Polar exploration

Polar exploration refers to the act of exploring the Arctic and Antarctic areas of Earth, specifically with the intention of reaching the North Pole and South Pole. In the past, this was done by a polar expedition, when adventurers travelled to the arctic regions on foot or by sledge. Recent exploration efforts have relied heavily on technology, most notably satellite imaging.

Between 600 and 300 B.C.E., Greek thinkers proposed that our earth was round and that its poles were located at the North and South ends. Around 150 AD, Ptolemy published his Geographia, where he made reference to an undiscovered territory down under. Extreme weather meant it would be centuries before the poles themselves were explored. They were only separated by a few years before being accomplished.

Two competing theories exist as to the identity of the pioneers who discovered the North Pole. Most people don't believe Frederick Cook's assertion that he and two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, reached the Pole on April 21, 1908. Robert Peary, together with his employee Matthew Henson and four Inuit men named Ootah, Seegloo, Egingway, and Ooqueah, set out on April 6, 1909, to become the first person in history to claim having reached the North Pole.

Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian adventurer, intended to sail his ship across the Arctic Ocean and finish up at the North Pole. He raised a lot of money and were able to utilise Fridtjof Nansen's arctic expedition ship Fram. The expedition's planning was derailed when both Cook and Peary announced their success in reaching the North Pole. Amundsen shifted gears and started getting ready to conquer the geographical South Pole, but he didn't tell anybody about the move since he wasn't sure how much support he'd have from the public or his supporters. When he first set sail in June of 1910, he told his crew that they were going on an Arctic drift. It wasn't until they were leaving their last port of call in Madeira that he let them in on the real destination: Antarctica.

On 14 December 1911, five weeks before the British group headed by Robert Falcon Scott on the Terra Nova mission, Amundsen and four men reached the South Pole. Upon arriving back at their base, Amundsen and his crew found that Scott and his four colleagues had perished.