100th Anniversary of Roald Amundsen Reaching South Pole—How the Grueling Race Was Won

By David Roberts; Photograph by London News/Getty Images

It was the strangest of all races. Two teams of five men each—one British, the other Norwegian—set out at the beginning of the 1911 Antarctic summer, both bent on becoming the first explorers to reach the South Pole. The British team was led by 43-year-old Robert Falcon Scott, the Norwegian by 39-year-old Roald Amundsen. Each man had already made bold expeditions to the Antarctic region.

Yet because the two expeditions had chosen to build their coastal base camps 600 miles apart, at either edge of the vast Ross Ice Shelf, their paths would never overlap, and the two teams would never catch sight of each other. There was no way to know who was leading the race.

After wintering over in Framheim, Amundsen’s team set out on October 18. Scott’s party did not depart from Cape Evans until November 1. The two parties had about the same distance—roughly 800 miles in a straight line—to cover to get to 90 degrees south. Yet their traveling styles were utterly different, and those differences would spell victory and defeat. Amundsen used dogs to haul his sledges, while the men skied; to supplement the rations they carried, they would kill and eat the dogs when they succumbed to exhaustion. Scott experimented in vain with ponies and motorized tractors, but ended up heading for the Pole with his men in harnesses, pulling their heavy sledges themselves. At the last minute, unwilling to exclude the plucky “Birdie” Bowers from the party as it neared its goal, Scott ended up launching his final push with four pairs of skis for five men. Bowers had to plod along in his boots, plunging deep into the snow at every step.

Update: Expedition Findings Predict Arctic Summer Ice Gone in 20 Years

Last summer, Arctic adventurer Pen Hadow led the Caitlin Ice Survey on a scientific expedition to the North Pole. Their objective was to take ice core samples to measure the average thickness of the ice and add valuable data to the discourse surrounding global warming. Avid ADVENTURE readers will recall that things got a bit hairy for Hadow and co. with the team having to abandon the mission before they actually reached the pole. They may not have gotten to zero degrees longitude and latitude, but their findings, which debuted yesterday in London, have still proved highly important. Unfortunately, they have not done anything to dissuade the theory that the Earth is rapidly getting warmer.

The Amundsen Mystery Still Unsolved

The more than 80-year-old mystery of the disappearance of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his airplane remains unsolved, as New Zealand explorer Rob McCallum and his team returned from their two-week search for the aircraft empty-handed.  

Adventure Video: Killer Whales' Cunning Seal Hunting Technique

Text by Laura Buckley

We now have 40 Wild Chronicles videos, hosted by National Geographic's own Boyd Matson, up on our site. In each episode, top explorers and field scientists traverse the globe, from Antarctica to Iceland, to report on the state of the natural world.

One of our favorites is "Antarctic Orca Hunting"—not because we particularly enjoy watching these killer whales find their food source (read: kill), but because nature is just plain fascinating. The video begins with a brief overview of summertime in Antarctica, where the balmy 30-degree water is the food court for its inhabitants. But the main action happens around the 3:30 mark, when a group of seven orcas hunt together, a feat rarely captured on video. The whales circle around a lone seal stretched out on a small ice floe—begging the term "sitting duck" to be renamed—and employ amazing techniques to not only kill the seal, but teach the youngin' orcas how to hunt. Fascinating stuff.

Adventure in 60 Seconds: "First Out, Last Back" Caitlin Arctic Survey Completed

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

It wasn’t the most smoothest expedition to ever traverse the Arctic, but after 75 days at the top of the world, Pen Hadow, Anne Daniels, and Martin Hartley of the Caitlin Arctic Survey are off the ice and headed home. They were picked up at 85 degrees north latitude earlier this morning.

“It seems that we are the last out here,” wrote Hadow in one of his final blog posts, “so I guess we can claim to be the first out and last back this year!” For a man who has endured -50 degree days, repeated equipment failure and 10 day food shortages, he is in pretty high spirits.

And why shouldn’t he be? He’s getting flown off a giant sheet of ice that is beginning to become dangerously unstable due to it’s annual summer melt. Although the team did not reach the North Pole, their mission was always more about research than glory. Hadow and Hartley have been measuring the thickness of the ice as they move north in an effort to provide definitive data relating to climate change. Since their GPS-enabled measuring device broke, they have been hand drilling core samples.

Now that they are off home, the big news is what their findings will reveal about the state of the ice on the North Pole, stay tuned for the results.

Read our interview pre-departure interview with Hadow here.

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

MOUNTAINS

There was death and glory in the Himalaya this week with multiple summits and no shortage of danger for the men and women on the cusp of their summit pushes. The unsteady western shoulder of Everest’s fabled Khumbu Icefall gave way on the 7th, creating a large avalanche. Explorersweb.com reports that Lapka Nuru Sherpa is feared dead, and climber Alex Gavan has decided to abort his summit attempt due to concerns about the condition of the icefall (mounteverest.net). According to The Adventure Blog, the same story is playing itself out on the north side of Everest, where an avalanche has swept fixed ropes off the mountain and delayed the efforts of anxious climbers (theadventureblog.blogspot.com).

