Pretty much everyone during this period was an amateur compared to Amundsen. Including the previously mentioned Nansen. Nansen was a generation earlier though,

Pretty much everyone during this period was an amateur compared to Amundsen. Including the previously mentioned Nansen. Nansen was a generation earlier though, and among other things built the ship Amundsen used. Amundsen made something difficult look easy. Everyone else made the difficult look - difficult. And survived. Except for Scott who died. There is an analogy there with software projects by the way, except for maybe the dying part replaced with general failure.