Roald Amundsen

The Norwegian explorer was the first person to reach the South Pole, arriving on 14 December 1911 with four companions and a team of sled dogs, five weeks ahead of Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated British expedition. Amundsen had earlier been the first to navigate the Northwest Passage (1903-1906), achieving what explorers had sought for 400 years. His success at the Pole — where Scott and his entire party perished on the return journey — was the result of meticulous planning, superior equipment choices, and a thorough understanding of Arctic survival techniques learned from the Inuit. He later became the first person to reach the North Pole by air, in 1926.