Poleheim

Yesterday, December 14th 2011, was the hundred year anniversary of the human race towards reaching the South Pole. I've done previous articles on the North Pole, so it's only fitting I do one on the polar opposite (pun intended).

There were two teams racing for the title to be the first, a British and a Norwegian. The winners were the Norwegian Explorers' headed by Roald Amundsen, with his team Olaf Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Oskar Wisting, Sverre Hassel.

Once they reached the location they named it Poleheim, to be translated as the Pole-home, or the polar home. This title was referenced at the start of a letter written by Amundsen to Captain Scott upon the British teams second place arrival. Additionally, on top of the extended flag pole was a pennant with POLE-HEIM embroidered on it.

I question if it is proper that we should be referring to the South Pole as Poleheim as it is usually custom for the explorers to name the location of their conquest destination. Today if you type in 'Poleheim' into a search engine you get just over 600 results. This is part of the drive to write this article is to draw attention to what I believe is the true and proper name of the South Pole, being Poleheim.

In any event, the men on both teams were true explorers, they could have easily have been going to a new planet.