Shackleton and Scott were determined to reach the pole. Scott worked with scientists, intent on using the best techniques to gather data and collect samples. Shackleton also conducted scientific surveys, although his expeditions were more narrowly focused on reaching the South Pole.
He came within kilometers miles of the pole in , but again had to turn back due to weather. Scott gathered public support and public funding for his Terra Nova expedition. He secured provision s and scientific equipment. In addition to the sailors and scientists on his team, the Terra Nova expedition also included tourist s—guests who helped finance the voyage in exchange for taking part in it.
On the way to Antarctica, the Terra Nova expedition stopped in Australia to take on final supplies. Here, Scott received a surprising telegram from Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen : "Beg leave to inform you Fram [Amundsen's ship] proceeding Antarctic.
His initial ambition, to be the first to reach the North Pole, had been thwart ed by American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary , both of whom claimed to reach the North Pole first. Both claims are now disputed, and Amundsen's flight over the North Pole is generally recognized as the first verified journey there. The Terra Nova and Fram expeditions arrived in Antarctica about the same time, in the middle of the Antarctic summer January.
They set up base camps about kilometers miles apart. As they proceeded south, both expeditions established resupply depots with supplies for their return journey. While Scott's team stuck to a route forged by Shackleton years earlier, Amundsen took a new route. Scott proceeded with scientific and expeditionary equipment hauled by dogs, ponies, and motor sledges.
The motorized equipment soon broke down, and the ponies could not adapt to the harsh Antarctic climate. Even the sled dogs became weary. All the ponies died, and most members of the expedition turned back. Only four men from the Terra Nova expedition including Scott's friend Wilson proceeded with Scott to the pole.
Amundsen traveled by dog sled, with a team of explorers, skiers, and musher s. The foresight and navigation paid off: Amundsen reached the pole in December He called the camp Polheim, and the entire Fram expedition successfully returned to their resupply depots, ship, and Norway. More than a month later, Scott reached the South Pole, only to be met by Amundsen's camp—he had left a tent, equipment, and supplies for Scott, as well as a note for the King of Norway to be delivered if the Fram expedition failed to make it back.
Disheartened, Scott's team slowly headed back north. They faced colder temperatures and harsher weather than Amundsen's team. They had fewer supplies. Suffering from hunger, hypothermia , and frostbite , all members of Scott's South Pole expedition died fewer than 18 kilometers 11 miles from a resupply depot. American explorer Richard E. Byrd became the first person to fly over the South Pole, in , and the Amundsen—Scott South Pole Station was established thirty years later.
However, the next overland expedition to the South Pole was not made until , more than 40 years after Amundsen and Scott's deadly race. The expedition was led by legendary New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, who had become the first person to scale Mount Everest in Transportation to the South Pole Almost all scientists and support personnel, as well as supplies, are flown in to the South Pole.
Hardy military aircraft usually fly from McMurdo Station, an American facility on the Antarctic coast and the most populated area on the continent.
The extreme and unpredictable weather around the pole can often delay flights. In , the U. It takes about 40 days for supplies to reach the pole from McMurdo, but the route is far more reliable and inexpensive than air flights. The highway can also supply much heavier equipment such as that needed by the South Pole's astrophysics laboratories than aircraft. Resources and Territorial Claims The entire continent of Antarctica has no official political boundaries, although many nations and territories claim land there.
No Time at the Poles Time is calculated using longitude. For instance, when the sun seems directly overhead, the local time is about noon. However, all lines of longitude meet at the poles, and the sun is only overhead twice a year at the equinoxes.
For this reason, scientists and explorers at the poles record time-related data using whatever time zone they want. The highway was created by filling in deep crevasses in the Antarctic ice sheet.
The only vehicles on the highway are specialized tractors equipped with specialized towing sleds. After the last supply plane has left the facility not to return for six months , they watch two movies: The Thing about a parasitic alien being terrorizing an Antarctic research facility and The Shining about a caretaker isolated at a remote hotel in the winter.
No one tries to ski there anymore. But occasionally, some adventurers still trek to the former site of the Magnetic Pole near Resolute and call it an expedition to the Magnetic Pole.
No one skis to the Magnetic South Pole for the simple reason that it is not even on the continent of Antarctica. It is off the coast, on the Australian side of Antarctica. While the South Pole yielded to one of the first expeditions that attempted it, the North Pole was a more daunting challenge for past explorers.
