To the South Pole

To the South Pole — page 3 — published by Creative Education P O Box 227 Mankato Minnesota 56002 Creative Education is an imprint of The Creative Company www thecreativecompany us design and production by Ellen Huber art direction by Rita Marshall printed by Corporate Graphics in the United States of America photographs by Alamy Lordprice Collection Photos 12 Photoshot Holdings Ltd Corbis Bettmann PoodlesRock Dreamstime Bernard Breton Getty Images After William Henry Browne David Boyer National Geographic Hulton Archive Mansell Time Life Pictures Herbert Ponting Scott Polar Research Institute University of Cambridge Bob Thomas Popperfoto Topical Press Agency The Granger Collection NYC History-map com iStockphoto Nicholas Belton Mike Bentley Brandon Laufenberg National Geographic Stock Norbert Wu Minden Pictures National Library of Australia Copyright 2012 Creative Education International copyright reserved in all countries No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher library of congress cataloging-in-publication data for the hardcover edition Bodden Valerie To the South Pole by Valerie Bodden p cm Great expeditions Includes bibliographical references and index Summary A history of Roald Amundsen’s successful 1911 trip to the South Pole detailing the challenges encountered the individuals involved the discoveries made and how the expedition left its mark upon the world ISBN 978-1-60818-069-1 hardcover ISBN 978-1-56660-045-3 eBook 1 Amundsen Roald 1872 1928 Juvenile literature 2 Explorers Norway Biography Juvenile literature 3 South Pole Discovery and exploration Juvenile literature I Title II Series G585 A6B57 2011 919 8’9 dc22 2010033552 CPSIA 110310 PO1383 First Edition 246897531

To the South Pole — page 4 — Table of Contents Chapters Terra Australis Incognita 7 Last of the Vikings 17 To the Pole 27 The Race Is Won 35 Fram Crew Profiles Roald Amundsen 15 Olav Bjaaland 23 Oscar Wisting 33 Helmer Hanssen 41 Expedition Journal Entries What Is to Come 9 If Only I Could Paint 19 Round Huge Open Chasms 29 We Planted the Norwegian Flag 37 Timeline 44 Endnotes 45 Selected Bibliography 46 For Further Reading 47 Index 48

To the South Pole — page 5 — Arenas CRs Up LO R E D WEDDELL EA ce UNDSE OEC 19 SCOTT SE oU MEErebus OL 13 800ft ei ScroRN AG POLE 909 I MAG POLE A 912 O NEXPLO RI

To the South Pole — page 6 — Terra Australis Incognita By the beginning of the 20th century few firsts remained to be achieved in the field of global exploration The coastlines of nearly every continent had been carefully charted and their interiors had been opened by enterprising explorers in search of wealth mission fields or just plain adventure Yet 7 T o t h e S o u t h P o l e The legendary expeditions of Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott are marked on this 1925 map of what was then a still unexplored Antarctica two areas of the world remained imperfectly documented the poles During the early 1900s a ﬁerce competition erupted as adventurers from around the world vied to be the ﬁrst to reach the farthest points on the globe In 1909 Americans Frederick Cook and Robert Peary emerged from the Arctic claiming to have reached the North Pole on separate expeditions Their announcements upset the preparations of another North-Pole seeker a Norwegian named Roald Amundsen who quickly changed his plans and headed south The decision was historic in December 1911 he led the ﬁrst successful expedition to the South Pole The world’s last unknown area of land had ﬁnally been reached landmass Long before Amundsen reached the South Pole scientists and philosophers of the ancient world guessed at the existence of a great southern though no one would sail far enough south to conﬁrm their suspicions for more than 2,000 years During the 400s B C the Greek philosopher Parmenides theorized that the world could be divided into ﬁve climate zones and that the zones farthest north and south would be characterized by frigid temperatures A century later the Greek explorer Pytheas traveled as far north as the Arctic Circle where he encountered the northern pack ice Around the same time the Greek philosopher

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