History books are full of bullshit, such as Columbus reaching America - he never touched foot on any of the United States lands. Vikings landed on Canada hundreds of years earlier.
And the old story about Peary being first to the North Pole, as he claimed to have reached the Pole on April 6, 1909, is easily understood as flawed as it included no one who was trained in navigation and could independently confirm his own navigational work.
Peary was long anointed the discoverer of the North Pole—until 1988, when a re-examination of his records commissioned by the National Geographic Society, a major sponsor of his expeditions, concluded that Peary’s evidence never proved his claim and revealed that he knew he might have fallen short.
No, set aside all the grandstanding megalomaniac wanna be "Admirals of the Sea" and such nonsense that Peary, Columbus, and other names made famous in history books. It's bullshit. You can't trust many writers to get it correct either, even a
2016 article in Popular Mechanics doesn't have the facts, and
Guinness is also ignorant.
The real first confirmed surface conquest of the North Pole was that of Ralph Plaisted, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean Luc Bombardier (nephew of the founder), who traveled over the ice by snowmobile after fundraising 200k for the expedition, and arrived on April 19, 1968. The United States Air Force independently confirmed their position.
Plaisted was an insurance salesman, Pitzl was a Marine veteran, geography teacher and pilot with navigation experience.
With four 16 horsepower 300cc Super Olympic Ski-Doo motor, with improved traction thanks to the insertion of iron crampons inside the tracks rubber to ensure better traction on the ice, they left Ward Hunt Island, the jump off point, in March of 1968, a year after a failed attempt which had Charles Kuralt of CBS along, and these Ski Doos were 6 hp more than the previous years models.
It is 472 straight miles on a map... but, using a snowmobile means being subject to the conditions on the ice pack, and that results in a lot of wasted travel getting around challenges. Instead of 30 days travel, it took 40
While making their way, they tested food for NASA and the Apollo missions!
Something they don't mention in most coverage of artic expeditions, there are no showers or baths for a couple of months. The temps are too cold, and no one is going to lug enough heating fuel to heat enough ice to temps for a bath... as the outdoor temp is -25 to -70
They stayed two days at the north pole, and were air lifted back instead of wasting time traveling back over ice.
Why was the unlikely triumph of the Plaisted expedition lost to history?
The answer is a combination egos and polar politics.
When the expedition returned to Montreal, a writer from National Geographic was waiting, hoping to acquire rights to the story. Rights.... see, that is a powerful word, rights are something you do not "give" away.
Plaisted flatly refused, despite the pleading of his comrades. Since Peary’s day, the magazine had been the official arbiter of exploration claims like theirs; with his refusal, Plaisted denied his team the legitimacy only the society could bestow.
And without "rights" to the story, the Nat Geo Society won't give free publicity to honest people that earn respect by accomplishing a feat they wrongly and without evidence handed to their chosen guy, and promoted for decades. That's the world we live in, when they can profit from it, they hand out accolades, when they can't profit, they ignore their mandate.
https://www.perfectduluthday.com/2016/04/05/hollywood-rumor-will-ferrell-will-star-film-snowmobile-adventure-hatched-drinks-duluths-pickwick/
https://geog.ucsb.edu/who-was-the-first-person-to-reach-the-north-pole/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-discovered-the-north-pole-116633746/
http://www.amsnow.com/reviews/snowmobile-trails-travel/2012/01/syrupy-spring-snowmobiling
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/an-insurance-salesman-and-a-doctor-walk-into-a-bar-and-end-up-at-the-north-pole.html
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/last-of-the-ice-party-that-made-it-to-the/article_d67a1715-c671-51af-ae7f-15cef20024ec.html
