Scott vs. Amundsen: The Story of the Conquest of the South Pole. Amundsen - Scott (Antarctic station) Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen

Since they talked about Scott, here’s what was written (even before the community opened) for the anniversary of the conquest of the Pole.

In fact, he explored the Arctic and was going not to the South Pole, but to the North Pole - for which he began to prepare back in 1907, so that in 1910 he would drift with the Arctic ice, which, like an elevator, would take him where he needed to go. He actually planned everything very carefully. This is a common thing in Norway: no one is in a hurry.

Amundsen's Arctic plan was supported by the Norwegian polar guru Nansen, who was then serving as ambassador in London. Twelve years earlier, Nansen himself, with a huge budget and full government support, did not reach the North Pole by less than six degrees: although this is a world record for 1895, it still failed, even taking into account the heroic winter on Novaya Zemlya. The government placed at Amundsen's disposal the legendary egg-shaped Fram, the most indestructible wooden ship in the world: first Nansen and then Sverdrup successfully sailed on it on the ice, who crossed paths with Robert Peary during this trip and quarreled with him in absentia.

And so in 1908, when the leisurely Amundsen had already approved the budget, the American Cook suddenly announced the conquest of the North Pole. About this Cook (not the James supposedly eaten by aborigines!) They are still arguing whether he is a liar: for example, as it turned out, he did not climb to the top of McKinley in Alaska, although he also boasted. So whether he really was at the Pole has not been established. Cook had a generally bad ending: he got burned trading oil-bearing lands in Texas and ended up in prison, and Amundsen, who greatly respected him, allegedly brought him packages there a couple of times.

While the world was arguing about Cook, Peary managed to reach the North Pole with the last of his strength (no fools here, although it has now been calculated that he missed by eight miles) - so Amundsen’s grandiose Arctic campaign lost all meaning: and yet this The adventure was planned for 5 years, starting in 1910. Amundsen almost instantly (by Norwegian standards) decides to reorient himself to the South Pole, without telling anyone: only two were initiated, namely the captain of the ship and his personal lawyer. Amundsen arrived just in time, and the race to the South Pole began.

But the job was done, Fram circled Africa and, almost without stopping, by the beginning of 1911 reached the ice border in the Ross Sea: from there it is closest to the Pole. Almost simultaneously, Scott set up camp at the other end of the Ross Sea in McMurdo Sound. It took about six months to lay out the route and lay out intermediate bases: everything went according to Amundsen’s plan. The first attempt to move to the pole was made in August-September - at the end of winter, when it seemed that it was getting warmer and dissipating. Now winterers call this month nothing more than the f***ing month of August- and then it was the first experience of a ski and sleigh trip at minus 56 degrees, when nothing was moving on the snow. Amundsen wisely turned around on September 15 - without casualties and without significant damage, although two of the eight members of the detachment received serious frostbite on the way back, and on the final day there was complete chaos. Now they are arguing that if he had reached it then, Scott would have surrendered and, perhaps, would have remained alive. But this is all speculation, of course.

One way or another, having trained well, placed as many strong points as possible along the route and learned the lessons of the September false start, Amundsen with four people and fifty dogs set off from a coastal camp on October 19 - and by December 14 he successfully reached the South Pole, killing three dozen dogs along the way . Having left a tent with a Norwegian flag with a note at the pole and having lost four or five more dogs, the detachment returned to camp without losses just in time for lunch on January 25, 1912, having spent 99 days on the road (according to the plan it was exactly 100). A week earlier, Amundsen's note was read by Scott, who two months and four days later was destined to freeze to death just ten miles from the nearest fuel and supplies depot. Amundsen was very sad: he didn’t want to kill anyone, his plan just turned out to be better. It is known that, noticeably enriched after this success, Amundsen transferred significant funds to the family of Scott, whom he sincerely considered a hero. This is perhaps the only thing that Amundsen did not have according to plan.

Amundsen-Scott station: travel seasonality, life at the station, reviews of tours to the Amundsen-Scott station.

