Captain of the Yacht Peter I

Sailing Neva river

Are you still thinking that the streets of Russian cities are full of dancing bears with balalaikas, and the men drink vodka, sitting under the Christmas trees? Well you are almost right.

To see the proof with your own eyes make sure to visit the most northerly in the world regatta “Adventure Race 80 degrees”. A real Russian safari is waiting for you: polar bears and rough sailors, ancient villages and churches of the Russian North, ice and land, that have almost never been touched by human hands. But most importantly – the extreme race in the highest latitudes.

You’ve probably heard about the record-breaking voyage of the Russian yacht “Peter I”. In 2010 she sailed around the North Pole during a single navigation without wintering and the help of an icebreaker. In 2011, the yacht crew organized an international environmental regatta “Adventure Race 80 degrees”.

Thanks to this regatta foreign yacht for the first time without problems were able to get into the internal waters of Russia.

They followed two very interesting routes: cruise in company from St. Petersburg to Arkhangelsk and Arctic race from Archangelsk to the Franz Josef Land and Murmansk.

The cultural capital of Russia – St. Petersburg became the first port of the regatta. Most of the participants gathered there on July,1st, the day before the start. The next day, July 2, the regatta was officially launched by its organizers – Daniel Gavrilov – Captain of the Regatta’s flagship yacht “Peter I” and Elena Solovyeva – Chief mate.

They spoke of the bureaucratic difficulties and other obstacles they faced. That included many months of obtaining permits for the yachts to sail in the inland waters of Russia, and arranging moorages along the route of the race. But nothing stopped them from gathering a fleet of eight boats from five countries: Britain, Germany, Czech Republic, Finland and Russia.

Russian inland waters

Fleet of the regatta

About the Regatta & the Russian Arctic

Elena Solovyeva, director of the regatta “Adventure Race 80 dg”:
- Difficulties were mainly of an organizational nature – all kinds of agreements and documents to obtain permits for foreigners. To get the permission for four foreign yachts to sail in the inland waters we eventually had to get Putin’s signature on one of the documents. The very idea of the race came to mind only six months ago, so we had to work at extreme speeds. But we had a very good team, which easily coped with everything.

Michael Smith, the captain of an English yacht “Willywaw”:
- For a few years we have been unsuccessfully trying to get the permission for the boat to pass the inland waterways of Russia. This year, at last, we were able to do this- thanks to the regatta «Adventure race». Next time will invite other English yachts.

Kizhi

Sailing race

Regatta. Step by step

The starting time was chosen so the bouts will pass along the Neva River under the drawn bridges. On the night of July 4, three boats set off on cruise in company route of the regatta. The first stop was at the estuary of the Neva River, where there the medieval fortress Oreshek is situated. Participants rested, went on an excursion and continued the cruise.

The next step was sailing on the largest European freshwater Lake Ladoga. After that the boats went to the Svir River, and then to Lake Onega, where they examined the main attractions of these places – petroglyphs (ancient rock paintings) in the eastern part of the lake and the island of Kizhi.

The island is famous for the landmark of Russian wooden architecture – Kizhi churchyard. In 1993, it was included in UNESCO World Heritage List. The part of the route in the White Sea-Baltic Canal became memorable for the participants because of both its interesting navigation, and history. This channel of 227 km in length with 19 locks, was built in less than a year, while world-famous shorter canals needed many more years to construct. In the White Sea yachts visited Solovki Islands, where the crews got acquainted with the history of the Solovki monastery and the Gulag Archipelago, and met with “Onega regatta.”

White Sea Baltic Canal

Solovetsky monastery

Solovetsky islands

Participants of the AR 80 DG

After the yachts crossed the sea and sailed on the River Dvina they were warmly welcomed in the city of Arkhangelsk. There, on July 16 the closing ceremony of the first part of the regatta and participants awarding took place.

On July 19, a second part of the Arctic race began. Yacht “Peter I» (Russia) and «Lena» (Finland) started from the Buoy of Arkhangelsk. They passed 950 miles in autonomous navigation to the Franz Josef Land, where they made a stop for five days.

It should be said that for such a voyage the yachts were well prepared: «Lena» had repeatedly sailed to Spitsbergen, and “Peter I» had completed the Arctic circumnavigation. The vessels were equipped with life rafts of unlimited navigation area; buoys, double navigation system, satellite communication, and the crew members had dry suits with them.

Boats were lucky – there wasn’t a lot of ice on the way. At 23:08 Moscow time, July 25 the yacht “Peter I” from Saint-Petersburg, after going around Cape Flora, crossed the declared 80th parallel of north latitude at 80 ° 0’0 .00 “N 50 ° 4’44 .71? E.

The crew had some time to enjoy the beauty of nature, icebergs and gigantic glaciers, wild animals – all of this is a small part of what can be seen in the Arctic.

