the daydreams must go. Great God! This is an awful place." Scott's exhausted team faced disaster on the return trip. Weakened by malnutrition, frostbite, and possibly scurvy, all five men died between February and March 1912, just 11 miles from a supply depot that could have saved them. Search parties found their bodies and Scott's diary eight months later. The tragic contrast between the two expeditions highlights how Amundsen's superior planning, equipment choices, and polar expertise made the difference between triumph and tragedy.

Legacy of the Achievement

Amundsen's successful polar conquest established him as one of history's greatest polar explorers. He had also been first to navigate the Northwest Passage from 1903 to 1906, and would later attempt to fly over the North Pole. His South Pole achievement demonstrated that careful preparation, appropriate technology, and respect for indigenous survival methods could overcome even the harshest environments on Earth. The race between Amundsen and Scott became legendary, inspiring countless books and films. Today, the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station, a permanent American research facility, honors both explorers. Scientists there continue studying climate, astronomy, and physics in the same brutal conditions the explorers faced over a century ago. Amundsen's journey proved that the age of terrestrial exploration was ending, with both poles now reached, but it opened the modern age of scientific research in Antarctica.