Mark Agnew
Roald Amundsen next to his plane for his 1925 flight to the North Pole. But it was not his first time planning a flight over the Arctic.
100 years ago one of the world's most famous explorers didn't fly over the Arctic
Last year marked the 100 year anniversary of Roald Amundsen's first attempt to fly over the North Pole. In 1923, he planned to fly from Wainwright, Alaska, to Spitsbergen, off the coast of Norway. He would be the first person to fly over the North Pole and was even the first person to try.
But it did not go well. In fact, he never took off because during test flights his landing gear crumpled and the expedition was cancelled.
In 1924, Amundsen was approached by Lincoln Ellsworth. The latter was the son of a rich industrialist and had an itch for adventure. Lincoln's father funded a second flying expedition.
The pair and the rest of the crew planned to land near the North Pole, trek to the famous latitude. The two men set off in seperate planes from Spitsbergen, Norway in 1925. What happened next was an epic adventure.
Amundsen landed safely near the pole. Ellsworth's did not. His plane was damaged in the landing. The shifting sea ice made for treacherous conditions and it took a monumental effort for the two crews to reunite, then an even greater effort for them to build a runway. The two crews piled into one aircraft and took off. They made it back to Spitsbergen.
If you want to learn more about the expedition and Roald Amundsen, I'd recommend the book The Last Viking, available on Amazon here.
Amundsen is one of my explorer heroes and this story in particular brings me joy - he failed. And even when he was successful, it was not a smooth journey.
I failed on my first two expeditions. I tried to row the Atlantic twice and was rescued embarrassingly close to shore on each occasion. It left me devastated.
Last year, my three teammates and I became the first to kayak the Northwest Passage and the first to do it in a single season using just human power, with no motors or sails. In no way am I like Amundsen, but it is gratifying to know that even the greatest fail. In fact, I look back on my failures and consider them part of the journey.
Without those failures, I would never have re-examined my motivations and realised the power of intrinsic motivations over external goals.
Amundsen will forever be remembered as the first person to over winter in Antarctica with the Belgica expedition, to reach the South Pole, to navigate the Northwest Passage and to fly to the North Pole. This great man failed too.