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“Place of residence - South Pole” - this is what the inhabitants of the American polar base “Amundsen-Scott” could rightfully write in their personal questionnaire. Founded in 1956 and continuously inhabited year-round ever since, Amundsen-Scott Station is an example of how humans can adapt to the most unfavorable living conditions. And not only adapt - build a comfortable home that can withstand the harsh climate of Antarctica for many years. In the era of commercial expeditions to the South Pole, Amundsen-Scott became a host home for tourists who came to trample underfoot the extreme southern point of the Earth. Travelers spend only a few hours here, but during this time they manage to get acquainted with the amazing life of the station and even send a postcard home with the stamp “South Pole”.

A little history

Amundsen-Scott is the first Antarctic station in the interior of the continent. It was founded in 1956, 45 years after the conquest of the South Pole, and bears the name of the glorious pioneers of the icy continent - the Norwegian Roald Amundsen and the Englishman Robert Scott. At the time of its founding, the station was located exactly at 90° south latitude, but by now, due to the movement of ice, it has deviated slightly from the South Pole point, which is now located about 100 meters from the station.

The original station was built under the ice, and scientific activities were carried out there until 1975. Then a domed base was erected, which served as a home for polar explorers until 2003. And then a large-scale structure appeared here on jack piles, which made it possible to raise the building as it was covered with snow. According to forecasts, it will last another 30-45 years.

The interiors here are no different from ordinary American “public places” - only massive doors that close like a safe indicate that this is happening in Antarctica.

Climate of the Amundsen-Scott station

The Amundsen-Scott station is located at an altitude of 2800 meters above sea level, which, taking into account the high rarity of the air in the South Pole region, turns into an actual 3500 meters, corresponding to the high mountain regions of the Earth.

The polar day lasts here from September 23 to March 21, and the peak of the “tourist season” occurs in December - January, when the temperature is most suitable for expeditions. At this time of year the thermometer does not show below -30 °C. Well, in winter there is about -60 °C and complete darkness, illuminated only by the northern lights.

Life at Amundsen-Scott Station

From 40 to 200 people permanently live on the Amundsen-Scott - scientists, researchers and professional polar explorers. In the summer, life here is in full swing - after all, outside the window it is a comfortable -22...-30 °C, and the sun shines around the clock. But for the winter, a little more than fifty people remain at the station to maintain its operation and continue scientific research. However, from mid-February to the end of October, access here from the outside world is closed.

The station is literally crammed with high-tech equipment: there is an 11-kilometer antenna for observing cosmic storms, a super-powerful telescope and a drilling rig embedded more than two kilometers into the ice, used for experiments on neutrino particles.

What to see

Tourists are allowed into the Amundsen-Scott station only for a few hours. The interiors are no different from ordinary American “public places” - only massive doors that close like a safe indicate that this is happening in Antarctica. A dining room, a gym, a hospital, a music studio, a laundry and a store, a greenhouse and a post office - this is all the simple life.

In 1909, the South Pole remained the last of the major geographical trophies not taken. It was expected that the United States would enter into a fierce battle over it with the British Empire. However, the leading American polar explorers Cook and Peary at that time focused on the Arctic, and the British expedition of Captain Robert Scott on the Terra Nova vessel received a temporary head start. Scott was in no hurry: the three-year program included extensive scientific research and methodical preparation for the trip to the Pole.

These plans were confused by the Norwegians. Having received a message about the conquest of the North Pole, Roald Amundsen did not want to be the second there and secretly sent his ship "Fram" to the South. In February 1911, he already received British officers at a camp on the Ross Glacier. “There is no doubt that Amundsen's plan is a serious threat to ours,” Scott wrote in his diary. The race has begun.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_01.jpg", "alt": "Captain Scott", "text": "Captain Scott")

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_02.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Roald Amundsen")

In the preface to his memoirs, one of the members of the Terra Nova expedition later wrote: “For scientific research, give me Scott; for a jerk to the pole - Amundsen; pray to Shackleton for salvation.”

Perhaps a penchant for the arts and sciences is one of the few reliably known positive qualities of Robert Scott. His literary talent was especially evident in his own diary, which became the basis for the myth of a hero who fell victim to circumstances.

Cracker, unsociable, human-function - Roald Amundsen was created to achieve results. This planning maniac called adventures the unfortunate consequence of poor preparation.