Sailors managed to visit the island of Champa, which is famous for its perfectly round stones, Hayes Island, with the most northerly post office in Russia. They also got to go to the polar stations on the island Hooker, where the second expedition of Georgy Sedov was wintering in 1913, 1914; the places of wintering of an outstanding Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen’s expedition; on the island of Jackson, the famous Cape Flora, where virtually all of the arctic expeditions, that explored the Franz Josef Land had been based. Crews conducted environmental campaign to draw public attention to the problem of pollution in the Arctic where empty fuel barrels had been scattered for decades. Yachts finished in Murmansk August 9, 2011

This year, “Rusarc” is organizing a second regatta “Adventure Race 80 dg – 2012.” The cruise in company route will be added with the islands of Konevets and Valaam in Lake Ladoga. Race time will altered a little – it will start June 23 and end August 4, 2012.

So if you’ve always wanted to visit Russia and see what it is like with your own eyes, you still have some time to join the regatta as a crew member or a tourist. All the details can be found here: en.rusarc.ru.

Captain and chief mate

Yachts Peter I and Lena near Franz Josef Land

Peter I near Franz Josef Land

Interesting meeting

The documentary is from Yukon Arctic Ultra on Vimeo.

Wow! The Yukon Arctic Ultra Race looks really cool! Hey, I would love to participate in it and try my guts, but not in Canada. In Siberia, definitely! Especially in my lovely Yakutia!

What is the Yukon Arctic Ultra? Read the race info…

Race course:

The Yukon Arctic Ultra follows the Yukon Quest trail, the trail of the world’s toughest Sled Dog Race.

The marathon finishes just off the Takhini River. The 100 mile racers go from Whitehorse to Braeburn. The 300 mile racers keep on going all the way to Pelly Farm. There they will leave the river to turn around and go back to Pelly Crossing on the farm road. The 430 mile athletes do not return to Pelly Crossing. Instead they continue on the Quest trail to Dawson City.

The trail is marked. However, if there is fresh snow or a lot of wind it is difficult to find the trail. If to enhance ability to understand orientation, a GPS is recommended…

Starting time, date and location:

The Yukon Arctic Ultra 2012 will start on Feb. 4th. The time for the start is 10:30 AM.
Start will be done downtown Whitehorse next to the Yukon river…

Disciplines: Mountain bike, xc-skis or foot.

Via Yukon Arctic Ultra

Currently, Canada’s Yukon Arctic Ultra is the world’s coldest & toughest race, but it won’t be as such, if the race would be conducted in Russia’s Siberian region of Yakutia. A good idea to work on since now

Yesterday was a turning day in Yakutsk. It looked like the Winter said, “Ok, no more games with mild winter weather. Let’s have the real cold come right now and for a long time.”

The day didn’t promise anything extraordinary. It was pretty regular in the beginning. -3C and light snow. By the end of a work day, something happened. Winds started blowing furiously and snow descended in abundance. It was the Arctic-like blizzard that lasted, unfortunately, not so long.

Cool anyway! People liked it. See more snowstorm photographs and a video.

After one-hour storm:

To see the progress of the winter start in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, check the last post at eYakutia.com.

Children of the Arctic Festival. Photo By Galya Morrell.

It is already a big event and a big tradition. This year The Children of the Arctic International Festival is arranged by Shparo‘s Adventure Club under the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the third time. It started at the Youth Almaz Center in the town of Ruza on Aug. 20th and ended in Korelia on Sep. 02.

More than 100 children from the Arctic regions participated in the festival. They were from 11 Russian ones (Arkhangelskaia Oblast, Vologodaskaia Oblast, Moscow, Murmanskaia Oblast, Nenetzky Autonomous District, Karelia Republic, Komi Republic, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetzky Municipal District, Chukotsky autonomous district, Yamalo-Nenetzky autonomous district as well as from Greenland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden.

The mission remains the same and, probably, won’t be changed ever, as it is the key stone of the mordern Arctic youth. It’s to unite children of the Arctic region to settle the common problems under the slogan “Our Arctic – Our Future.”

The Festival is carried out by the Organizing Committee, including prominent official authorities of Russia such as Dr. Arthur Chilingarov, Special Representative for Arctic and Antarctic Issues to the President Russian Federation, Vasily Zhukov, academician, Rector of the Russian State Social University, Dr. Dmitry Shparo, General Director of the Adventure Club.

And you know what? There was our friend Galya Morrell, co-leader of Uummannaq Music Project.

Galya Morrell’s photographies of the Children of the Arctic Festival.

