The 2011 Marine Live-Ice Auto Expedition (MLAE 2011) has completed the first stage of the long Arctic journey by two amphibian vehicles, “Yemelya 3″ and “Yemelya 4,” from Russia’s Taimyr to Canada’s Resolute Bay through the North Pole.

In March-April, 2011, the team led by Vasiliy Elagin made it from Urengoy to the meteo station located on Golomyannyy Island west off Oktyabrskoy Revolutsii. More than 2800 km. Mostly through hard-passing ices of the Kara Sea.

Here is the map of 2011 MLAE Route:

That’s where the expedition finished the 1st stage?

About the 2011 MLAE Expedition:

MLAE 2011 has been organized by the Russian Center For Arctic Exploration and is carried out under the patronage of the Special Representative of the President of Russian Federation In International Cooperation In The Arctic and the first vice-president of the Russian Geographic Society A.N. Chilingradov. The expedition traversed and will be traversing the ice of the Arctic Ocean under the flag of Russian Geographic Society. The final destination is Resolute (Qasuittuq), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.

2011 MLAE objectives:

1. Reaching the North Pole
2. Field testing amphibious vehicles, “Yemelya 3″ and “Yemelya 4″.
3. Helping with keeping the dialogue and cooperation in research and development of the Arctic between two nations over the territories of which its course lay.

Team:

1. Vasily Elagin……………………expeditionary chief
2. Afanassi Makovnev…………2nd in command
3. Vladimir Obihod…………….driver-engineer
4. Andrey Vankov…………….driver-engineer
5. Alexey Zaitsev…………………driver-engineer
6. Vladimir Yanochkin………..driver-engineer
7. Sergey Isaev………………..driver-engineer

More about team members here.

Now…

Now let’s enjoying icy pictures of Marine Live-Ice Auto Expedition 2011:

What is Emelya?

“Yemelya” is an amphibious vehicle designed for transportation over ice floes and thin ice of the Arctic Ocean.

Its six wheels are dressed with special low pressure tires inflated to the mere 0.7 bar.

The gross vehicle weight is under 1,5 tons while the total water displacement of the six inflated tires constitutes 5 tons resulting in the very shallow draft of the vehicle body in water – just 10 centimeters.

Despite the large profile and windage characteristics of vehicle’s body, its spinning wheels are capable of propelling it at the speed of 2-3 km/h on the open water.

The vehicle tows two single-axel trailers each loaded with 200 L fuel barrel and six plastic containers for food and gear.

Inside of its aluminum body, which also performs the function of vehicle’s frame, “Yemelya’s” drive train uses an engine from a Toyota front wheel driven passenger car for its powerhouse. Two driveshafts of the engine deliver torque to the locking differentials of the front and middle axles. The rear differential can also be locked and is driven by chain drive and a driveshaft from the middle axle.

Driveshafts of all wheels have through-body construction and use seals at the entry points.

The engine, transmission and the electrical components of the drive train are all located completely on the inside of the sealed, watertight body, allowing “Yemelya” to feel quite comfortable in salty sea waters.

Wheel drums are mounted on separate levers of vehicle’s independent suspension with a free travel of 450 mm. Mechanical winch in the front of “Yemelya” is driven by the main engine power through a separate clutch mechanism. Mechanical winch design is the most reliable and it is not susceptible to overheating and ice build up inside of its components resulting from condensation of water vapors, common with the electric winches.

Battery terminals are extended to the outside of the vehicle’s body allowing them to be connected in-line for welding.

Snow melting containers are located in specially designed pockets near muffler of the exhaust system.

On the inside, “Yemelya” is a spacious, well insulated transport capable of accommodating Arctic travelers for extended periods of time with safety and comfort.

Text about Emelya was translated by Ilya Kovalev

When will the next MLAE stage happen?

In 2012. Next winter.

Past MLAE expeditions in 2008 and 2009:

Russian vehicles, Yemelya 1 and Yemelya 2, on the North Pole in 2009.

