Roald Amundsen

Who is Roald Amundsen?

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was born in Borge, Norway, and became the foremost polar explorer of the "Heroic Age" of exploration. Between 1903 and 1906 he led the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage by sea aboard the ship Gjøa. In December 1911 he led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, arriving roughly five weeks ahead of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated British party, a triumph credited to careful planning, the use of sled dogs, and skills learned from Arctic peoples. In 1926 he was among the first verified to reach the North Pole, crossing the Arctic by the airship Norge. Amundsen disappeared in 1928 during an aerial rescue mission in the Arctic searching for the lost airship Italia, and his body was never found.

Sources: Roald Amundsen, The South Pole (Sydpolen), 1912 · Roald Amundsen, The North West Passage, 1908