In the mid-1920s, after conquering the South Pole, Roald Amundsen was restless. His new obsession? Being the first to reach the North Pole by air. "D'Europe en Amérique par le pôle nord" is the official record of that mission. The plan was to pilot the Italian-built airship Norge from Spitsbergen, Norway, over the polar ice cap, and land in Alaska.

The Story

The book throws you right into the cramped gondola of the Norge. You're with the crew as they lift off into the unknown. The narrative is a tense, day-by-day log of battling freezing fog, navigating by dead reckoning over a featureless white landscape, and the constant, low-grade terror of piloting a giant hydrogen bubble. The climax is their fleeting, historic pass over the Pole itself, followed by the grueling, storm-battered flight to a rough landing in a remote Alaskan village. It's a story of precision engineering meeting uncontrollable nature.

Why You Should Read It

What grabbed me wasn't just the adventure, but the human dynamic. You get Amundsen's stoic leadership, Ellsworth's wealthy backer-turned-determined crewman perspective, and the technical genius (and later, famous rivalry) of Nobile. It reads like the last great gasp of pure, physical exploration, right before satellites and radios changed everything. Their success felt fragile and hard-won, a quality missing from many modern tales.

Final Verdict

Perfect for anyone who loves true adventure stories where the stakes are life and death. If you enjoyed Endurance or Into Thin Air, you'll find the same raw, first-person intensity here. It's also a fascinating snapshot of a brief, romantic era of aviation. Just be prepared to feel very cold while reading it from your cozy armchair.