MLAE 2011 is not the first Russian amphibious vehicle’s expedition to the North Pole. There were two previous.

In 2008 Yemelya 1 and Yemelya 2 made it to Russia’s Polar city of Salekhard to the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

In March and April of 2009, seven Russian adventurers have built two six-weel-aluminum cars and drove them over 2000 km to the North Pole from nearest land, Severnaya Zemlya archipelago for 38 days.

How to follow Russia’s Marine Live-Ice Auto Expedition (MLAE)?

Official website in Russian: www.yemelya.ru;
English version: yemelya-yemelya.blogspot.com;

Find MLAE also on Flickr and Facebook.

Saying a lot of thanks to Afanassi Makovnev for giving the insight into this fascinating expedition.

Director: Manoj Pillai, Thinkpot.

What’s going on here? As my Indian friend, Ashish, said,

Hindustan Petrolium’s Turbojet Lubricant Oil is so smooth that the driver didn’t realise that he had come to Russia with cold winter weather from India.

Hurray! We’ve got a video from Fairbanks, Alaska. It was created by Ronn Murray, a great photographer living in the US coldest state. By the way, he’s got breathtaking pictures of Aurora Borealis. Love following his photostream on Facebook and his website Ronn Murray Photography.

Ronn, thanks a lot for joining our movement Show Your Place! Well, currently we have videos from Yakutsk (Yakutia/Russia), Reykjavik (Iceland), Fairbanks and New York City (USA). Who’s next?

PS. Oh, there is a video from Finland, but its author need to upload it on YouTube. We’ll wait for it. We are not in a hurry

Hello, friends!

Just remembered all cold regions, apart from Russia, are going to celebrate Christmas pretty soon! Here are my wishes to you.

Don’t complain about the cold weather, if it happened on your side. Look at my X-mas iPhone video greeting (a sort of) done, while I was standing on the crossroad in front of Yakutsk City Hall this morning. The outdoor temperature was -44C. Presume it is much colder than yours

Take care! Have fun! Take your time to find the best gifts in stores! Enjoy the X-mas fever!

See also pics…

Morning photographs:

Pictures taken at midday:

That’s really great to have friends around the world! Just a few minutes ago two fellows – Ilya Kovyakin from the Russian city of Magadan and Pelle Gangeskar from the Norwegian village of Røldal – simultaneously shared mobile photographs taken on snow-covered roads today, October 23rd, 2010.

Let’s play the game. Just guess where the above pictures were taken. Any ideas? Okey, see answers further.

The first mobile photo was done by Pelle Gangeskar on the hill road in Norway. Yeah, it was pretty easy to identify the location. All Norwegians, as you know, are big fans of skiing

The second snapshot was done on the Seimchan road in Magadan Oblast. Ilya Kovyakin rode on his Toyota off-road vehicle. That was also easy to guess. Russia’s Far East is full of Japanese cars.

More photos:

Enjoying snow in Røldal, Norway.

Mountains between Magadan and Seimchan.

The bridge over the Kolyma River on the Seimchan Highway.

What’s the purpose of the post? To show that the winter has arrived! Wish you this winter to be great! Have fun and keep yourself warm!

P.S. Saying a lot of thanks to my friends, Ilya and Pelle, for proving photographs!

The Winter Road Documentary Poster

This is the trailer of Nikolay Evstifeev’s documentary “THE WINTER ROAD. The Land of Fierce…” about the sever work in Siberia’s Yakutia. Here you can see how hard ordinary people’s work can be in the hardest part of Siberia. The documentary won The Best Directing Award at The 17th Saint Anna Film Festival and The Best Cinematography Award at The 29th VGIK Film Festival. Btw, Anton Safronov was a camera man.

The documentary is about Yakutia, the sever land of truckers, gold miners, hunters, and oil industry workers. Extreme conditions are revealed in every capture. Survival at minus 50 degrees Celsius, the road on the frozen river, people’s attitude to nature, wild life… and PEOPLE without false manners and any compromises.

