Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer, led the first voyage to reach the geographic South Pole. On the 14th of December 1911, he and four others landed to the North Pole, five weeks ahead of a British expedition commanded by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his crew arrived safely at their base, only to learn later that Scott and his four colleagues had perished on the way back.

Amundsen's early objectives had centred on the Arctic and the conquest of the North Pole via an extended ice-bound voyage. He was able to borrow Fridtjof Nansen's polar exploration ship Fram and fundraised. The expedition's plans were thrown off when competing American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1909. Amundsen subsequently altered his mind and began preparing for a conquest of the South Pole; unsure of how much support he would receive from the public and his backers, he kept this new goal a secret. When he set out in June 1910, he misled even his crew into thinking they were going on an Arctic expedition, only revealing their true destination when Fram was departing Madeira, their last port of call.

In the Bay of Whales on the Great Ice Barrier, Amundsen established his Antarctic base, which he dubbed "Framheim." In October 1911, he and his team set off for the pole after months of preparation, depot-laying, and a near-disaster false start. During their journey, they came across the Axel Heiberg Glacier, which provided them with a path to the arctic plateau and, eventually, the South Pole. The group's knowledge on skis and experience with sled dogs allowed for quick and largely trouble-free travel. The mission also made history by becoming the first to explore King Edward VII Land and taking a thorough oceanographic tour.

The expedition's triumph was universally praised, while in the United Kingdom, the story of Scott's heroic failure eclipsed the expedition's accomplishment. Some chastised Amundsen for keeping his genuine plans hidden until the very last moment. Recent polar historians have more fully recognized Amundsen's party's expertise and bravery; the permanent research base at the pole, together with Scott's, bears his and Scott's names.