Robert Edwin Peary 1909
The Northpole 4
Peary devoted 23 years of his life with the goal to be the first one to conquer the North Pole. As all researchers after Nansen he lived with the natives of the Arctic, learned to survive the nights and in the ice as well as the handling of the dog sledge. Peary received effective assistance from his home country and the “Peary Arctic Club”. Despite of horrible setbacks which led him repeatedly to the brink of death, on 06/04/1909 he finally claimed that he had reached his goal. Just as his contender Cook he could never fully prove it. It was not until 1969 that the pole was regarded as accomplished on foot by Sir Walter William Herbert.