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Fridjtof Nansen
Otto Sverdrup
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In 1893 expedition leader Fridjtof Nansen and captain Otto Sverdrup set out from Norway aboard the ingeniously designed polar ship Fram (Fram in Norwegian means Forward). Nansen froze the Fram into the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean hoping to drift with the ice as close to the North Pole as possible. Three years later Fram had only reached 84° 14' N, where Nansen and Hjilmar Johansen set out with two teams of sled dogs in an to attempt to reach the pole. The two traveled to 86° 14' N, a new furthest North, before tuning back. The duo eventually dogsledded, skied, walked and kayaked in an absolutely epic journey to safety on Franz Josef Land, a Russian archipelago several hundred miles away. Sverdrup, in one of the truly unsung achievements in polar exploration history, successfully freed the Fram from the polar pack and safely navigated back to Norway. The ship arrived home 4 years after its departure. The expedition made a massive and lasting contribution to the meteorologic and oceanographic knowledge of the Arctic Ocean.
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Frederick Cook
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Frederick Cook represents one half of the famous 'first to the pole' controversy between him and fellow American explorer Robert E. Peary. Cook was a veteran of several original polar explorations and showed particular skill in relating to and living like the Inuit. In 1897-99 he served as doctor on the Belgica expedition, the first ship to winter-over in Antarctica. In 1908, he claimed to have dogsledded to the North Pole with two Inuit dog drivers. However, close examination has revealed that Cook doctored photographs, forged navigation tables and most likely never traveled more than hundred miles north from Ellesmere Island. After turning back, Cook and his Inuit companions journeyed around Ellesmere Island counter clockwise, spent the winter in a cave and then returned to Northern Greenland in the spring of 1909.
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Matthew Henson
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In the later 19th and early 20th centuries, Robert E. Peary succeeded in securing several U.S. Naval commissions to explore northern Greenland and the Arctic Ocean. His wide-ranging expeditions greatly added to the understanding of the far north and Inuit culture. Between 1898 and 1908, Peary traveled long distances on Greenland and Ellesmere Island and made several unsuccessful attempts to reach the North Pole. On April 6, 1909, Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole by dogsled with his expedition team of 3 Inuit men and American Matthew Henson, a black man who was Peary's invaluable loyal assistant. It is quite possible that Peary reached the pole; however, a lack of navigational data, absences in journal entries and a unprecedented stated rate of travel have led some people to doubt his claim.
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Robert Edwin Peary
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The Peary and Cook debate raged across the nation and on front pages of U.S. newspapers until World War I. It is still simmering today. Much can be learned from the expeditions of both men. For an insightful take on the Cook and Peary debate click here. For another opinion click here. |
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Roald Amundsen
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Given the Cook and Peary debate, it is possible that the Norwegian Roald Amundsen's 1926 flight to the North Pole in the dirigible Norge was the first confirmed expedition to reach 90' N. Amunden's expeditions through the Northwest Passage and to the South Pole established a model for polar travel that is still in use today. His teams incorporated Norwegian ski technique with Inuit dog- driving and wilderness skills. On May 11, 1926 Amundsen and Italian pilot Humberto Nobile, departed from Svalbard, Norway with a team of 16 people. Norge passed directly over the pole on May 12, 01:25 GMT. Two years later in 1928 Amundsen's plane vanished when it flew North over the Arctic Ocean on a search and rescue mission for the missing airship Italtia. Amundsen was never to be seen again.
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Wally Herbert
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Legendary Brit Sir Wally Herbert and team were the first to cross the Arctic Ocean. Herbert's teams and 40 sled dogs departed Alaska in 1968. They reached the North Pole on April 6, 1969 after wintering over on the Arctic Ocean. The team finished the epic expedition in Svalbard, Norway. The expedition received several resupplies.
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Paul Schurke
Will Steger
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In 1986, a 6-person team led by Minnesotan explorers Will Steger and Paul Schurke completed the first confirmed and the first modern, unresupplied expedition to the pole. The team began at Drep Camp, Ellesmere Island Canada with heavily-laden dog sleds. Navigating by sextant and receiving no outside information or supply drops, they reached the pole on May 2. Schurke went on to found Wintergreen Dog Sled Lodge in Ely, MN. Steger has since led international teams of polar explorers on a 7-month dog sled expeditions across Antarctica in 1989/90 and across the Arctic Ocean in 1995. 1986 team member and Canadian national cross country ski racer Richard Weber went on to become one of the most successful Arctic Ocean expeditioners in history (see below). In 2006 Steger founded the Will Steger Foundation and Global Warming 101. |
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 Børge Ousland
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Borge Ousland's incredible resume consists of many important polar firsts. His expeditions have defined in modern terms what it means to travel unsupported: no dogs, no outside assistance, no resupply drops and employing natural means of self-propulsion only. In 1990 he and fellow Norwegian Erling Kagge completed the first unsupported ski expedition to the North Pole. Since then he has skied solo and unsupported to the North Pole, skied solo across the Arctic Ocean, skied solo and unsupported across Antarctica, skied unsupported to the North Pole through the winter night, crossed the Patagonia ice cap unsupported and most recently completed an unsupported retracing of Nansen and Johnansen's legendary route from the North Pole to Franz Josef's Land using ski and kayak.
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Richard Weber
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In 1995 Canadian Richard Weber and Russian Mikikail Malakov became the first and only people to ski unsupported from Northern Canada to the North Pole and back to Canada. These two veterans of several Arctic Ocean expeditions, including the Polar Bridge, traveled by ski, pulling sleds for 121 days! Although this expedition received relatively little public attention, it was the first confirmed expedition to do what Peary and Cook claimed to have done, travel to the North Pole and back without outside assistance. Weber now owns and operates Canadian Arctic Holidays. Weber has led several other expeditions from Canada to the North Pole, including an expedition in 2006 with Brit Conrad Dickenson, that was the first to reach the pole traveling solely by snowshoe.
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Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen
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In 2000 Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen completed the first and only unsupported crossing of the Arctic Ocean. Beginning on Cape Arkticheskiy, Russia, Gjeldnes and Larsen skied over the North Pole to Cape Discovery, Canada in 109 days. In doing so they completed the second of two (Weber/Malakov 1995) confirmed expeditions to reach the North Pole and return to land unsupported. In 1996 Gjeldnes and Larsen skied unsupported across the longest lengthwise traverse of Greenland. During the winter of 2005/2006 Gjeldnes set a world ski distance record by skiing solo and unsupported 4800 km across Antarctica.
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For a list of all expeditions to the North Pole from AdventureStats click here. |
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Photos courtesy of Rune Gjeldnes, Borge Ousland, Adrian Hayes, The Will Steger Founation, Paul Schurke.
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