Nineteenth-century explorers vied instead for what they called Farthest North: who could get closest to the Pole. The British, Americans, and Norwegians traded preeminence: the British in , the Americans in , the Norwegians in , then the Americans again.
Frederick Cook and Robert Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole itself in and respectively, but historians now agree that both fell considerably short — and that both knew it.
Instead, he turned his sights on the South Pole, which he famously reached. Ironically, 15 years later, in , Amundsen unknowingly also became the first to reach the North Pole. Photo: Shutterstock. The first over-ice journey to the North Pole only occurred in A year later, Wally Herbert led a team on foot to the Pole, using sled dogs and many airdrops.
In , a Soviet team under Dmitri Shparo made the first ski trip to the Pole, starting from Siberia. The first actual round trip did not occur until when Richard Weber and Misha Malakhov did so unsupported. No one has even attempted this formidable journey again. Photo: Ralph Plaisted. Antarctica was first sighted in , either by Thaddeus von Bellingshausen on a Russian expedition or by Edward Bransfield during a British mapping survey.
Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink led the first expedition using dogs and sleds. A Shackleton-led team came even closer in , turning around just Photo: Wikimedia Commons. In , Amundsen and Scott set off independently for the South Pole in that tragic race. Amundsen, using dogs and skis, reached it several weeks ahead of Scott in Historically, North Pole trips began from northern Ellesmere Island. No one uses northern Greenland as a starting point because the strong current pushes you not just south but eastward toward open water.
Despite this tradition, the route from Ellesmere Island has several disadvantages. First, as ocean currents press the moving pack ice against the continental shelf off Ellesmere Island, the ice buckles into towering barriers sometimes 20m high. Many expeditioners have injured themselves trying to horse their fully laden sleds over these obstacles in the first few days. Others just gave up in frustration. Sometimes, it takes almost a week of incredibly taxing work, advancing just a kilometre or two a day, to pass beyond this zone to smoother ice.
Mike Horn drags his sleds over buckled ice. Photo: Borge Ousland. Skiers then must contend with the ocean currents conspiring against them.
While you trek, and especially while you sleep, the drifting ice carries you back toward your starting point. Launching from Russia avoids these issues because you are going with the current and the loose sea ice has not buckled into gigantic ridges.
But the Russian side presents another difficulty: open water and dangerously thin ice for the first 50km. In , Dominick Arduin, attempting to be the first female soloist to the Pole, disappeared in that area, presumably drowned.
Regardless of the starting point, all North Pole expeditions have to contend with leads — long cracks of open water, caused by currents, storms, or tides, that are too wide to jump. Some are hundreds of metres across.
There are various strategies around leads. One, you can detour around them — easier in an era when your home team can access satellite imagery and tell you which way to go and how long the detour will take. Swimming across a lead in a special drysuit. Three, you can paddle across the lead. Some expeditions carry sleds that can double as boats. Others use packrafts and float the sleds behind them. Finally, in the s, Borge Ousland started using a custom-made drysuit that slips over ski clothing.
He then swam across the lead, pulling his floating sled behind him. For many North Pole expeditions, this became the preferred method. North Pole expeditions can take place year-round but almost all begin in February-March. At this time of year, the sun is just returning and there are only a handful of hours of daylight. This marks another significant difference between North and South Pole expeditions. South Pole expeditions take place during the height of the Antarctic summer.
Crossing a lead during the polar night by packraft. There have only been three North Pole winter expeditions. Skiing the entire way in the dark, on a surface where you can fall through thin ice at any time, is psychologically and practically at another level. Because of logistics, no one does South Pole winter expeditions, at least so far. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, the company that brings adventurers to Antarctica, only flies during the austral summer.
Polar bears are a real threat on full North Pole expeditions. Though rare on the Arctic Ocean compared to some other areas, they can show up anywhere and have troubled several North Pole travelers in the past. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent and has an ice sheet that contains 60 percent of Earth's fresh water. There are some permanent research stations on Antarctica for scientists, but little wildlife and plants can survive the harsh conditions there.
Urban explains that since Antarctica receives so little rainfall, much of it is classified as a cold desert. At the North Pole, the Arctic Ocean is also very cold and has a layer of pack ice on the ocean surface. Urban says global warming is causing ice to melt at both poles.
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