(not on the mainland coast).
The station was built in November 1956 for scientific purposes by order of the US government.
An aerial photograph of Amundsen-Scott Station, taken around 1983. The central dome is visible, as well as various containers and supporting buildings
The main entrance to the dome is located below the snow level. Initially, the dome was built on the surface, but then gradually sank into the snow
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 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 to jack up the station twice (this ensures the service life of the station from 30 to 45 years).
Construction materials were delivered by Hercules aircraft from McMurdo Station on the shore and only during daylight hours. More than 1000 flights were made.
On January 15, 2008, in the presence of the leadership of the US National Science Foundation and other organizations, the American flag was lowered from the dome station and raised in front of the new modern complex. The station can accommodate up to 150 people in summer and about 50 in winter.
The minimum temperature at the southern geographic pole of the Earth was −82.8 °C, 6.8 °C higher than the absolute temperature minimum on the planet and at the Vostok station (there it was −89.6 °C), 0.8 °C is lower than the unofficially recorded minimum in 1916 in Oymyakon - the coldest winter city in Russia and the Northern Hemisphere and was recorded on June 23, 1982, one day after the date of the summer solstice. In this century, the most severe frost in Amundsen-Scott was observed on August 1, 2005, -79.3 °C.
In summer, the station's population is usually more than 200 people. Most of the staff leave by mid-February, leaving only a few dozen people (43 in 2009) overwintering, mostly support staff plus a few scientists who maintain the station during the months of Antarctic night. Winterers are isolated from the rest of the world from mid-February to the end of October, during which time they face many dangers and stress. The station is completely self-sufficient in winter, supplied with power from three generators running on JP-8 aviation fuel.
Research at the station includes sciences such as glaciology, geophysics, meteorology, upper atmospheric physics, astronomy, astrophysics and biomedical research. Most scientists work in low-frequency astronomy; the low temperature and low humidity of polar air, combined with altitudes of over 2,743 m (9,000 ft), provide much greater air clarity at some frequencies than is typical elsewhere on the planet, and months of darkness allow sensitive equipment to operate continuously.
In January 2007, the station was visited by a group of Russian high officials, including FSB chiefs Nikolai Patrushev and Vladimir Pronichev. The expedition, led by polar explorer Artur Chilingarov, took off from Chile on two Mi-8 helicopters and landed at the South Pole.
TV show aired on September 6, 2007 Man Made National Geographic Channel with an episode about the construction of a new building here.
November 9, 2007 program Today NBC, with co-author Ann Curry, reported via satellite phone, which was broadcast live from the South Pole.
On Christmas Day 2007, two base employees got into a drunken fight and were evacuated.
Every year the station staff gathers to watch the films “The Thing” and “The Shining”
The station occupies a prominent place in a number of
In December 1911, the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole. In honor of this day, we decided to see how polar explorers live in our time.
Photo blogger Sergei Dolya says: “The Amundsen-Scott station, named after the discoverers of the South Pole, amazes with its scope and technology. In a complex of buildings around which there is nothing but ice for thousands of kilometers, there is literally its own separate world. They didn’t reveal all the scientific and research secrets to us, but they gave us an interesting tour of the residential blocks and showed us how polar explorers live...”
3. Initially, during construction, the station was located exactly at the geographic South Pole, but due to the movement of ice over several years, the base shifted to the side by 200 meters.
4. This is our DC-3 plane. In fact, it was heavily modified by Basler, and almost everything inside it, including avionics and engines, is new.
5. The plane can land both on the ground and on ice.
6. This photo clearly shows how close the station is to the historical South Pole (group of flags in the center). And the lone flag on the right is the geographic South Pole.
8. It stands on stilts, just like many houses in the north. This was done to prevent the building from melting the ice underneath and “floating.” In addition, the space below is well blown by winds (in particular, the snow under the station has not been cleared even once since its construction).
9. Entrance to the station: you need to climb two flights of stairs. Due to the thinness of the air, this is not easy to do.
10. Residential blocks.
11. At the Pole during our visit it was -25 degrees. We arrived in full uniform - three layers of clothing, hats, balaclavas, etc. - and then we were suddenly met by a guy in a light sweater and Crocs. He said that he was used to it: he had already survived several winters and the maximum frost he experienced here was minus 73 degrees. For about forty minutes, while we were walking around the station, he walked around like this.
12. The inside of the station is simply amazing. Let's start with the fact that it has a huge gym. Popular games among employees are basketball and badminton. The station uses 10,000 gallons of jet fuel per week to heat it.
13. Some statistics: 170 people live and work at the station, 50 people stay in the winter. They feed for free in the local canteen. They work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day. Everyone has a day off on Sunday. The chefs also have the day off, and everyone usually eats whatever is left uneaten in the refrigerator from Saturday.
14. There is a room for playing music (in the title photo), and in addition to the sports room there is a gym.
15. There is a room for trainings, conferences and similar events. As we walked past, there was a Spanish lesson going on.
