History:

Contrary to Antarctica, there are people living in the Arctic, at least in the southern parts. 

The most famous are the Inuits (or Eskimos) of Canada and Greenland, Lapp or Sami from Arctic Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula, and the Samoyeds of western Siberia. 

The Inuit and Eskimo are names for the same people, the word Eskimo meaning "raw meat eaters", the word Inuit meaning "The people", the Inuits thus preferring the latter.

Already 325 BC there were tales of journeys to "Ultima Thule" as the north was known back then. It was however the Greeks that gave the name "Arctic". Whalers and sealers explored the waters in 1500s. They found graves with Russian orthodox crosses in them, this telling of earlier exploits. The "Beringia" a former land bridge across Bering Strait linking America with Russia was of great importance to early human migration.

Many expeditions have been undertaken to open the passages and to reach the North Pole, most with violent outcomes. 

Ships froze in the ice and sank, planes and balloons crashed, sledding- and dog sledding explorers died of cold, starvation and even murder. In the early 1900s, 17 different expeditions from Italy, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia and the US competed to reach the North Pole. They all failed.

Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed the Pole (1908/1909) but today it is believed that the first man reaching the North Pole on surface was instead the American Ralph Plaisted with a team of three men, using snowmobiles to arrive on April 19, 1968. The next year Wally Herbert from UK, with a team of four, crossed the Arctic from Alaska to Svalbard using dogsled.

Today, the expeditions go by a variety of means to reach the pole by surface. 

There are the supported expeditions, with airdrops of food, fuel, dry clothing and other supplies. The unsupported, where members carry with them all supplies, or the partially supported expeditions using dogs or sails for travel, airplanes to lift out tired or injured expedition members or having emergency drops of single items such as a stove or a computer.

The "cleanest" way to do the North Pole today is considered to be skiing with a sled behind, carry all supplies and to not use outer help to aid any of the expedition members in an "one for all, all for one" spirit. There is much controversy going on in various claims, some explorers even stating that the North Pole is yet to be conquered "truly unsupported". 

An Arctic expedition standout is a crossing made by the Norwegians Rune Gjeldnes and Torry Larsen in the year of 2000. Not only did did they do the first crossing of the ocean without resupplies, they also shot thousands of pictures and hours of film, and the spirit in the team was of greatest friendship and integrity.  
For the statistics of modern expeditions, go to www.adventurestats.com