One problem that arriving at the
South Pole posed was determining exactly where it was. The pole
itself is on a featureless icy plateau. The ice above it is moving continually
but slowly. Only by very careful repeated navigational readings could
Amundsen's team actually determine that they had arrived.
Thus they established that this flat white bit was
the pole as opposed to that other flat white bit, they passed over half
an hour ago.
Roald Amundsen - South
Pole Expedition 1911
In: "The South Pole",
by Roald Amundsen.
Picture courtesy NOAA