16. The station is two-story. On each floor it is pierced by a long corridor. Residential blocks go to the right, scientific and research blocks go to the left.
17. Conference hall.
18. There is a balcony next to it, with a view of the outbuildings of the station.
19. Everything that can be stored in unheated rooms lies in these hangars.
20. This is the IceCube neutrino observatory, with which scientists catch neutrinos from space. Briefly, it works like this: The collision of a neutrino and an atom produces particles known as muons and a flash of blue light called Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation. In transparent Arctic ice, IceCube's optical sensors will be able to recognize it. Usually, for neutrino observatories, they dig a shaft at depth and fill it with water, but the Americans decided not to waste time on trifles and built IceCube at the South Pole, where there is plenty of ice. The size of the observatory is 1 cubic kilometer, hence, apparently, the name. Project cost: $270 million
21. The subject made a bow on the balcony overlooking our plane.
22. Invitations to seminars and master classes hang throughout the base. Here, for example, is a writing workshop.
23. I noticed the palm tree garlands attached to the ceiling. Apparently, there is a longing for summer and warmth among employees.
24. Old station sign. Amundsen and Scott are two discoverers who conquered the South Pole almost simultaneously (if viewed in historical context), with a month difference.
25. In front of this station there was another one, it was called “Dome”. In 2010 it was finally dismantled. This photo shows the last day.
26. Recreation room: billiards, darts, books and magazines.
27. Scientific laboratory. They didn’t let us in, but they opened the door slightly. Pay attention to the trash cans: separate waste collection is practiced at the station.
28. Departments for firefighters. Standard American system: everyone has their own closet, in front of them is a completely finished uniform.
29. You just need to run up, jump into your boots and put on your clothes.
30. Computer club. Probably, when the station was built, it was relevant, but now everyone has laptops, and they come here, I think, to play games online. There is no Wi-Fi at the station, but there is personal Internet access at a speed of 10 kb per second. Unfortunately, they didn’t give it to us, and I never managed to check in at the pole.
31. Just like in the ANI camp, water is the most expensive pleasure at the station. For example, it costs one and a half dollars to flush the toilet.
32. Medical center.
33. I raised my head and looked at how perfectly the wires were laid. Not like it happens here, and especially somewhere in Asia.
34. At the station there is the most expensive and most inaccessible souvenir shop in the world. A year ago, Evgeny Kaspersky was here, and he didn’t have cash (he wanted to pay with a card). When I went, Zhenya gave me a thousand dollars and asked me to buy everything in the store. Of course, I filled my bag with souvenirs, after which my fellow travelers began to quietly hate me, since I created a queue for half an hour. By the way, in this store you can buy beer and soda, but they sell them only to station employees.
37. Each employee has the right to use the laundry once a week. You can go to the shower 2 times a week for 2 minutes, that is, 4 minutes a week. I was told that they usually save everything and wash it once every two weeks. To be honest, I already guessed it from the smell.
38. Library.
40. And this is a corner of creativity. There is everything you can imagine: sewing threads, paper and paints for drawing, prefabricated models, cardboard, etc. Now I really want to get to one of our polar stations and compare their life and amenities.
41. At the historical South Pole there is a stick that has not changed since the days of the discoverers. And the marker for the geographic South Pole is moved every year to adjust for ice movement. The station has a small museum of knobs accumulated over the years.
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Blogger Sergey Dolya writes: Amundsen-Scott Station, named after the discoverers of the South Pole, amazes with its scale and technology. In a complex of buildings around which there is nothing but ice for thousands of kilometers, there is literally its own separate world. They didn’t reveal all the scientific and research secrets to us, but they gave us an interesting tour of the residential blocks and showed us how polar explorers live...
Initially, during construction, the station was located exactly at the geographic south pole, but due to ice movement over several years, the base shifted to the side by 200 meters:
3.
This is our DC-3 aircraft. In fact, it was heavily modified by Basler and almost all of its components, including avionics and engines, are new:
4.
The plane can land both on the ground and on ice:
5.
This photo clearly shows how close the station is to the historical South Pole (group of flags in the center). And the lone flag on the right is the geographic South Pole:
6.
Upon arrival, we were met by a station employee and gave us a tour of the main building:
7.
It stands on stilts, just like many houses in the north. This was done to prevent the building from melting the ice underneath and “floating.” In addition, the space below is well blown by winds (in particular, the snow under the station has not been cleared even once since its construction):
8.
Entrance to the station: you need to climb two flights of stairs. Due to the thinness of the air, this is not easy to do:
9.
Residential blocks:
10.
At the Pole, during our visit, it was -25 degrees. We arrived in full uniform - three layers of clothing, hats, balaclavas, etc. - and then we were suddenly met by a guy in a light sweater and Crocs. He said that he was used to it: he had already survived several winters and the maximum frost he experienced here was minus 73 degrees. For about forty minutes, while we were walking around the station, he walked around looking like this:
11.
