Poles apart: Scott, Amundsen and science

Abstract

One hundred years ago, teams led by Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott may have been heading in the same direction but they were poles apart in the way they sought their goals. Amundsen led a five-person team of expert Nordic skiers and dog-sledders with a single goal: getting to the South Pole first. He planned and executed the effort brilliantly. Scott, in contrast, led a complex and multi-faceted Antarctic expedition with 33 explorers and scientists, many of whom were focused on ambitious and often taxing scientific research projects that had nothing whatsoever to do with reaching the Pole. Although Scott failed to reach the South Pole first and died with four men on the return trip, his expedition made significant contributions to Antarctic science. Indeed, at least some of Scott's failure to reach the Pole first and the subsequent death of his polar party on the return trip can be attributed to burden of trying to do too much and not focusing on reaching the pole.