Helmer Julius Hanssen (1870-1956) Helmer Hanssen participated in three of Roald Amundsen’s polar expeditions and was part of the five-man group who were first to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911. Early Years and Arctic Expeditions Hanssen was born in northern Norway, where he grew up farming and…

Sir Edmund Hillary (1909-2008) Sir Edmund Hillary is best known for being the first person (along with Tenzing Norgay) to summit Mount Everest. Perhaps less known is the fact that he led the New Zealand component of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE) in 1955-58 and was the first person to…

James Francis "Frank" Hurley, OBE (October 15, 1885 – January 16, 1962) Frank Hurley is an icon of both Australian documentary photography and Antarctic exploration. Hurley was an exceptional photographer and his six visits to Antarctica covered a substantial part of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. His striking images…

FREDRIK HJALMAR JOHANSEN (1867-1913) Hjalmar Johansen participated in Roald Amundsen's Antarctic expedition 1910-1912 and accompanied Fridtjof Nansen on his attempted dash to the North Pole in 1895. The Arctic with Nansen Hjalmar Johansen was Norwegian champion in gymnastics at 20 and was famous for his strength and acrobatics. He applied…

CARL ANTON LARSEN (1860 – 1924) Carl Anton Larsen was a whaling pioneer, ship's captain and inadvertent scientist. He is known for discovering the Larsen Ice Shelf and other features on the Graham Land Coast, as well as for the whaling station he built at Grytviken, South Georgia. Early Life Carl…

MIKHAIL LAZAREV (1788 – 1851) Mikhail Lazarev was a Russian naval officer and explorer. Lazarev took part in the discovery of Antarctica and numerous islands, as a commander of the ship Mirnyi and Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen's deputy, on the 1819–1821 Russian naval expedition. The expedition circumnavigated Antarctica; was the…