Question 1

True or false: Amundsen reached the South Pole before any other explorer in history.

Accepted Answer

True. He led the first successful expedition to the South Pole on December 14, 1911, beating Robert Falcon Scott by about a month.

Question 2

True or false: Amundsen was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles.

Accepted Answer

True. He reached the South Pole in 1911 and also flew over the North Pole in 1926 in the airship Norge, making him first to both.

Question 3

True or false: Amundsen died while attempting to rescue a fellow explorer from the Arctic.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1928, he died in a plane crash while searching for the missing Italian explorer Umberto Nobile in the Arctic.

Question 4

True or false: Amundsen was the first person to set foot on the North Pole.

Accepted Answer

False. He flew over the North Pole in 1926 but never landed there. Robert Peary claimed the first foot landing, though that is disputed.

Question 5

True or false: Amundsen originally planned to be a doctor before switching to exploration.

Accepted Answer

True. He studied medicine at university to please his mother, but quit after her death to pursue polar exploration full-time.

Question 6

True or false: Amundsen used sled dogs exclusively and refused to use any motorized vehicles.

Accepted Answer

False. He successfully used dogs, but also experimented with airplanes and motorized sleds. He even tried to fly a plane to the North Pole in 1925.

Question 7

True or false: Amundsen was Norwegian, but he learned Inuit survival skills from indigenous peoples.

Accepted Answer

True. He spent years living with the Netsilik Inuit in Canada, adopting their clothing, dog handling, and igloo-building techniques.

Question 8

True or false: Amundsen's South Pole expedition was secretly funded by the British government.

Accepted Answer

False. He funded his expedition privately, partly by hiding his true destination from sponsors. The British government backed Scott, not Amundsen.

Roald Amundsen Trivia Questions