Team

The composition of Scott's expedition shocked the polar explorers of that time, numbering 65 people, including the Terra Nova crew, twelve scientists and cameraman Herbert Ponting. Five people set off on the trip to the Pole: the captain took with him the cavalryman and groom Ots, the head of the scientific program Wilson, his assistant caretaker Evans and, at the last moment, the sailor Bowers. This spontaneous decision is considered fatal by many experts: the amount of food and equipment, even skis, was designed only for four.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_03.jpg", "alt": "Captain Scott", "text": "Captain Scott's team. Photo by the Norwegian National Library.")

Amudsen's team could win any of the modern winter ultramarathons. Nine people landed with him in Antarctica. There were no mental workers - these were, first of all, physically strong men who had a set of skills necessary for survival. They were good skiers, many knew how to drive dogs, were qualified navigators, and only two did not have polar experience. The five best of them went to the Pole: the path for Amundsen's teams was paved by the Norwegian cross-country champion.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_04.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Roald Amundsen team. Photo by the Norwegian National Library.")

Equipment

Like all Norwegian polar explorers of that time, Amundsen was a proponent of studying Eskimo ways of adapting to extreme cold. His expedition dressed in anoraks and kamikki boots, improved during the winter. “I would call any polar expedition without fur clothing inadequately equipped,” wrote the Norwegian. On the contrary, the cult of science and progress, burdened by the imperial “white man's burden,” did not allow Scott to benefit from the experience of the Aborigines. The British wore suits made of wool and rubberized fabric.

Modern research - in particular, blowing in a wind tunnel - has not revealed a significant advantage of one of the options.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_05.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "On the left is Roald Amundsen's equipment, on the right is Scott's.")

Transport

Amundsen's tactics were both effective and brutal. His four 400-kilogram sleigh with food and equipment was pulled by 52 Greenland huskies. As they moved toward their goal, the Norwegians killed them, fed them to other dogs, and ate them themselves. That is, as the load decreased, the transport, which was no longer needed, itself turned into food. 11 huskies returned to base camp.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_10.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Dog team on Roald Amundsen's expedition. Photo from the Norwegian National Library.")

Scott's complex transportation plan included the use of a motorized sled, Mongolian ponies, a team of Siberian huskies, and a final push on his own feet. An easily predictable failure: the sleigh quickly broke down, the ponies were dying of cold, there were too few huskies. For many hundreds of kilometers, the British themselves harnessed themselves to the sleigh, and the load on each one reached almost a hundredweight. Scott considered this rather an advantage - in the British tradition, the researcher had to reach the goal without “outside help.” Suffering turned achievement into feat.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_09.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Motorized sleigh on Scott's expedition.")

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_13.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Top: Mongolian ponies on Scott's expedition. Below: the British are pulling cargo.")

Food

Scott's failed transportation strategy led his people to starvation. By dragging a sled on their feet, they significantly increased the duration of the journey and the amount of calories required for such physical activity. At the same time, the British were unable to carry the required amount of provisions.

“Terrible disappointment! I feel pain for my faithful comrades. The end of all our dreams. It will be a sad return,” Scott wrote in his diary.

The quality of the food also affected. Unlike Norwegian biscuits, which contained wholemeal flour, oatmeal and yeast, British biscuits were made from pure wheat. Before reaching the Pole, Scott's team suffered from scurvy and nervous disorders associated with vitamin B deficiency. They did not have enough food for the trip back and did not have enough strength to reach the nearest warehouse.

About the nutrition of the Norwegians, it will be enough to say that on the way back they began to throw away excess food to lighten the sleigh.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_20.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Stop. Roald Amundsen's Expedition. Photo from the Norwegian National Library.")

To the Pole and back

The distance from the Norwegian base to the pole was 1,380 kilometers. It took Amundsen's team 56 days to complete it. Dog sleds made it possible to carry away more than one and a half tons of payload and create supply warehouses along the way for the return journey. On January 17, 1912, the Norwegians reach the South Pole and leave a Pulheim tent there with a message to the King of Norway about conquering the Pole and a request to Scott to deliver it to its destination: “The way home is very far, anything can happen, including something that will deprive us of the opportunity to personally report our journey." On the way back, Amundsen's sleigh became faster, and the team reached the base in 43 days.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_16.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Roald Amundsen's team at the South Pole. Photo from the Norwegian National Library.")

