Who was first at the North Pole: Cook, Peary or nobody we can prove?

Who first stood at the North Pole? The two famous claims, in 1908 and 1909, have never been confirmed, and the first well-verified arrivals came decades later.

In 1908 the American explorer Frederick Cook said he had reached the pole with two Inuit men. A year later Robert Peary said he had, with Matthew Henson and four Inuit men. Neither claim has been confirmed. Cook never produced detailed original navigational records: he said they were in boxes left in Greenland, and when a hunter tried to bring them home on Peary's ship, Peary refused to let them aboard. In December 1909 a University of Copenhagen commission ruled that the records Cook did submit did not prove he reached the Pole. Peary refused to submit his records to such a third party; his claim was certified by the National Geographic Society, a major sponsor of his expedition, after an examination described as cursory. The next lesson weighs Peary's evidence in detail. Cook's credibility also suffered from another claim, the first ascent of Denali in 1906: his summit photo turned out to have been taken on a ridge 19 miles away.

The nature of the place made proof harder. Ice at the pole drifts, so any ice on which Cook camped would have drifted many miles within a year. The conflicting claims pushed Amundsen to take extensive navigation precautions at the South Pole so there could be no doubt.

The first well-verified arrival came on 12 May 1926, when Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth crossed the pole in the airship Norge. A Soviet party was the first to land at the pole, on 23 April 1948, and in 1968 a snowmobile party under Ralph Plaisted became the first confirmed surface arrival. Wally Herbert's team reached it on foot in 1969.