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The Emptiest Place on Earth

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, and driest continent on the entire planet. In the early 1900s, no human being had ever stood at its exact center, the South Pole. Reaching that spot meant crossing hundreds of miles of shifting ice, hidden cracks, and screaming wind. During one short and precious summer in 1911, two rival teams set out to change that. One expedition was led by Roald Amundsen of Norway, a patient man obsessed with preparation. The other belonged to Robert Falcon Scott of Britain, a brave and ambitious naval officer. Both men hungered for the same frozen prize, yet only one team could reach it first.

Two Plans, Two Teams

Amundsen had studied the frozen Arctic for many years before he ever turned toward the south. He believed that survival depended on tiny details rather than on luck or sudden bursts of courage. He even chose a starting base that sat closer to the pole than Scott's did. His small team traveled light, ate carefully, and rehearsed every skill until it became almost automatic. Scott, by contrast, trusted an uncertain mixture of motorized sledges, ponies, and plain human muscle. His fragile machines soon froze, and his heavy ponies sank helplessly into the soft, deep snow. From the very beginning, the two different plans were quietly steering the teams toward opposite endings.