A month later, Amundsen's pulheim at the pole is found by the British, who have traveled 1,500 kilometers in 79 days. “Terrible disappointment! I feel pain for my faithful comrades. The end of all our dreams. It will be a sad return,” Scott wrote in his diary. Disappointed, hungry and sick, they wander back to the coast for another 71 days. Scott and his last two surviving companions die in a tent from exhaustion, 40 kilometers short of reaching the next warehouse.

Defeat

In the autumn of the same 1912, a tent with the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers was found by their comrades from the Terra Nova expedition. The last letters and notes lie on the captain’s body, and Amundsen’s letter to the Norwegian king is kept in his boot. After the publication of Scott's diaries, an anti-Norwegian campaign unfolded in his homeland, and only imperial pride prevented the British from directly calling Amundsen a murderer.

However, Scott’s literary talent turned defeat into victory, and placed the painful death of his companions above the perfectly planned breakthrough of the Norwegians. “How can you equate Amundsen’s business operation with Scott’s first-class tragedy?” - contemporaries wrote. The primacy of the “stupid Norwegian sailor” was explained by his unexpected appearance in Antarctica, which disrupted the preparation plans of the British expedition, and the ignoble use of dogs. The death of the gentlemen from Scott's team, who by default were stronger in body and spirit, was explained by an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances.

It was only in the second half of the 20th century that the tactics of both expeditions were subjected to critical analysis, and in 2006 their equipment and rations were tested in the most realistic BBC experiment in Greenland. The British polar explorers were not successful this time either - their physical condition became so dangerous that doctors insisted on evacuation.

("img": "/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/polar_18.jpg", "alt": "Roald Amundsen", "text": "Last photo of Scott's team.")

Caroline Alexander

A century ago, Briton Robert Scott lost and Norwegian Roald Amundsen won the battle for the South Pole. Why did Amundsen win?

“Visibility is poor. Terrible wind from the south. Minus 52 Celsius. Dogs do not tolerate cold well. It’s hard for people to move in frozen clothes, it’s difficult to regain strength - they have to spend nights in the cold... It’s unlikely that the weather will improve.”

The famous Norwegian Roald Amundsen made this brief entry in his diary on September 12, 1911, when his expedition was heading to the South Pole.

The conditions were harsh even for Antarctica, and it is not surprising - the Norwegians set out on a campaign from their base too early, even before the onset of the polar spring and relatively favorable weather. As a result, the dogs died, it was impossible to walk without them, and the people had frostbitten feet and could recover no earlier than in a month. What made Amundsen, an experienced and prudent traveler with a brilliant polar career behind him, act so imprudently?

Captivated by dreams. Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was born in 1872 into a wealthy family of shipowners and sailors. Already at the age of 25, as the second mate on the Belgica ship, he participated in a scientific Antarctic expedition. And when the Belgica got stuck in the ice, its crew members inevitably became the world’s first winterers in Antarctica.

The sailors, unprepared for such a turn of events, survived mainly thanks to the efforts of Amundsen and the doctor Frederick Cook (who later, alas, tarnished his good name with unsubstantiated claims that he was the first to conquer the North Pole and Mount McKinley).

Amundsen kept a diary, even then approaching the issue of organizing winter quarters with interest. “As for the tent, it is convenient in terms of shape and size, but too unstable in strong winds,” he noted in February 1898. In the future, persistently, year after year, the Norwegian will inventively improve his polar equipment. And the unscheduled hard winter, overshadowed by despair and illness of the crew, only strengthened him in his desire to fulfill his old dream.

This dream began in childhood, when the future polar explorer read how John Franklin’s expedition died in search of the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. For many years this story haunted the Norwegian. Without abandoning his navigator career, Amundsen began simultaneously planning an Arctic expedition. And in 1903, the dream finally began to come true - Amundsen sailed north on the small fishing vessel Gjoa with six crew members (Franklin took 129 people with him). The purpose of the expedition was to find the Northwest Passage from east to west from Greenland to Alaska, and also to determine the current coordinates of the north magnetic pole (they change over time).