The inside of the station is simply amazing. Let's start with the fact that it has a huge gym. Popular games among employees are basketball and badminton. To heat the station, 10,000 gallons of aviation kerosene per week are used:
12.
Some statistics: 170 people live and work at the station, 50 people stay in the winter. They feed for free in the local canteen. They work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day. Everyone has a day off on Sunday. The cooks also have a day off and everyone, as a rule, eats what was left uneaten in the refrigerator from Saturday:
13.
There is a room for playing music (in the title photo), and in addition to the sports room, there is a gym:
14.
There is a room for trainings, conferences and similar events. When we passed by, there was a Spanish lesson going on:
15.
The station is two-story. On each floor it is pierced by a long corridor. Residential blocks go to the right, scientific and research blocks go to the left:
16.
Conference room:
17.
There is a balcony next to it, with a view of the station’s outbuildings:
18.
Everything that can be stored in unheated rooms lies in these hangars:
19.
This is the Ice cube neutrino observatory, with which scientists catch neutrinos from space. Briefly, it works like this: The collision of a neutrino and an atom produces particles known as muons and a flash of blue light called Vavilov-Cherenkov radiation. In transparent Arctic ice, IceCube's optical sensors will be able to recognize it. Usually, for neutrino observatories, they dig a shaft at depth and fill it with water, but the Americans decided not to waste time on trifles and built an Ice cube at the South Pole, where there is plenty of ice. The size of the observatory is 1 cubic kilometer, hence, apparently, the name. Project cost: $270 million:
20.
Theme "made a bow" on the balcony overlooking our plane:
21.
Throughout the base there are invitations to seminars and master classes. Here's an example of a writing workshop:
22.
I noticed the palm tree garlands attached to the ceiling. Apparently there is a longing for summer and warmth among the employees:
23.
Old station sign. Amundsen and Scott are two discoverers of the pole who conquered the South Pole almost simultaneously (well, if you look at it in a historical context) with a month difference:
24.
In front of this station there was another one, it was called "Dome". in 2010 it was finally dismantled and this photo shows the last day:
25.
Recreation room: billiards, darts, books and magazines:
26.
Scientific laboratory. They didn’t let us in, but they opened the door slightly. Pay attention to the trash cans: separate waste collection is practiced at the station:
27.
Fire departments. Standard American system: everyone has their own closet, in front of them is a completely finished uniform:
28.
You just need to run up, jump into your boots and put on:
29.
Computer club. Probably, when the station was built, it was relevant, but now everyone has laptops and comes here, I think, to play games online. There is no Wi-Fi at the station, but there is personal Internet access at a speed of 10 kb per second. Unfortunately, they didn’t give it to us, and I never managed to check in at the pole:
30.
Just like in the ANI camp, water is the most expensive commodity at the station. For example, it costs one and a half dollars to flush a toilet:
31.
Medical center:
32.
I looked up and looked at how perfectly the wires were laid out. Not like it happens here, and especially somewhere in Asia:
33.
The station houses the most expensive and most difficult to find souvenir shop in the world. A year ago, Evgeny Kaspersky was here, and he didn’t have cash (he wanted to pay with a card). When I went, Zhenya gave me a thousand dollars and asked me to buy everything in the store. Of course, I filled my bag with souvenirs, after which my fellow travelers began to quietly hate me, since I created a queue for half an hour.
By the way, in this store you can buy beer and soda, but they sell them only to station employees:
34.
There is a table with South Pole stamps. We all took our passports and stamped them:
35.
The station even has its own greenhouse and greenhouse. Now there is no need for them, since there is communication with the outside world. And in winter, when communication with the outside world is interrupted for several months, employees grow their own vegetables and herbs:
36.
Each employee has the right to use the laundry once a week. He can go to the shower 2 times a week for 2 minutes, that is, 4 minutes a week. I was told that they usually save everything and wash it once every two weeks. To be honest, I already guessed from the smell:
37.
Library:
38.
39.
And this is a corner of creativity. There is everything you can imagine: sewing threads, paper and paints for drawing, prefabricated models, cardboard, etc. Now I really want to get to one of our polar stations and compare their life and amenities:
40.
At the historic South Pole there is a stick that has not changed since the days of the discoverers. And the marker for the geographic South Pole is moved every year to adjust for ice movement. The station has a small museum of knobs accumulated over the years:
41.
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 originated 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, just 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 power 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
nat-geo.ru
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.
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.
Captain Scott
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, 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
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.
Roald Amundsen's 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.
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.
Dog team on Roald Amundsen's expedition. Photo by 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.
Motorized sleds on Scott's expedition
Top: Mongolian ponies on Scott's expedition. Below: The Brits are pulling the weight
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.
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.
Stop. Expedition of Roald Amundsen. Photo by 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.
Roald Amundsen's team at the South Pole. Photo by 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.
Last photo of Scott's team
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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 rarefaction 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 - scientists, researchers and professional polar explorers - permanently live on the Amundsen-Scott. 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 - that’s all the simple everyday life.
