Roald Amundsen was the first man to lead a successful expedition to the South Pole. Famously arriving about a month before Scott and his party that set out at around the same time. Amundsen used dog sleds, his party was well organised and well prepared with the primary intention of reaching the pole, rather than other exploration or scientific discovery.
This is Roald Amundsen:
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When eventually Amundsen and his team set off, there were 8 men with sledges, pulled by 86 dogs. The first attempt was halted by the weather that became much colder than expected forcing the team to return to the winter base.
In the end a team of 5 men set off each with a sledge pulled by 13 dogs. They made good progress feeding the dogs on seal meat and blubber that had been brought with them. The men’s rations were meagre in quality, but sufficient in quantity.
Plans were made for the final push to the pole based on setting out with dogs that would be systematically shot and fed to the remainder. They struggled on against poor weather, blizzards and bad snow conditions which took their toll on both dogs and men.
 The party finally arrived at the South Pole. They had been concerned that Scott may have beaten them to the prize. They erected a small tent and placed inside it a letter and then set off back to their winter base. They arrived 39 days later with all five men and 11 dogs . The party that had reached the South Pole first.
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So what happened to Scott ???…….
 This is Robert Scott
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The ship was built especially for this expedition, a wooden sailing ship with auxiliary engines. She was 172 feet long, 34 feet wide and was 485 tons unladed. She left Dundee where she had been built on July 31st 1901 sailing south to Antarctica.
Amongst the crew on this expedition was Ernest Shackleton engaged as third lieutenant in charge of holds, stores, provisions and deep sea water analysis.
On reaching Antarctica and after some initial explorations along the coast, the Discovery made its way to McMurdo sound where winter quarters were to be established. Many trips were made by manhaul and dog sledge parties in the remaining months before winter darkness fell. Scott and his men engaged on a very steep and uncomfortable learning curve in an unforgiving environment, a “school of hard knocks” and cold knocks too.
The expedition was made of many “projects” both scientific and exploratory performed by various combinations of the personnel. The centrepiece of the expedition was an attempt to reach the South Pole or at least to explore further South than anyone had managed to do previously. The core party was of Scott, Wilson and Shackleton supported by others who were to lay food and supply depots for the team to use particularly on the return journey. In this way the men would only need to carry enough supplies as to last them as long as the next depot rather than for the whole outward and return journeys.
Though the party had dogs, they were not experienced in using them, the food brought for the dogs was incorrect and had gone bad. When the dogs began to get lame, and weak through the rigours of the environment and lack of food, instead of killing them and depoting the meat, the party pressed on with the dogs running behind as they became too weak to pull the sledge.
In addition to this, Shackleton began to suffer from the effects of scurvy and all of the men were suffering from a lack of food. Wilson, the doctor suffered from snow blindness and at one point hauled his sledge blindfolded. They turned back on December 31st 1902 having reached 82�17′S. They had travelled 300 miles farther south than anyone before them and were only 480 statute miles from the Pole. It took them just over another month before they reached their base, as Scott put it “We are as near spent as three persons can be”. They had been gone for ninety-three days and had covered 960 statute miles.
The expedition however continued. A support ship the “Morning” had arrived from New Zealand to bring extra supplies and exchange some of the personnel including Shackleton who was still recovering from the effects of scurvy. The Morning left again on March 1st 1903 leaving the party to another Antarctic winter and to carry on their scientific and exploratory work.
The “Morning” returned in 1904 this time accompanied by another ship the “Terra Nova”. The government in England had decided that the Antarctic party might be having too good a time of it! relieved once a year by a hugely expensive relief ship and wanted them all brought back whether or not the Discovery had to be abandoned in the process.
For a while it looked like the Discovery might well be abandoned as there was 20 miles of ice between it and open water. With much hard work, explosives, the wind eventually in the right direction and finally the two relief ships breaking their way through the remaining ice, the Discovery was released and all three ships were under way heading back north.