“This movie is very sincere! This is a real big documentary!” said Michael Porechenkov, the chairman of the 29th VGIK Film Festival jury, a famous Russian actor.

One more thing

Nikolay Evstifeev is a Yakutian. He was born here. He tends to say about himself like this, “I am a guy from the remote province of Yakutia. I spent my childhood playing football with diamonds against bears.” The last part must be considered as a joke.

All information was provided by a friend of mine, Slava Petrov. Many thanks, Slava.

There is an awesome Yakutian photographer, Masha Dubroskaya. Four years ago she started her journey of the life across South East Asia. She’s got beautiful travel pictures, many of them were published in popular travel magazines. She and her boyfriend Ajay have a blog TraveLiving.org, where, by the way, I found the above “snowy” video.

A store truck with Ded Moroz (a sort of Santa Clause) arrived in the Belorussian village of Novoselki, 30 km away from the restricted area around Chernobyl. Dec. 22, 2009. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko.

Via Drugoi.Lj.com

A week ago he did his travel from Manchester to Austria on his BMW bike. At that time he wrote “Had the Swiss and Austrian Alps all to himself yesterday. Either I’m fortunate or no other biker is crazy enough to be riding when it’s -3c with snow on the ground.”

Later he added “OK maybe I’m the crazy one, but the rewards for being crazy and going out when no other does are great. ”

When he was on the way, he got a question “What heated gear do you have, gloves? Jacket?” Here is his answer “I wear Klim dakar summer gloves but have muffs and the BMW heated grips. I have a Stormrider EVO2 heated jacket. It is good because it doesn’t use wires but a special heated element that can even be ripped r cut and it will still work. The actual vest itself is warm even when not turned on.”

Btw, check his blog EverywhereVirtually.com
Actually, he is everywhere, but in reality!

The Internet is already full of news, videos, and photos. Check the elected ones.

The last news

CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 6 (UPI) — Many Canadians are facing travel problems and power outages due to winter storms and additional storms are on the way, meteorologists say.

The Calgary (Alberta) Herald reported following Friday’s heavy snowstorms, local police responded to at least 172 traffic collisions and closed some roads as a precaution.

The winter weather also prompted delays at Edmonton International Airport and cancellations at Calgary International Airport.

Meanwhile, B.C. Hydro in British Columbia said thousands of customers lost power due to heavy winds accompanying the storms, The Victoria Times Columnist reported.

Environment Canada meteorologist Bill McMurtry warned that Western Canadian residents should be prepared for additional problems as the inclement weather is expected to remain for several days.

“There’s no indication that this cold air mass is going to move off — it’s such a large-scale system and it covers such a big portion of Western Canada … there’s nothing in the foreseeable future that’s going to push it off,” McMurtry said.

The Canwest News Service said Eastern Canada is facing similar weather with winter storm warnings in place Sunday.

Additional snowfall and lower temperatures are expected in those areas.

Resource: UPI

Photos

There were several car crashes in Edmonton, Alta. as the first winter storm created treacherous driving conditions.

Ice caused several cars to get stuck on a an incline in Edmonton, on Friday, Dec. 4, 2009.

A plane gets deiced at Calgary International Airport on Friday, Dec. 4, 2009.

A school bus that veered off the road due to weather conditions, sits in a ditch outside Calgary, on Friday, Dec. 4, 2009.

Resource: CTV.ca

Interesting comments on the web

“Hello, this is Eastern Canada. Shame on you Alberta for stealing all our snow. If we have a green christmas, we’ll know who to blame.” Mark Smith (Montreal, PQ)

“Man im not gonna lie, I just moved to Montreal 3 months ago from Calgary, I kinda wish I was there for? that storm.. its been awhile since Calgary had a storm like that” 8787trance

“the snow is worse in our neighbourhood….but i’m enjoying it ..its not like we get that much snow all the time. my car got stuck a block away from my house and had? to leave it there..” aaina2000