The Gjoa team, carefully preparing to conquer the Northwest Passage, worked in the Arctic for three whole winters - and eventually managed to navigate the ship among the islands, shoals and ice of the Canadian Arctic archipelago to the Beaufort Sea, and then the Bering Sea. No one has ever succeeded in doing this before. “My childhood dream came true at that moment,” Amundsen wrote in his diary on August 26, 1905. “I had a strange feeling in my chest: I was exhausted, my strength had left me - but I could not hold back my tears of joy.”

Teach me, native. However, the energy left the enterprising Norwegian for only a short time. Even during the expedition on the schooner "Joa", Amundsen had the opportunity to observe the way of life of the Netsilik Eskimos, learning the secrets of survival in the harsh Arctic. “There is a joke that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet,” says polar historian Harald Jolle, “but there are a lot of important skills and abilities besides skis.” Therefore, not only Amundsen, but also other European travelers diligently adopted the experience of the aborigines. Thus, another Norwegian, Amundsen’s senior contemporary and comrade, the great polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen, learned from the Sami, the indigenous northern people of Norway, how to dress correctly, move through the snowy desert and get food in the cold. After the expedition to the Gjoa, Amundsen could tell how to travel in the harshest regions: loose clothing made of reindeer skin, in which the body breathes and retains heat; fur shoes, dog sleds, snowshoes. The Norwegian polar explorer also learned how to build Eskimo dwellings - ice caves and igloos. And Amundsen could now put all this knowledge into practice: he enthusiastically prepared to conquer the North Pole. But suddenly, for some reason, he abruptly changed the geographical vector and rushed to the extreme south.

It was probably due to the news that reached the Norwegian: Robert Peary had already visited the North Pole. Whether Piri actually visited there has not yet been established, but Amundsen only wanted to be the first everywhere.

It must be said that the South Pole, not yet conquered in those days, was the cherished dream of all discoverers, and the race for it, in terms of the intensity of passions, anticipated the space race. Roald Amundsen dreamed that conquering the South Pole would bring him not only fame, but also money for future expeditions.

For many months, Amundsen and his team stocked up on everything they needed, carefully thinking through every little detail, strictly selecting provisions, clothing, and equipment. In January 1911, Roald Amundsen, a 38-year-old seasoned, experienced polar explorer, sets up a base camp in the Antarctic Welsh Bay. Although he had stepped onto hitherto unexplored ground, snow and ice were spread out around him - an element well known to him. And suddenly - this mysterious false start in September, which jeopardized the entire expedition.

Amundsen VS Scott. And the reason was simple: at the same time, a British Antarctic expedition under the command of Captain Robert Falcon Scott was preparing to go to the South Pole. Today we know that one of the expeditions was destined for a brilliant victory, while the other was destined for defeat and painful, tragic death. What determined the outcome of the battle for the pole?

What if Scott ends up first? — this thought drove Amundsen forward. But the Norwegian would not have become great if his ambition had not been combined with prudence. Having set out on a campaign prematurely in September 1911, four days later he adequately assessed the situation, said to himself “stop” and decided to “go back as soon as possible and wait for the real spring.”

In his diary, Amundsen wrote: “To stubbornly continue the journey, risking losing people and animals - I cannot allow this. To win the game, you need to act wisely.” Returning to the Framheim base (named after his ship Fram, which means "forward" in Norwegian), Amundsen was in such a hurry that two of the participants reached the camp even a day later than him. “This is not an expedition. This is panic,” Hjalmar Johansen, the most experienced polar explorer on the team, told him.

Amundsen did not take Hjalmar into the new detachment, which on October 20 set off for the second assault on the Pole. Amundsen and his four companions followed four loaded sleighs on skis. Each sleigh weighing 400 kilograms was pulled by a team of 13 dogs. People and animals had to travel more than 1,300 kilometers, descending and climbing monstrous chasms in glaciers (received emotional names from grateful Norwegians, such as the Devil's Glacier), passing abysses and ice in the Queen Maud Mountains and then conquering the Polar Plateau. Every second the weather threatened with another dangerous surprise.

But everything turned out well. “So we have arrived,” Amundsen wrote in his diary on December 14, 1911, right on time.