Over on Kangchenjunga, Spaniard Edurne Pasabán is hunkered down in Camp 3 as the winds howl. She hopes to be able to summit in two days, but will be forced to retreat should the winds persist (mounteverest.net). In doing so, she would be the second woman to summit Kangchenjunga this winter, after Korean Oh Eun Sun pushed through incement weather to top out yesterday. Below them both, Italian Nives Meroi (one of her competitors, you will recall, for the first woman to climb all 8,000-meter peaks) has just arrived in base camp.

Lest you think all the action was happening above 8000 meters, American alpinists David Gottlieb and Joe Puryear dodged rock falls and snow storms to bag the first ascent of Jobo Rinjang (6,778 meters) in Nepal. Read about all the fun on climbing.com.

POLES

The Arctic has quieted down a bit since John Huston and Tyler Fish reached 90 degrees, but Pen Hadow and the Caitlin Ice Survey grind on. This week, they finally got a re-supply of rations after ten days of waiting. According to their blog, they were down to 90 grams a day of fruits, nuts, chocolate, and cereals and had stopped drilling ice samples due to exhaustion and cold. They report being full and happy again after the plane touched down bringing them rations, news from home, and even some cold (of course) beer. (news.bbc.co.uk).

Most people figured that Olly Hicks’ journey to row around the world (via an Antarctica circumnavigation) was over when he called off his attempt due to poor weather and technical problems relating to drift and the design of his boat. Well, he has spent the last three weeks or so trying to get back to terra firma. It wasn’t happy rowing. But he’s back on land now trying to work out his sea legs and you can read about all of his travails on his website (virginglobalrow.com/blog.html).

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

MOUNTAINS

Headache, heartache, and triumph in the Himalaya this week with lots of acclimatization, bad weather, and even a couple of summits. Edurne Pasabán is sitting in camp 3 on Kangchenjunga, which she says on her blog is “Bonito, pero duro” (pretty, but hard), as she gets over the headaches and shortness of breath that are par for the course (edurnepasaban.com).

The same can be said for just about everyone doing the acclimatizing rounds on Everest. The First Ascent team members who aren’t super human (the minority in a group that includes Ed Viesturs, Peter Whittaker, and Dave Hahn) are taking advantage of the down time to practice hiking with their supplemental oxygen (watch video dispatches). In between headaches and oxygen masks, they took a few moments to remember expedition member Pete Whittaker’s uncle Jim Whittaker who on this day in 1963 became the first American to summit Everest. On the newly opened north side, a lot of teams are regretting that they used the new road (built for the Beijing Olympics) to get to base camp. According to the Adventure Blog, it has allowed them to arrive so quickly that at least one team has had to descend due to theinability to acclimatize.

Over on Manaslu, bad weather forced Spaniard Carlos Pauner to turn back just 60 meters from the summit, while the Portuguese man o’war Joao Garcia pushed on and topped out a day later, along with Koreans Hong Bo-Seong, Kim Chang-Ho, and Seo Sung-Ho. Summitting later in the week was Czech Radek Jaros (mounteverest.net).

OCEANS

Things were just as difficult at the bottom of the world as they were at the top this week with three boats, Hoppipolla, Dream It Do It, and What Ever It Takes, being knocked out of the Indian Ocean Rowing Race due to wear and tear (theoceans.net). Another boat, Old Mutual Endurance and its single crew member, one gritty brit named Simon Prior, were capsized in high seas, but quickly righted themselves and remain in the race (indianoceanrowingrace09.com).

In the South Pacific, Enric Sala and Mike Faye attended a black-tie affair with sharks (ocean.nationalgeographic.com/blog), which might sound a little dicey, but is really a walk in the park compared to getting stranded on a guano island, as they did earlier this month (ocean.nationalgeographic.com/blog).

POLES

With everyone’s favorite Midwesterners John Huston and Tyler Fish off the Arctic ice, that leaves the long-suffering Caitlin Ice Survey hunkered down in their tent awaiting a food re-supply. They are currently rationing their calories to 1,000 a day, so let’s hope those planes come soon. On the up-side, all this sitting and waiting has made for some good conversation in the tent, according to teammate Ann Daniels (news.bbc.co.uk). The optimistic navigator is currently giving some of her own rations to the guys because they spend much of the day on the ice manually drilling for ice samples to compensate for the death of the radar machine that was supposed to electronically measure the thickness of the ice.

Interview: John Huston, First American to Ski to North Pole Unsupported

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

At 5:30 p.m. on April 25th, after 54 days of skiing, John Huston, 32, and Tyler Fish, 34, reached the North Pole and became the first Americans in history do so unassisted and on skis. ADVENTURE caught up with John Huston yesterday as he relaxed in a hotel room on Oslo, Norway, waiting to fly home to his native Chicago.

ADVENTURE: How are you feeling?

