On a side note.
Does a traditional compass still point “North” when you are standing on the south pole?
Or does it just spin around endlessly?
I don’t know, but I would not want to trust one.
Compass points to Magnetic North, which is shifting, and is not located at the North Pole.
I remember reading of one of the South Pole explorations (forgot which one) had trouble, and had to get back to help.
The navigator got them to an island, and they got rescued. Difficult navigation with sextant, etc., due to being down there at the bottom of the sphere. I think there was no loss of life.
I actually got to see the Fram ship, used for some of those Polar expeditions (probably not the one related to the rescue).
Don’t know why these cold polar expeditions are so interesting to me. Maybe due to shoveling snow, getting car unstuck from cold and icey sliding off the road, and hiking with friends through deep snow, just for a Saturday hike (cold, wet, dark, ... and we have to go back through it to get home).