Leaving “Polheim” (as the team members dubbed the camp at the South Pole), Amundsen wrote a letter on notepaper to King Haakon VII of Norway “and a couple of lines to Scott, who, in all likelihood, will be the first to get here after us.” This letter ensured that even if something happened to Amundsen's people, the world would still know about his achievement.

Scott, having reached the Pole a month later than Amundsen, found this letter and nobly kept it - but could not personally hand it over. All five members of the British team died on the way back. The search team found the letter a year later next to Scott's body.

It is difficult to compare, in the words of the legendary chronicler of the British expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Amundsen’s “business operation” and Scott’s “first-class tragedy.” One of the members of the English team, having frostbitten feet, secretly went into a deadly snowstorm so that his comrades would not have to carry him. The other, already exhausted, did not throw away the rock samples. Scott and the last two members of his squad did not reach the food warehouse only 17 kilometers.

And yet, in order to find out the reasons for this tragedy, we can try to understand the differences between the approaches of Scott and Amundsen. Amundsen brought dogs with him; Scott - pony and motor sleigh. Amundsen moved on skis - he and his team were great skiers - Scott could not boast of this. Amundsen prepared three times more supplies than Scott - Scott suffered from hunger and scurvy. The preparation of the Norwegian expedition is evidenced by the fact that it left extra supplies on the way back. On January 26, 1912, the Norwegians triumphantly returned to base - the British walked for another two months after this date, when the weather became truly unbearable.

Some of Scott's mistakes can be understood if we remember that he relied on the experience of his predecessors - his compatriot and rival Ernest Shackleton used ponies as draft force and almost reached the South Pole. And we must not lose sight of the fact that the British, having discovered the news of Amundsen’s primacy at the Pole, were in an extremely depressed state of mind, which may have fatally affected the resources of their bodies.

However, many researchers believe that the fundamental difference between Amundsen and Scott is determined not by the details of the organization, but by the general approach to equipping the expedition: in one case professional, in the other amateur. If a Norwegian goes on a hike, he is obliged to provide everything in order to return safe and sound. For the British, it was about struggle, heroism and overcoming. They relied not on professionalism, but on fortitude. Today such a view would be considered irresponsible. “The way Amundsen prepared for his expeditions is an example for me to follow,” says Borge Ousland, the Norwegian explorer who was the first to cross Antarctica alone. “He was always ready to learn from others. He clearly defined the problem and looked for ways to solve it.”

Life is in the Arctic. Having won the race for the Pole, Amundsen had no intention of resting on his laurels. In July 1918, he returned to the Arctic to fulfill his promise to Nansen and engage in scientific work: to study the movement of floating ice on the schooner Maud.

But his soul yearned for global discoveries, and in the 1920s, following the trends of the times, Amundsen made several unsuccessful attempts to fly over the North Pole. And only in 1926, the airship "Norway" (pilot - Italian Umberto Nobile, commander - Amundsen) crossed the Arctic by air for the first time in history.

But financially, Amundsen turned out to be much less fortunate than his charismatic compatriot and mentor Nansen: neither books nor lectures brought the polar explorer the expected material well-being. Embittered by lack of money, he quarreled with friends, including Nobile. But when the airship Nobile disappeared somewhere over the Arctic in May 1928, Amundsen, who was preparing for his wedding, persuaded his friends to give him money for a search plane and rushed to the Arctic, where search parties from all over the world were then sent. Nobile's team was then rescued by Soviet sailors.

And shortly before this, in the Arctic, searching not for another unexplored point on the Earth, but for a man, his friend and rival, the famous discoverer Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen went missing.

Routes of the expeditions of Scott and Amundsen

Amundsen and Scott: teams and equipment

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Scott vs. Amundsen: The Story of the Conquest of the South Pole

Ivan Siyak

The rivalry between the British and Norwegian expeditions, who sought to reach the center of Antarctica, is one of the most dramatic geographical discoveries in the history.

These plans were confused by the Norwegians. Having received a message about the conquest of the North Pole, Roald Amundsen did not want to be the second there and secretly sent his ship "Fram" to the South. In February 1911, he already received British officers at a camp on the Ross Glacier. “There is no doubt that Amundsen’s plan is a serious threat to ours,” Scott wrote in his diary. The race has begun.

