Roald Amundsen's team became the first to reach the South Pole
On this day · 14 December 1911
On December 14, 1911, five Norwegians on skis and dog sleds beat a doomed British rival to the bottom of the Earth by a month.
On December 14, 1911, Roald Amundsen and four companions — Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting — became the first humans to stand at the geographic South Pole. They had won a famous race against Britain’s Robert Falcon Scott.
Amundsen owed his speed to method. He set up base in the Bay of Whales, some 60 miles closer to the Pole than Scott, laid supply depots along the route, and relied on Inuit-style furs, skis, and teams of sled dogs rather than ponies or motor sledges. His party reached the Pole and returned safely to camp by late January.
Scott’s exhausted team arrived more than a month later, found the Norwegian tent waiting, and perished on the journey home.
The expedition turned cold-weather engineering and careful planning into a triumph — a stark contrast to the tragedy unfolding behind it.
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