Ralph Plaisted
Encyclopedia
Ralph Plaisted and his three companions, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean-Luc Bombardier, are regarded by most polar authorities to be the first to succeed in a surface traverse across the ice to the North Pole
on 19 April 1968, making the first confirmed surface conquest of the Pole.
Plaisted was a high-school dropout from Bruno, Minnesota, who found success as an insurance salesman. An avid outdoorsman, in the early 1960's he was one of the first Minnesotans to buy a Ski-Doo snowmobile, a then-novel invention of Canada's Bombardier Company, and became a convert and booster of the machine. In 1965, Plaisted drove his snowmobile 250 miles from Ely to St. Paul, Minnesota in one day, which is regarded as the first long-distance snowmobile trek.
Plaisted and his friend Art Aufderheide conceived the idea of reaching the North Pole by snowmobile in the spring of 1966, aiming to make the trip the following year. In April and May 1967 Plaisted's first attempt was thwarted at 83° 20' latitude by storms and open water. The attempt did result in a CBS-TV documentary To the Top of the World, reported by Charles Kuralt
, who accompanied the Plaisted team.
Plaisted returned for a successful attempt the following year in March, 1968. Starting at Canada's Ward Hunt Island
just a few miles from Peary's start at Cape Columbia on Ellesmere Island
, Plaisted began the 412 miles traverse on March 9.
Navigating with a sextant and resupplied when possible with fuel and supplies dropped by a turboprop DeHavilland Twin Otter, the expedition members spent 43 days, 11 hours travelling on the ice before reaching their final camp on the evening of April 19th. Navigator Jerry Pitzl made hourly sextant sightings over the next two days to confirm their location. On the morning of April 20, the party journeyed somewhat less than four miles to account for ice drift, and signalled a United States Air Force C135 weather reconnaissance aircraft using a handheld radio. At 10:30 am eastern daylight time, the aircraft, call sign LARK-47, flew overhead confirming the party was exactly at the North Pole.
Given the doubts surrounding the North pole conquest claims of Robert Peary
and Frederick Cook
, Ralph Plaisted's journey was regarded as the first undisputed surface conquest of the North Pole, however because of suggestions of Plaisted's use of air lifts, some sources classify Wally Herbert
's British Trans-Arctic Expedition (1968-69) as the first confirmed to reach the North Pole over the ice surface by any means.
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
on 19 April 1968, making the first confirmed surface conquest of the Pole.
Plaisted was a high-school dropout from Bruno, Minnesota, who found success as an insurance salesman. An avid outdoorsman, in the early 1960's he was one of the first Minnesotans to buy a Ski-Doo snowmobile, a then-novel invention of Canada's Bombardier Company, and became a convert and booster of the machine. In 1965, Plaisted drove his snowmobile 250 miles from Ely to St. Paul, Minnesota in one day, which is regarded as the first long-distance snowmobile trek.
Plaisted and his friend Art Aufderheide conceived the idea of reaching the North Pole by snowmobile in the spring of 1966, aiming to make the trip the following year. In April and May 1967 Plaisted's first attempt was thwarted at 83° 20' latitude by storms and open water. The attempt did result in a CBS-TV documentary To the Top of the World, reported by Charles Kuralt
Charles Kuralt
Charles Kuralt was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.Kuralt's "On the Road"...
, who accompanied the Plaisted team.
Plaisted returned for a successful attempt the following year in March, 1968. Starting at Canada's Ward Hunt Island
Ward Hunt Island
Ward Hunt Island is a small, uninhabited island in the Arctic Ocean, off the north coast of Ellesmere Island. Its northern cape is one of the northernmost elements of land in Canada. Only a 17 km stretch of northern coast of Ellesmere Island around Cape Columbia is more northerly. The island...
just a few miles from Peary's start at Cape Columbia on Ellesmere Island
Ellesmere Island
Ellesmere Island is part of the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, it is considered part of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, with Cape Columbia being the most northerly point of land in Canada...
, Plaisted began the 412 miles traverse on March 9.
Navigating with a sextant and resupplied when possible with fuel and supplies dropped by a turboprop DeHavilland Twin Otter, the expedition members spent 43 days, 11 hours travelling on the ice before reaching their final camp on the evening of April 19th. Navigator Jerry Pitzl made hourly sextant sightings over the next two days to confirm their location. On the morning of April 20, the party journeyed somewhat less than four miles to account for ice drift, and signalled a United States Air Force C135 weather reconnaissance aircraft using a handheld radio. At 10:30 am eastern daylight time, the aircraft, call sign LARK-47, flew overhead confirming the party was exactly at the North Pole.
Given the doubts surrounding the North pole conquest claims of Robert Peary
Robert Peary
Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person, on April 6, 1909, to reach the geographic North Pole...
and Frederick Cook
Frederick Cook
Frederick Albert Cook was an American explorer and physician, noted for his claim of having reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908. This would have been a year before April 6, 1909, the date claimed by Robert Peary....
, Ralph Plaisted's journey was regarded as the first undisputed surface conquest of the North Pole, however because of suggestions of Plaisted's use of air lifts, some sources classify Wally Herbert
Wally Herbert
Sir Walter William "Wally" Herbert was a British polar explorer, writer and artist. In 1969 he became the first man to walk undisputed to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous, but disputed, expedition...
's British Trans-Arctic Expedition (1968-69) as the first confirmed to reach the North Pole over the ice surface by any means.