Captain Scott

Roald Amundsen

Cracker, unsociable, human-function - Roald Amundsen was created to achieve results. This planning maniac called adventures the unfortunate consequence of poor preparation.

Team

The composition of Scott's expedition shocked the polar explorers of that time, numbering 65 people, including the Terra Nova crew, twelve scientists and cameraman Herbert Ponting. Five people set off on the trip to the Pole: the captain took with him the cavalryman and groom Ots, the head of the scientific program Wilson, his assistant, the caretaker Evans, and at the last moment the sailor Bowers. This spontaneous decision is considered fatal by many experts: the amount of food and equipment, even skis, was designed only for four.

Captain Scott's team. Photo by the Norwegian National Library

Roald Amundsen's team. Photo by the Norwegian National Library

Equipment

Modern research - in particular, blowing in a wind tunnel - has not revealed a significant advantage of one of the options.

On the left is Roald Amundsen's equipment, on the right is Scott's.

Transport

Dog team on Roald Amundsen's expedition. Photo by the Norwegian National Library

Motorized sleds on Scott's expedition

Top: Mongolian ponies on Scott's expedition. Below: The Brits are pulling the weight

Food

About the nutrition of the Norwegians, it will be enough to say that on the way back they began to throw away excess food to lighten the sleigh.

Stop. Expedition of Roald Amundsen. Photo by the Norwegian National Library

To the Pole and back

Roald Amundsen's team at the South Pole. Photo by the Norwegian National Library

Defeat

Last photo of Scott's team

bird.depositphotos.com

Amundsen-Scott (eng. Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station) is a permanently inhabited US Antarctic station at the South Pole, operating since 1956. Located at an altitude of 2835 meters above sea level. The first station in the depths of Antarctica (not on the coast of the mainland). The station was built in November 1956 for scientific purposes by order of the US government.

Chronology

When opened (in 1956 as part of the International Geophysical Year), the station was located exactly at the South Pole, but at the beginning of 2006, due to ice movement, the station was approximately 100 meters from the geographic south pole. The station got its name in honor of the discoverers of the South Pole - Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott, who reached their goal in 1911-1912. The station is located at an altitude of 2835 m above sea level, on a glacier that nearby reaches a maximum thickness of 2850 m (2005). The average annual temperature is about −49 °C; varies from −28 °C in December to −60 °C in July. Average wind speed - 5.5 m/s; gusts of up to 27 m/s were recorded.

Foundation of the station (1957-1975)

The original station - now called Old Pole - was founded in 1956-1957 by an 18-man US Navy expedition that landed there in October 1956 and wintered there for the first time in Antarctic history in 1957. Since climatic conditions were previously unknown, the base was built under the ice to overcome any weather conditions. The lowest temperature in 1957 was recorded at −74 °C (−102 °F). Surviving such low temperatures, combined with low humidity and low air pressure, is only possible with proper protection. The station, abandoned in 1957, is covered with snow (like any structure at the South Pole) at a rate of 60-80 mm per year. Now it is buried quite deeply and is completely closed to visitors, since all the wooden floors have been crushed by the snow. On January 4, 1958, the Transantarctic Expedition of the British Commonwealth arrived at the station with the famous mountaineer Edmund Hillary. It was the first expedition to use road transport and the first to reach the Pole by land, since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912. The expedition moved from the New Zealand station "Scott Bays".

Dome (1975-2003)

The aluminum unheated “tent” is a landmark of the pole. There was even a post office, a shop and a pub. Any building at the pole is quickly surrounded by snow and the design of the dome was not the most successful. A huge amount of fuel was wasted to remove snow, and delivery of a liter of fuel costs $7. The 1975 equipment is completely outdated.

New scientific complex (since 2003)

The unique design on stilts allows snow not to accumulate near the building, but to pass under it. The sloped shape of the bottom of the building allows the wind to be directed under the building, which helps blow snow away. But sooner or later the snow will cover the piles, and then it will be possible twice...

Scott vs. Amundsen: The Story of the Conquest of the South Pole. Amundsen - Scott (Antarctic station) Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen

A little history

Climate of the Amundsen-Scott station

Life at Amundsen-Scott Station