April 6, 1909
All the hard work of 18 years had led to this. They finally achieved their goal. It was so difficult to reach the Pole that hundreds of men had died trying for hundreds of years to get there. Many others had their fingers, ears or noses frozen. In fact, Peary had frozen his toes 10 years earlier. But he had learned to get along OK on snowshoes without toes. No one had gotten closer than about 170 miles until Matt & Peary went all the way. It was so terrible that no one ever tried to do it again until there were airplanes to fly them out if something went wrong. Only Matt & Peary went both to the Pole and back without any possibility of rescue. That is why they are honored today as the bravest of all Arctic Explorers.