This Day In History - Race to Reach the South Pole

One hundred years ago the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen 

beat Robert F. Scott in a race to the South Pole.

"The North Pole is reached!" was the news that flashed all over the world...it was September 1909 when the news reached Amundsen. The original plan of the FRAM'S third voyage--the exploration of the North Polar basin--was quickly called off. In order to save the expedition, Amundsen immediately turned his attention to the South...

... And so, "at 3:00 pm, on Friday, December 14, 1911, there was a simultaneous cry of "Halt!" as the sledge meters registered their arrival at the South Pole. They had achieved their goal. Symbolic of their struggle in unity, each of the men, with their weathered and frostbitten hands, grasped the Norwegian flag and planted it firmly at the geographical South Pole. Amundsen named the plain King Haakon VII's Plateau. There were festivities in the tent that evening with each man sharing a little seal meat." Full story here.

I can't begin to envision the hardships explorers faced on these expeditions. 

Most people find travelling in this day and age exhausting; and that's in an air-conditioned/heated 

environment, with all the amenities of home at our fingertips or a quick pit-stop away.
These next two short videos give us a brief look at the conditions they endured.

Brrrrrr!