Here is what Galya writes:

Does anyone remember the book “Children of the Arctic”? A story of Marie Ahnighito, Admiral Peary’s daughter, who was born in Greenland and became known world wide as the Snow Baby? Now, a 100 years from then we are about to offer you another story of the “Children of the Arctic” – a gathering of 100+ Arctic teens from 18 Arctic regions, from Chukotka and Yakutia all the way to Greenland. It’s happening now in Russia, between Ruza, Northern Karelia and Moscow.

After two days of rain, the skies cleared up over Ruza where “Our Arctic – Our Future” science conference is taking place. Leaving distractions of cultural confusion and jet lag behind, Arctic children are ready to discuss “stuff”. They are talking about climate change, smart usage of mineral resources, endangered animals, a need to keep ancestors’ spirits alive and a need keep sanity in the difficult times of a societal change. And what is a better way to do so than travelling down a Karelian river on a raft and living in accordance with nature?

We’ve built a virtual North Pole on the grass and held the loud drum-singing “party” inside the Kremlin. We hope our voices were heard by those who are in charge of designing the new policies affecting the future of the Arctic Region. We are also confident that our “cold party” comprised of agile, cool-headed, resourceful and peace-loving young citizens of the Arctic, is capable of finding the right path on the thinning ice. These teenagers who over two weeks became a tightly knit community of their own already know how to live and survive at the top of the world.

Resource: Galya’s Flickr.

More Children of the Arctic info at Shparo’s Website.

Another interesting news came from Galya:

“Our young Arctic explorers, who already know how to live and survive in the harshest climate on Earth, are now united for life. The new Polar Commune is being born! These people know how to travel on thin ice and from now they will travel as a group. Let’s wish them luck on their way!”

Just wonder what she meant. As she broke the above news about a new Polar Commune under the title “ColdUntied in Action.”

A tidewater glacier on Svalbard during last week s Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Expeditions adventure in the Arctic.

Today is Ice Photo Wednesday run by Polar Explorer Eric Larsen (www.ericlarsenexplore.com) on Facebook (see his page) and #IcePhoto on Twitter.

Ice Photo Wednesday is the day, when anyone are welcome to share their love of ice, cold and snow with the rest of the world. How does it work?

Every morning on Wednesday, Eric Larsen – it was him, who invented the event – announces the start of The Ice Photo Day. He publishes his own fascinating “ice” photographs and ask his readers and followers to do the same… And you know what? People do share pictures of gorgeous ice and magnificant snow.

When Eric see new pics, he resharing them on his Facebook and Twitter accounts and give their authors big publicity and promotion. If the famous American explorer is online… hey, he can be connected even from the Arctic or the Everest top, you might see his fantastic photographs.

Give a try and join Eric on his facebook page and Twitter using the hashtag #IcePhoto.

Meanwhile, enjoy Mr. Larsen’s ice photographs of the Arctic Ocean, Norway’s Svalbard, and Everest!

Saying a lot of sincere thanks to him for permission to show his pics on ColdUnited.com. It’s a big honor! Here and further all captions to ice photographs are given by Eric Larsen himself.

More ice!

Remember, it's cool to be cold!

Cooling you off with an Ice photo...

Incredible week in Svalbard. Definitely great to be back in the land of ice!

Does the warm weather mean that I am running out of IcePhotos? Absolutely not! Time to share the cold, snow and ice. This week: Hoar frost on the Arctic Ocean.

Sharing my love of ice, cold and snow with the rest of the world... Sea Ice while flying over Svalbard.

On Everest looking back toward Camp 1.

See tons of magic ice pictures on Facebook and Twitter.

Who is Eric Larsen?
In November 2009 Polar explorer Eric Larsen began the Save the Poles Expedition a first-ever journey to the South Pole, North Pole and summit of Mt. Everest in a continuous 365-day period. His purpose? To travel to the “front lines” of global warming to document the changes occurring in these last great frozen places.
Website, Blog, RSS, Facebook, Twitter.

The IPY 2012 Conference From Knowledge to Action is taking place in Montreal, Canada April 22-27, 2012 and will be one of the largest and most important scientific conferences for polar science and climate change, impacts and adaptation. The Call for Abstracts for oral and poster presentations is now open.

Conference organizers invite you to submit abstracts on the latest polar science, as well as the application of polar research findings, policy implications and how to take polar knowledge to action. The Conference program is available at www.ipy2012montreal.ca

The Call for Abstracts closes September 30, 2011.

NEW Conference Website Launched

Our new conference website is up and running and features the latest information on the development of the Conference program, as well as indepth articles and highlights of polar science news from around the world on our Conference Twitter page (@IPY2012). Please be sure to update your bookmarks to link to our new site.

The Sapporo Snow Festival (or Yuki Matsuri) is held every year in Sapporo, the capital of the Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan.

Photos from clairelynn, brianfarrell and adam.fenrick‘s Flickr photostreams.

