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Race to the South Pole
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Amundsen
Amundsen chartered the Norwegian ship Fram pretending to go on a North Pole expedition, whilst secretly planning for the South Pole instead. -
Scott
Scott annouces his second South Pole Expedition. -
Scott
After very rushed preparations, Scott sailed from England to New Zealand with three motor sledges, 19 Siberian ponies, Thirty three Huskies and twenty four men. -
Amundsen
Amundsen and his Crew left Oslo on the Fram.They took 19 men, 97 Huskies, a hut in sections and provisions for 2 years. -
Amundsen
Fram docked at Madeira in Spain and Amundsen sent a telegram to Scott that he was going to the South Pole instead. The crew were excited to be challenging Scotts team. -
Scott
They left New Zealand on the Terra Nova. Three days out they were hit by a ferocious gale that lasted 36 hours and nearly sank the ship. -
Scott
Scotts old hut on Ross islaned was blocked by ice, so new winter quarters were built at Cape Evans, also on Ross island. Next Scott organised the setting uop of depots and telephone line in between Cape Evans and hut point in less than a week. Amundsen and his team took a good year to do the same. -
Amundsen
Amundsen and crew reached Antarctica . He carefully chose the bay of Whales ( Ross Ice Shelf) to set up base camp and dock his ship, as it was blocked from the wind, and had a stable shoreline. It was also 100 kms closer to the pole than Scotts base camp, but it meant going over unknown territory. -
Amundsen
The team built the wooden hut they bought with them which they named (Framheim) (Home of the Fram) after their ship. During the 5 months of Winter, from April to September, nine men carefully set up three different depots so that they would not have to carry extra supplies on their main expedition. -
Amundsen
Amundsen's team of five men and 52 dogs set off on their race to the South Pole. They travelled the most direct route, going over anything that got in their way, and travelled 32 kms each day -
Scott
Scott and his Polar team left on their race to the South Pole with 14 men on two motor sleds, 10 poinies and two dog sleds. Scott had decided they would ride motor sleds and ponies until they could go no further and then haul supplies for the rest of the way.
The motor sleds soon broke down and the horses kept sinking through the ice and snow. The weather was miserable with blizards. -
Amudsen
They reached their last supply depot, 772 kilometres from the Pole -
Amundsen
They created a new supply depot for their journey. They had 42 dogs left to pull 4 sleds -
Amundsen
it took them 10 days to climb an unexplored 3000m mountain glacier in very good weather. Amundsen named them after after his Norweigan Queen, Maud. At the top, they took 18 dogs to go on with them and shot the rest -
Scott
The tired, starved and frozen horses were shot. The men had to pull their own sleds in deep snow. Some men were snow blinded and some fell down crevasses. -
Amundsen
The team reached the South Pole. It was a glorious moment for the men and Norway. They had 17 dogs and three sleds. First they set up camp,then over 3 days , they skied in a 16 km radius from the South Pole point to make sure of the correct position. Only then did they plant the Norwegian flag. -
Scott
Scott chose fellow explorers, Edward Wilson, Lawrence Oates, Edgar Evans and Henry Bowers to accompany him. Supplies had only been planned for a four man team. -
Scott
The five exhausted and starving men reached the South Pole, Only to find Amundsen had beaten them by 33 days. Now they had to survive the journey back to base camp in bad weather. -
Amundsen
they returned to the Bay of Whales healthy and excited -
Scott
A delirious Evans Died. -
Amundsen
they arrived in Hobart, Tasmania to annnounce victory -
Scott
Oates limped out of the tent during a raging blizzard, saying, "Im just going outside and may be some time", He did not return. The Blizzard lasted 8 days and took the lives of the remaining men just 18 km from their last supply depot. -
Scott
Last Entry: "For gods sake look after our people."
They were not discovered until the next summer when the search-party dug out their almost completely buried camp. among their possessions were 16 kg of rock samples. -
Scott
Scotts second to last diary entry read. "Since the twenty first we have had a continous gale WSW and SW. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on then 20th. Every day we had been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now.We are getting weaker of course, and the end can not be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write any more.
