Who was the first person to reach the South Pole?

Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole.

Amundsen and four companions arrived at the geographic South Pole on 14 December 1911 during a Norwegian expedition. They traveled using skis and dog sledges, methods Amundsen had studied and adapted from Arctic Indigenous peoples during earlier polar experience.

The expedition established supply depots along its route and selected a path across the Ross Ice Shelf and up the Axel Heiberg Glacier. Amundsen’s team reached the Pole about five weeks before Robert Falcon Scott’s British party, which arrived on 17 January 1912.

Scott’s party found Amundsen’s tent and a letter at the Pole and died during the return journey. Amundsen’s success resulted from careful preparation, effective clothing and transport choices, and a disciplined logistical plan. The achievement made him one of the defining explorers of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.