aid of dog teams and air drops). They continued on to complete the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean and by its longest axis, Barrow, Alaska to Svalbard a feat that has never been repeated. Because of suggestions of Plaisted’s use of air transport, some sources classify Herbert’s expedition as the first confirmed to reach the North Pole over the ice surface by any means.
Memorial in honor of icebreaker Arktika conquest of the North Pole in 1977 in hall of museum of local lore of the Murmansk region
On August 17, 1977, the Soviet nuclear powered icebreaker Arktika completed the first surface vessel journey to the North Pole.
In 1982 Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Charles Burton became the first people to cross the Arctic Ocean in a single season. They departed from Cape Crozier, Ellesmere Island, on 17 February 1982 and arrived at the geographic North Pole on 10 April 1982. They travelled on foot and skidoo. From the Pole, they travelled south towards Svalbard but, due to the unstable nature of the ice, ended their crossing at the ice edge after drifting south on an ice floe for 99 days. They were eventually able to walk to their expedition ship “MV Benjamin Bowring” and boarded it on 4 August 1982 at position 80:31N 00:59W. As a result of this journey, which formed a section of the three-year Transglobe Expedition 19791982, Fiennes and Burton became the first people to complete a circumnavigation of the world via both North and South Poles, by surface travel alone. This achievement remains unchallenged to this day.
On September 7, 1991, the German research vessel RV Polarstern and the Swedish ice breaker Oden reached the North Pole as the first conventional powered vessels.. Both scientific parties and crew took