Let me deal with this argument first, as it is the most fun. The distances involved are 280 nautical miles from land to Camp Bartlett, where Bartlett turned around; and 130 miles from Camp Bartlett to the Pole camp. (All of my mileages will be nautical miles; one nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles) I have found that no two sources seem to agree exactly on these mileages, but the disparities are too small to have any appreciable effect.
It took Peary 31 days to reach Camp Bartlett. Of these, six days were spent waiting for an open lead to close and one day was spent resting. This leaves 24 days of travelling which gives Peary an average speed of 11.7 miles/day. According to the estimates in Pearys diary his daily speed ranged from a low of four miles to a high of 23 miles; with his last three marches being 20 miles, 20 miles and 23 miles. These estimates result from consultations between Peary, Henson and Bartlett.
From Camp Bartlett to the Pole camp took 4.2 days for an average of 31 miles/day. This raises two questions. Is the increase in speed after Camp Bartlett outrageous and inexplicable? And, is a speed of 31 miles per day in and of itself outrageous?
On the way to Camp Bartlett Pearys progress would have been slowed by two factors. The first is the ice conditions. The ice in the arctic can be thought of as being comprised of two sheets. One begins on land and works its way out to sea. The other is the pack ice which floats permanently over the Arctic Ocean. Where these two sheets collide they create huge pressure ridges, sort of little mountain ranges of ice which can be hundreds of feet high at worst. It is getting over and/or around these ridges which makes travel on the open ice such a slow operation. But as the distance from land increases, the size and frequency of pressure ridges decreases. Every explorer who has made it anywhere near the pole over open ice, including anti-Peary writer Wally Herbert, has stated that the ice conditions near the pole are dramatically better than those near shore. In 1986 Will Steger contrasted his expedition with Pearys: “As did we and all other polar expeditions of this century, Peary found steadily improving ice conditions during the last few hundred miles which nearly eliminated the need for detours”.
The second factor which slowed Peary down, and which is usually ignored by his detractors, is that this was in fact Pearys plan. His entire strategy involved using four advance teams to lay the trail, hack though pressure ridges, distribute supplies and establish camps in front of the polar party. This allowed the polar party to make their way to 88 degrees latitude in relatively fresh condition. From there you take your best dogs, best sleds and best drivers and make a mad dash for the pole at the highest possible speed.
But in the early going this plan means that progress is being dictated by the slower, if not slowest, teams. It means that when you come into an established camp, you stop, even though you might have made a few more miles that day. So it is hardly surprising that Pearys speed would increase fairly dramatically after Camp Bartlett.
But is 31 miles/day too fast? In fairness to Peary I should point out that he crammed five marches into those 4.2 days (meaning five periods of travel with four periods of rest/sleep). In 1986 Will Steger also pitched camp 130 miles from the pole. Steger also made it to the pole in five marches, but he spread his out over five days. Steger had significantly heavier sleds, less experienced sledders, and the knowledge that he was returning by airplane. But his progress over that last 130 miles is very similar to Pearys.
And just how fast was this progress. If we assume that each rest period lasted eight hours (which I find unlikely) and allow another two hours per rest for setting up and breaking camp, this totals 40 hours. Sutract that from the total of 101 hours which it took Peary to reach the Pole camp and you have 61 hours of travel time. This gives an average speed of 2.13 miles/hour. In other words, Pearys outrageous, unbelievable speed was actually a rather slow walk.
The figure of 50 miles/day comes from Pearys return, which I will deal with another time.
ps…Both Henson and Peary recorded excellent weather except for one day on the return trip, and even that storm worked to their advantage.