A few months ago, the native cloth festival was held in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. Precisely, it took place in March 2010.

A friend of mine, Ajar Varlamov visited that event and brought fantastic pictures of so-called Siberian cold protection clothes, in other words, regular winter fur clothes of the nomadic Even people. Immediately, I posted them on my other blog eYakutia.com – English Yakutia.

Here I present a few of those gorgeous images dedicated solely to Even mittens. Beautiful, aren’t they?

See more Ajar Varlamov’s event photographs at eYakutia.com.

About the documentary: Silent Snow depicts an Inuit search for solutions to the chemical poisoning of the world. Trailer for a feature length film. Expected release: Spring 2011. Film by Jan van den Berg and Pipaluk Knudsen-Ostermann.

“There’s new evidence that even in the glaciers pesticides have been stored. If we stop the production now, there is still a lot more waiting for us. Global warming makes this process even faster… I am telling a sad story…” the narrator.

Moki Kokoris’ review, “Please watch this very important film trailer. I facilitated the screening of a 14-minute clip of “Silent Snow” at the United Nations this past spring, and will try to bring the full length feature to the UN once it’s released.”

More documentary information was published in the previous post Greenland: Silent Snow – The Project.

Polar Airlines is rescuing the French Arctic explorer-balloonist Jean-Louis Etienne in Arctic Yakutia, Siberia, after his 5-days The North Pole crossing. April 11th, 2010. See more exclusive photos at http://eYakutia.com

In the last May, Cold United announced about 2010 Arctic Aviation Expert Conference that eventually took place on October 12-13 in Fairbanks, Alaska/USA. Arranged and hosted by the Institute of the North.

The 2010 Arctic Aviation Expert Conference in Fairbanks provided a valuable platform for experts and stakeholders from across the Arctic to come together and forge new relationships. The energy and enthusiasm throughout demonstrated the importance of increased communication and collaboration.

This time Arctic aviators paid much attention to climate changes. The word “change” was the most popular in discussions and presentations. Participants could hear often such phrases as adaptations to cold and changing climates, impacts of climate change, new products for aviation in a changing climate, changing Arctic, our changing home and so on.

They do not reveal any proposals about ways to stop global warming (i.e. climate changes) or calculate the effect of global warming. They just need to know how to operate in the current Arctic conditions, as they admit the Arctic warming on default.

Further, please, find the list of conference speakers, their reports and links for downloading all presentations in the PDF format.

Are you interested to know how climate changes affected the Arctic and what aviators should do?

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS & REPORTS:

Marc Luiken, Deputy Commissioner of Aviation, State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
Alaska Map

Larry D. Hinzman, Director, International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Impacts of Climate Change on Infrastructure in the Circumpolar North

Walter Combs, Alaska Weather Camera Program Implementation, Federal Aviation Administration
Deicing the Future of Arctic Aviation

Patrick Juneau, Transport Canada
Research, Development & Canada’s Initiatives

Niels Grosen, Greenland Airport Authority
Greenland Airport Authority and Benchmarkign of Small and Remote Regional Airport

Wilfred Ryan, Ryan Air
Rural Arctic Infrastructure and Arctic Tourism

Ted Lennox, LPS AVIA Consulting Associates
Air Carrier Needs at Gateway Airports

William Kupchin, Shell Exploration & Production Co.
Lessons Learned from Arctic Search and Rescue Demonstration of Adaptations to Cold and Changing Climates: Transport

Harry Kieling, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Business Center and Aviation Management Directorate Alaska Regional Office
Unmanned Aircraft Systems

JoAnn Ford, Federal Aviation Administration
Satellite Based Navigation and its International Interoperability

Gary Hufford, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
High Latitude and Arctic NOAA Satellite Testbed: A Challenge to Produce New Products for Aviation in a Changing Climate

Anton Krugov, Russian Federation State Research Institute of Aviation Systems
ADS-B and Adjacent Applications in Yamal Project to Provide Helicopters and UAS Flights

Michael Zelin, Guardian Mobility Corporation
New Commercial Applications of Satellite Technologies in Arctic Regions

Consul Jennifer Loten, Consulate of Canada in Anchorage
Canadian Perspectives on a Changing Arctic

Jim Dodson, President, Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation and member of the Alaska Aviation Advisory Board
Vital Role of Aviation to Alaska’s Transportation System

Michael Rodyniuk, Exchange Income Corporation
Airline Strategies at Gateway Airports

Ted Lennox, LPS AVIA Consulting
Accessibility of Gateway Airports from Arctic Communities

Robert Phillips, U.S. Coast Guard, District 17
Coast Guard Aviation in Alaska and Recent Efforts in the Arctic Region

Ryan Colgan, Cold Climate Housing Research Center
Our Changing Home

To download presentations, visit the Institute of the North’s website.