The search for the North Pole was a long and complicated one, even more so in some ways than that for the South Pole. While the British dominated exploration of the Antarctic, it was the Americans, Russians, and Scandinavians who contended for the honor of conquering the boreal pole.
One of the earliest exploration attempts was by the Russians and the famed explorer
Nikolai Rezanov. However, he quickly found the task too daunting and turned his sight on California.
An early American attempt to reach the North Pole by foot was the legendary attempt by Matoskah Appanoose of the Hudson Territory in 1895. His party were lost in the wilds of the far north, their final doomed base camp found in 1934.
Russia's other great attempt at the northern pole was during the heyday of Korsgaardianism in the Russian Empire in 1888, just prior to the Global War. Minor Russian noble and adventurer Karl Alexandrovich Kolchak attempted to force his way through in the summer of 1888 with a powerful ice-breaker steamship, the Svyatogor. While getting further than any other, the mighty expedition was eventually forced to turn back. Kolchak would later perish in the Global War while serving with the Russian Navy.
A few minor forays by Scandinavians had been made in the latter half of the 19th century, but the most successful was that of
Brede Kjerstein whose airwhale expedition overflew the North Pole in 1897, capturing the first pictures of the pack ice over the boreal sea. Poor weather didn't allow for landing as Kjerstein had hoped, but the lessons learned from his expedition would be successfully applied to the conquest of the South Pole a few years later.
By the early 20th century, the Russians were in seclusion from the world, and the Scandinavian thirst for adventure had abated, leaving the field to the Americans. The first major attempt for the North Pole in the early 20th century was that by Gitchigumee's native son Nanuck du Nord, who as a young man in 1912 made his first foray towards the pole, trying to use sleds. It failed and du Nord barely made it back to civilization alive. He would have a long convalescence, but eventually when his health and fortunes allowed, he would once more heed the siren call of the Arctic Pole.
It took the pairing of an older, wiser, du Nord with the dashing Quebecker
Nicolas Dezotell to finally conquer the Northern Pole. Dezotell was a dedicated aerialist, and was the first to overfly the Pole in an icewing. However he had determined that a more traditional airwhale would be necessary to take the Pole. Following the pattern set by the Antarctic expedition of Rowe, Dezotell combined forces with du Nord to use a combination of air, land, and sea transport to reach the treacherous North Pole and survive the journey to return to a heroes' welcome in 1935.
