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50 free Roald Amundsen trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Roald Amundsen trivia quiz covers the Norwegian who was first through the Northwest Passage, first to the South Pole and, in all likelihood, first over the North Pole too. The easy questions are the ones every schoolchild learns: the date he stood at the bottom of the world, the British rival he beat there by a month, the ship he borrowed from Nansen and the way he vanished. From there it moves through his medical studies abandoned for the sea, the Belgica's terrible winter, the tiny herring boat Gjøa, the Inuit lessons in furs and dogs, the telegram from Madeira and the depots laid along the Barrier. The harder end is for polar historians: the glacier route to the plateau, the Butchers' Shop, the black dot that turned out to be dog droppings, the letter left in the tent for King Haakon, the ship frozen in for three winters off Siberia, the six men who dug 600 tons of ice to fly home, the Alaskan village where the Norge landed and the French flying boat that never returned. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for Amundsen, his expeditions and his ships before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Ernest Shackleton, Antarctica and famous explorers quizzes next.
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Q 01On what date did Amundsen's party become the first people to reach the South Pole?
14 December 1911
Scott's British party arrived 34 days later to find the Norwegian tent already there.
Q 02Which ship carried Amundsen's expedition to Antarctica in 1910?
Fram
It had been built for Fridtjof Nansen's Arctic drift and later served Otto Sverdrup for four years.
Q 03Where was Amundsen born in 1872?
Borge, Østfold
He came from a family of shipowners and captains, and lived near Fredrikstad.
Q 04What career did Amundsen's mother want for him, a promise he kept only until she died?
Doctor
He quit university for a life at sea as soon as she died, when he was 21.
Q 05Whose narratives of overland Arctic expeditions enthralled the 15-year-old Amundsen?
John Franklin
He said he read them with a fervid fascination which shaped the whole course of his life.
Q 06On which 1897-99 venture, the first to overwinter in Antarctica, did Amundsen serve as first mate?
The Belgian Antarctic Expedition
Adrien de Gerlache's ship Belgica was locked in the sea ice for a winter the crew was badly prepared for.
Q 07Which American physician on the Belgica did Amundsen credit with saving the crew from scurvy?
Frederick Cook
The same Cook later made a disputed claim to have reached the North Pole in 1908.
Q 08Amundsen led the first traverse of which sea route in 1903-06?
The Northwest Passage
He did it with a crew of six in a small, shallow-draught boat, hugging the coast.
Q 09What was the name of the 45-ton sloop Amundsen used for his 1903-06 Arctic voyage?
Gjøa
Built in 1872, the year of his birth, she had spent 28 years as a herring boat.
Q 10How did Amundsen's little Arctic sloop get her name?
After her first owner's wife
He bought her in 1901 from Asbjørn Sexe of Ullensvang, largely with his inheritance.
Q 11From which Inuit people did Amundsen learn Arctic survival skills at King William Island?
Netsilik
He learned to use sled dogs and to wear animal skins instead of wool, lessons he took to the South Pole.
Q 12How far did Amundsen travel overland from Alaska to reach a telegraph and wire news of his 1905 success?
500 miles
The nearest station was at Eagle; he sent the message on 5 December 1905 and returned to Nome.
Q 13What news about his own country reached Amundsen while he was in Alaska in 1905?
Norway had a new king
Norway had dissolved its union with Sweden; he wrote to Haakon VII as your loyal subject.
Q 21Why was Amundsen's first start for the pole, on 8 September 1911, abandoned?
Extreme cold
The retreat caused a bitter quarrel, and Hjalmar Johansen was dropped from the polar party.
Q 22How many men were in the party that finally reached the South Pole?
Five
Bjaaland, Hanssen, Hassel, Wisting and Amundsen left base on 19 October with four sledges and 52 dogs.
Q 23Which previously unknown ice route did the Norwegians climb to reach the Polar Plateau?
Axel Heiberg Glacier
The four-day climb brought them to the plateau edge on 21 November.
Q 14In which US city was Amundsen's Arctic sloop displayed for decades before her return to Norway in 1972?
San Francisco
The local Norwegian-American community persuaded him to sell her; she sat in Golden Gate Park.
Q 15What made Amundsen switch his 1910 expedition from the Arctic to Antarctica?
Cook and Peary claimed the North Pole
He kept the change secret from his backers and from Scott until the ship's only port of call.
Q 16From which island did Amundsen telegraph Scott to say his ship was 'proceeding Antarctic'?
Madeira
He told his own crew of the detour there too; the wire reached Scott in Melbourne.
Q 17Who designed and built the ship Amundsen borrowed from Nansen, in 1891-93?
Colin Archer
Norway's leading naval architect made a hull that would rise up under ice pressure rather than be crushed.
Q 18At which inlet on the Ross Ice Shelf did Amundsen set up his base camp?
The Bay of Whales
Scott's ship Terra Nova called there unexpectedly in February 1911 and found the Norwegians.
Q 19What did Amundsen call his Antarctic base hut?
Framheim
The name means home of the ship; carpenter Jørgen Stubberud had built it in Norway and shipped it in sections.
Q 20At which three latitudes did Amundsen's men lay supply depots along the Barrier?
80, 81 and 82 south
They marked the line south with cairns of snow blocks every three miles.
Q 24What grim name did the party give the glacier-top camp where most dogs were killed for food?
The Butchers' Shop
Of the 45 dogs that made the climb only 18 went on; Wisting proved a skilful cook of the meat.
Q 25What was the alarming black object the party spotted on the horizon two days before the pole?
Their own dogs' droppings magnified by mirage
They had passed Shackleton's farthest south of 88° 23′ four days earlier.
Q 26What did Amundsen name the tent his party left at the South Pole?
Polheim
Inside he left a letter to King Haakon and asked Scott to deliver it.
Q 27What name did Amundsen give the high ground around the South Pole?
King Haakon VII's Plateau
He later mused on the irony of reaching a goal so diametrically opposed to his lifelong Arctic wishes.
Q 28How many of the 52 dogs that set out for the pole returned to base?
Eleven
The round trip took 99 days, ten fewer than scheduled, covering about 3,440 km.
Q 29Which Norwegian in the polar party was a champion skier and ski-maker from Morgedal in Telemark?
Olav Bjaaland
He also served as the expedition's carpenter and shaved the sledges down to 60% of their weight.
Q 30In which city did Amundsen publicly announce his South Pole success on 7 March 1912?
Hobart
King George V wired his pleasure that the first port of call was on British Empire soil.