First Claims to the North Pole
Up until 1926, there had been many attempts to reach the North Pole; several expeditions claimed to have succeeded. In 1908, the American Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the Pole on foot together with two Inuits from Greenland.
Disputed Claims
Other Americans claimed to have reached the North Pole, including Robert Peary in 1909 and Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett in 1926 (three days before the Norge flight). These claims, along with Cook’s, are highly disputed.
The Search for an Arctic Continent
Cook’s and Peary’s claims to have reached the North Pole made Roald Amundsen change his plan with the Fram Expedition: to head for the South Pole instead. But there was still the question as to whether there was land somewhere in the Arctic Ocean. To answer this question was the goal for both the Maud and the Norge expeditions.
First Crossing of the Arctic Ocean
Amundsen, together with the Italian air ship constructor Umberto Nobile and the American Lincoln Ellsworth, finally managed to cross the Arctic Ocean from Svalbard to Alaska in the air ship Norge in 1926. The technological development had reduced the crossing that would have taken 5-7 years in the Maud to a 72 hour flight.