Amundsen Facts Country Norway Occupation Sailor, explorer Arctic Regions Explored Northwest Passage, North Pole # of Arctic expeditions 3 Most famous Arctic expedition Navigated Northwest Passage (1903-05) Other Significant Events First person to reach the South Pole (1911) Did you know? As a youth Amundsen insisted on sleeping with the windows open even during the frigid Norwegian winters to help condition himself for a life of polar exploration. Amundsen was highly regarded for his skills in organization and planning; crew members onboard his ships knew he was firm but fair, and affectionately referred to him as "the chief." Amundsen was killed in 1928 when his plane crashed into the Arctic Ocean while flying on a rescue mission. Previously that year, during an interview, Amundsen had said, "If only you knew how splendid it is up there [in the Arctic], that's where I want to die."

Roald Amundsen
(1872 - 1928)

He left medical school in 1897 to go to the Antarctic with a Belgian expedition, the first group to spend a winter there. In 1903 he established himself as a sailor and explorer of the first order when he successfully led a 70-foot fishing boat through the entire length of the Northwest Passage, a treacherous ice-bound route that wound between the northern Canadian mainland and Canada's Arctic islands. The arduous journey took three years to complete as Amundsen and his crew had to wait while the frozen sea around them thawed enough to allow for navigation. During this voyage, Amundson determined the position of the North Magnetic Pole. His ship, the Gjoa, can still be seen in an Oslo museum today.

In June 1910 Amundsen sailed from Norway, intending to be the first to reach the South Pole. He was extremely secretive about his plans for a South Pole expedition, even waiting until his ship "The Fram", was well off the coast of Morocco before announcing to his crew that they were headed for the South, not the North, Pole. He knew of a similar expedition being launched by the British under the direction of Robert Falcon Scott. Their race captured the imagination of Europe. Amundsen, with a shorter overland route and a disciplined plan involving the use of dogs to pull the sleds and provide food for the return journey, arrived at the pole with four men on Dec. 14, 1911, one month ahead of the British. However, Scott's journey received more recognition fraught as it was with misery, suffering, hunger, and death.

Roald Amundsen lived to experience other polar adventures, including flying over the North Pole in a dirigible in 1926. But the Arctic would eventually claim his life, too. Amundsen died in a plane crash attempting to rescue his friend, the Italian explorer Umberto Nobile who was lost in an airship.