Ralph S. Plaisted | Polar explorer, 80

Ralph S. Plaisted, 80, an explorer who in 1968 led the first expedition that indisputably reached the North Pole over the ice, died Monday at his home in Wyoming, Minn., his family said.

Traveling by snowmobile, Mr. Plaisted and three other men reached the North Pole on April 19, 1968. An Air Force weather plane verified their position a day later and gave them a lift back.

The 1909 attempt to reach the North Pole by explorer Robert Peary, long credited as the first to make it there, was never validated by anyone outside Peary's party.

Mr. Plaisted had his own insurance agency in St. Paul and was an avid snowmobiler when the idea of going to the North Pole was hatched. His group spent months in northern Minnesota training.

- AP