Amundsen’s team crossed some mountains, then began to travel over a plateau they later named the Devil’s Ballroom. It was a thin crust of ice that concealed crevasses, or deep gaps, that could swallow men, sleds, and dogs. Stumbling into one crevasse, a team of dogs dangled by their harnesses until the men could pull them up to safety.

On skis, with well-fed dogs pulling their supply sleds, Amundsen and his men swept across the plateau. The going was smooth for them, and the weather was fine. At three o’clock on December 14, Amundsen stopped to look at his navigation instruments. He was at the South Pole!

When Roald Amundsen raised the Norwegian flag at the South Pole, Scott and his men were still some 360 miles (580 kilometers) away. More than a month later, on January 17, 1912, the last members of the weary, disappointed British team finally reached the Pole. They saw the Norwegian flag and a note from Amundsen asking them to pass along news of his triumph if he failed to make it home.

Worse was yet to come on Scott’s return trip. He and his men did not have enough food. Some fuel they’d brought to build fires had leaked from its containers. And Scott’s markers locating the spots he’d left extra supplies had been covered by blowing snow. The men faced scurvy and frostbite, and trying to find the markers along their route to base camp used up valuable time. All through January and February the team struggled on. On February 17 a team member collapsed and died. One month later another man walked into a blizzard and disappeared. Within two weeks the others, including Scott, had died—only 11 miles (18 kilometers) from a supply of food and fuel.