Cold United

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Four Polish students, including my friend, Maciej Besta, completed the 1st Polish hiking (trekking) expedition up to Mount Narodnaya, the highest peak of Russia’s Ural Mountains (1,894 metres /6,214 ft), in winter 2011.

Closer to the peak, the temperature was minus 40 degrees Celcius.

Further, see 45 cold winter photographs taken by Maciej Besta and the text written by Luba Suslyakova, who runs the blog AskUral.com. Maciej Besta is our common friend.

Last summer, by the way, Maciej hiked across Chersky Range in Yakutia. And it’s him in the cold photo of Deant du Geant Glacier. He is a member of a Polish Travel Club.

Luba wrote:

The expedition was launched in winter 2011 by 4 Polish explorers. It was the first Polish winter ascent of Mount Narodnaya and probably the first winter traverse of all the way from Inta railway station (a town in the Komi Republic) to Narodnaya (on foot)

Mount Narodnaya is located in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and is the highest point in European Russia outside the Caucasus.

Maciej Besta said:

“The exact distance from Inta (a town in the Komi Republic) to Narodnaya along the truck route is 150 km. When we were going to the mountains we covered part of the distance on a truck. But, when we were coming back, we were going only on foot. I did the distance in 6 days (the last day was 50 km of non-stop march), the rest of the group did it in 7 days. However, it is essential to know that the conditions on a route were pretty OK – the snow on route was hard thanks to good weather and trucks.”

Okey, let’s have the virtual tour to Mount Narodnaya with Polish fellows. Don’t miss the pic of Mount Narodnaya standing topless on the peak

UPDATE:

You know what? This unstoppable young Czech guy Maciej Besta plans to climb the Pobeda Peak in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia, in winter 2013, when the average outdoor temperature will be much, much below -50 C. Crazy, isn’t?

Related readings:

• A cold challenge on Deant du Geant Glacier
• Russian teens made it to the North Pole. They were skiing and pulling sledges. Young Arctic explorers!
• Curious polar bears delve into Siberia’s Arctic. Boris Gorokhov’s photo report from Yakutia, Russia
• Yakutia, Dmitry Shparo to rebury German Walter’s remains on Kotelny Island, Russia’s Arctic
• Winter Photo Journey to Russia’s South Ural, the Europe-Asia border