Today The South Pole

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1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team become the first men to reach the South Pole.
1972: Apollo 17, the last manned space mission to the Moon, returns to Earth, ending US lunar exploration.
1995: Leaders of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia sign the Dayton Accord to end years of war in the Balkans.



Different agendas
In 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Captain Roald Amundsen set off from their respective base camps on the Antarctic coast, each trying to reach the South Pole first. Amundsen reached it on 15 December 1911 (the date is sometimes given as 14 December - the difference being due to differing interpretations of the international date line) and returned to civilisation within three months. Scott and his four men arrived at the Pole 33 days later, on 17 January 1912, and faced an agonising struggle to get back to base camp. They all perished. Exactly why Amundsen's team completed the return journey with comparative ease and Scott's party died has been the source of fierce debate ever since.


Getting the smallest details right or wrong can be the difference between life and death...
Despite Scott and Amundsen's shared aim to reach the Pole first, they differed in how they organised their expeditions. From the type of men they chose to the food and equipment they took, the differences were marked. In the extreme and hostile conditions of the Antarctic, getting the smallest details right or wrong can mean the difference between life and death.

Cadbury's cocoa powder, taken by Amundsen's Fram expedition To begin with, Scott's agenda was more diverse. He planned to continue his vast programme of scientific work, following on from the tasks undertaken on his Discovery expedition (1901-4), as well as wanting to reach the Pole. Amundsen, on the other hand, did not even take any scientists and had relatively limited interest in major scientific achievement. His childhood desire was to be the first man at the North Pole, but when it was claimed in 1909, he was determined to be the first at the South Pole instead. He wrote in his journal:

'...my plans made the Pole the first objective.'

This competitive focus enabled Amundsen to spend all his energy and funds on the journey south.

Scott and Amundsen represented two very different nations and this inevitably influenced how their expeditions were organised, as well as their expectations of achievement. Scott was appointed to lead two official British expeditions to the Antarctic and always planned his voyages in the gaze of an inquisitive media. Due to Britain's world standing, it was naturally assumed that an Englishman would reach the Pole first.

In contrast, Norway was a relatively new nation in Amundsen's day, having only achieved its independence from Sweden in 1905. Amundsen was taking a massive gamble in his quest to reach the Pole first. One of the reasons why he planned his Antarctic expedition secretly was because Norway needed diplomatic support from Britain. He saw the political sensitivity in pitching himself against the English explorer and feared people would try to stop him if he made his plans public. Pride and an independent nature also contributed to Amundsen's pretence of continuing with his plans to journey to the Arctic.

 

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Camp conflicts
Tryggve Gran, T Griffith (geologist) and Charles Wright (physicist), aboard the 'Terra Nova', 22 December 1910 Scott's Terra Nova expedition was large compared to Amundsen's hand-picked party. Over 60 men manned the British ship and 25 men comprised the shore party, who would winter at base camp. Amundsen picked 19 men for his Fram expedition but only nine wintered at Framheim (meaning 'home of the Fram'), the hut they built on the ice shelf. Scott had yet to pick his Polar team from the shore party and, in fact, did not settle the matter until he was about 240km (150 miles) from the Pole.


Oates was candid in his criticism of Scott...
Amundsen planned for eight of the men to go to the Pole, with the Swedish cook, Adolf Lindstrøm, remaining at Framheim. The only man he feared in his party was Hjalmar Johansen, a famous Arctic explorer in his own right. When Amundsen set off too early in September 1911, the party was forced to return to the hut, and Johansen was appalled by the disarray and publicly chastised Amundsen. He was dropped with two others from the polar party - Amundsen would not tolerate people who criticised his leadership. In contrast, Scott included Captain Oates in his Polar party (as a representative of the army), despite the fact that the two men clashed. In letters home to his mother, Oates was candid in his criticism of Scott and this conflict was yet another strain on Scott's leadership.

Inuit-style wolfskin fur suit © Regarding the equipment they planned to use, Amundsen's men were used to cold climates. As a nation, Norway pioneered skiing and Amundsen deliberately included a skiing champion, Olav Bjaaland, in his party. The British party was not so skilled at skiing and had little experience of how to adapt skis to different kinds of terrain. In the final push to the Pole, one of Scott's men, Birdie Bowers, even left his skis behind at one of the depots, forcing him to stumble through the snow.

Meanwhile, Amundsen and his men had spent time working out what type of skis and bindings to use for the variety of terrain and snow they would face. The Norwegians also spent time at base camp re-building their boots to prevent crippling blisters. Unlike the British party, the Norwegians took wolf-skin fur suits, adapted from Inuit clothing, in addition to the windproof Burberry suits they wore, made of a lighter gabardine material. Amundsen had also learnt from the Inuit that in order to reduce sweating, clothing must be worn loosely.