First to the Pole: The Amazing True Story of a Salesman from Minnesota and His Friends Who Became the First to Reach the North Pole over the Ice

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Review

I loved Ralph Plaisted like my own dad. But even if you didn’t know Ralph and his team, you will love this book. Ralph taught me the true spirit of adventure by living it. Who else could sit over a glass of scotch in Duluth looking out over Lake Superior’s stark winter ice cap and dream of conquering the North Pole by snowmobile? Who else could realize that dream of having a United State Air Force plane radio to him at the Pole proclaiming ‘Plaisted, every direction from where you fellas are is south!’ That could–only–be Ralph. First to the Pole engages the reader on every twist and turn of this amazing journey. A journey that not only captures the North Pole, but the true spirit of adventure which was the fabric of my dear friend and wilderness mentor, Ralph Plaisted.
— Eric Gislason, Longtime KSTP-TV Sports Reporter/Outdoor TV Show Host/Storyteller

“An independent exploring team’s courageous defiance of ice, odds, and the National Geographic Society . . . Puts a definitive quietus to the controversy over who was the first surface-attainer of the North Pole . . . A rich and entertaining . . . human story of achievement by determination and planning, enhanced by the authors’ exceptional expertise in the art and science of navigation.”
—Dennis Rawlins, author of Peary at the Pole: Fact or Fiction? and Amundsen: Cheated & Uncheated

About the Author

Recognized as the dean of snowmobile photojournalism, C.J. Ramstad (1945-2007) began his career in the sport in 1969 when he began writing advertising for snowmobiles. C.J. quickly moved to magazines, first taking pictures and writing articles for Snowmobile Times, and Snow Goer, before founding Snow Week in 1973. C.J. is the author of four previous books: The Collected Works of Pappy (1979), Legend: the history of Arctic Cat(two editions, 1987 and 1999), and Of Ice and Engines, the history of the Eagle River Derby. Keith Pickering is a historian specializing in exploration and navigation and has had a longstanding interest in polar travels. In addition to authoring the web’s premier site devoted to the navigation of Christopher Columbus, Pickering has published numerous articles on navigation and exploration in scholarly journals and has been a frequent lecturer for the Society for the History of Discoveries. Public Radio International interviewed him on polar exploration, and he was a primary on-air interviewed expert for the History Channel’s The Last Voyage of Columbus. His scientific analysis of the claimed North Pole flight of Richard E. Byrd is being published this year in DIO, the International Journal of Scientific History. First to the Pole is his first book.

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