South, Scott and Amundsen's Race to the Pole

 After reading the accounts of polar explorers Shakleton and Amundsen, I decided to read the short (less than 100 pages) nonfiction account of the intense race between the two Antarctica explorers, Scott and Amundsen, as told by Hunter Stewart in South, Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the Pole. Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen were both determined to be the first to arrive at the South Pole. They had different ideas about how to form a polar expedition, and they were intense competitors. Shakleton was not a part of this particular race. It was in 1914, three years later, that Shakleton’s unsuccessful but heroic adventure occurred. 

Amundsen was methodical in his planning, and he was proven correct that dogs would be the key to his success, unlike Scott who travelled with a much larger group of men Scott also took along motor vehicles and ponies, both of which proved to be problematic. He didn’t trust dogs to be useful enough, a decision that Amundsen proved to be wrong. Amundsen a smaller group of men and he took a lot more dogs with him. Neither ponies nor cars were a part of his planning. Both explorers wrote about the hardship from the weather, although Shakleton really did a better job as he wrote about the hardships of traveling in such a remote and harsh climate.

 

Scott had trouble with his cars and ponies and that resulted in a month later start than Amundsen. The travel itself, much by foot, was arduous, incredible, breathtaking. Given the material, this reader came away with respect for having Amundsen as a leader, and it was very easy to dislike the dictatorial and self-centered efforts of Scott. Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 12/14/11, and Scott arrived 34 days later. Amundsen made it back home to Norway, but Scott never made it back to London, having died during his belated effort to reach the pole and then get home again.

 

This short book was definitely worth reading, and it maybe the best primer that I’ve read so far as I prepare for a touristy visit to the Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica. I’ll be crossing the Drake Passage in a luxury liner, unlike the 22-foot row boats that Shakleton had. It was the Hunter’s author’s quotes from Scott’s diary that was most interesting. The diary was found in his tent and under Scott’s frozen body. Despite his failures, Scott argued in his diary that it was merely bad luck with poor timing and weather that led to his failures, not any mistake that had made in planning for this expedition. He refused to accept his responsibility for his own fatal end and that of his loyal crew.