John Huston: Great. Tyler and I each got minor frost-bite on our thighs and our fingers are still a little bit numb, but otherwise I’m feeling great.

Can you explain how your Midwestern upbringing affected you as an adventurer?

JH: Both Tyler and I have lived in Eli, Minnesota (Tyler still lives there), where there are more North Pole and Polar adventurers per capita than any other place in the United States.

You mean people who have trekked to the Poles?

JH: Mostly dog sledded, via the expeditions that Will Steger led beginning in the 80s. We also worked at an Outward Bound school in northern Minnesota that does dog sledding and cross-country skiing expeditions. Just being around the culture of Eli, where the older generation is filled with guys like Will Steger, was and is really inspring for us. We looked at what they had done and then set out to do what hadn’t been done yet.

How did you guys train for the expedition?

JH: The training was a three-year process that included other polar expeditions. I skied the South Pole last winter, which is actually a lot easier because it is a stable ice cap (as opposed to a bunch of floating icebergs). We also did several training expeditions on Baffin Island, as well as lots of research and consultation with people in Norway and Canada who have done similar expeditions. Back at home, we pulled 45 pound tires on our skis to simulate pulling sleds.

Continue reading this interview >>

Adventure in 60 Seconds: First Americans Complete Unsupported North Pole Ski Trek

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

America’s heartland is known for its farms, football, and low-key, but friendly folk. With such a humble reputation, it’s easy to forget that the Midwest has also produced some of the most intrepid American arctic explorers of the decade. Case in point, explorer Will Steger, the Minnesota native who got our lifetime achievement award in 2007, has more significant polar "firsts" than just about anyone. 

The world was reminded over the weekend when Tyler Fish of Ely, Minnesota, and John Huston of Chicago, Illinois, became the first Americans to complete an unsupported ski trek to the North Pole. Although the early parts of their expedition went quite smoothly compared other teams making a run for the Pole, their last days were hampered by bad weather, which almost caused them to miss their April 26th evacuation deadline. They arrived at the Pole on the 25th, sleep deprived from 12-hour skiing shifts broken up with one- to two-hour naps—and with only two and a half meals remaining in their cargo sleds.
Joining them at the Pole was fellow Minnesotan Lonnie Dupre, who led the PolarExplorers Peary-Henson 100th Anniversary Commemorative Expedition. His team included Stuart Smith and Maxime Chaya, the first Lebanese person to reach the North Pole.

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo

MOUNTAINS
The Himalaya were bustling this week with climbers of all nationalities moving out of base camps in order to establish their high camps. On Everest, this mean crossing the imposing Khumbu Icefall, which is always done with a series of wobbling ladders employed as makeshift bridges over worryingly deep crevasses. You can see just how fun it is by taking a look at the First Ascent team’s video updates.

The few climbers who stuck to their guns and waited for permits to climb the north side of Everest have finally been rewarded for their patience. As their friends struggle through the icefall, climbers like Lee Farmer and Nobukazu Kuriki are more focused on the trains, planes, and automobiles that will get them into base camp. As a measure of good faith, the Chinese government is fixing the ropes—hey it’s the least they could do (theadventureblog.blogspot.com).

Over on Kangchenjunga, Edurne Pasabán told Explorersweb that the weather varies between scorching sun and pouring rain. Their porters are exhausted and she has been running a fever for three days. At least there aren’t any wobbly ladders involved (mounteverest.net).

The weather might be bad on Kangchenjunga, but misery loves company and Edurne has plenty of that. The same cannot be said for the indomitable Joao García, who is currently in the process of lugging goods from Camp 2 to Camp 3 on Manaslu. According to Explorersweb, his two partners have been forced to go home due to work obligations.

THE POLES
The North Pole is generally considered a pretty lonely place, but that has not been the case for John Huston and Tyler Fish, who actually managed to bump into the team of Keith Heger and Sebastian Copeland...So…you guys come here often? Aside from impromptu meetings on the ice, Huston and Fish have passed the week with good weather, a bit of sewing, trivia games, their first successful swim, and, of course, 7,600 calories a day of pemmican stew, ramen noodles, truffles, and freeze-dried cheddar cheese (forwardexpeditions.com/blog.html).

One man who could probably use a good friend and a bit of freeze dried cheese at the moment is Pen Hadow, whose Caitlin Ice Survey team have permanently lost the use of a radar device used to measure ice thickness and a satellite communications unit that is supposed to relay the data they are collecting. The BBC reports that cold temperatures at the start of the expedition were to blame. However, if history has taught the world anything, it’s that you can’t keep a good Scot down. Hadow and co. have decided to help compensate for their loss in technology by rolling up their sleeves and doing thins the old fashioned way: manually drilling more holes in the ice in order to take measurement.

Anyone who treks in northen latitudes can tell you that tenacity and will are a big part of success. It cannot be doubted that Ben Thackwray and Ian Couch have plenty of both. Unfortunately, they were still forced to abandon their Greenland speed attempt due to inclement weather and frostbite (thepoles.com).