They made it! For the fifth time!

Yesterday, April 25, 2012, the Russian teen team led by Arctic adventurers Dmitry and Matvey Shparo (Adventure Club) reached the North Pole by skiing from the Barneo drifting ice base.

I am happy about this event, as one of the North Pole skiing expedition participant is from Yakutia, precisely from the Bulunsky region located in the Polar Circle in North Yakutia, Siberia, Russia.

RussiaToday reports:

They’ve done it again! The fifth teenage expedition to the Noth Pole led by adventurers Dmitry and Matvey Shparo has been successfully completed.

The format of the “Ski to the North Pole” expedition has been constant: seven teenagers, handpicked from thousands of eager would-be polar explorers across Russia, begin their journey at the Barneo drifting ice base.

And after about a week battling through some of the harshest conditions on Earth, the chosen few reach the global summit.

This time, it took the expedition seven days to cover the 110 kilometer distance from the last circle of latitude all the way up to the North Pole.

But the young arctic travelers had to stick around another full day at their final destination because the mission to pick them up – with RT’s crew on board – came late due to severe weather conditions, which prevented themfrom flying.

But one of North Pole conquerors, Danila Romanyuk, says waiting for another 24 hours wasn’t much of a problem.

“We played mafia, sang songs, told jokes, ate and slept… then slept and ate again,” he said.

The pickup team brought delicious pies with them and when the treat was finished, the group was finally ready to pose for the camera and answer some questions.

Well, the pies disappeared within seconds and the group was finally ready to pose for the camera and answer some questions.

“When you ski, the wind stirs up the snow and fully covers your face and then cuts it,” Aleksandr Chernykh, Ski to the North Pole expedition member, said. “The goggles can’t help at all. It was really hard.”

The successful expedition was celebrated by a traditional circle dance and a football match.

The custom of playing football at the world’s summit dates all the way back to the cold war when the crew of a Soviet submarine broke through the polar ice to play the world’s most popular game.

Each year, Dmitry and Matvey Shparo dedicate the expedition to either a cause or a commemorative date.

Their previous sub-zero treks have already been devoted to – among others – Russian teachers and the Sochi Winter Olympics.

This time the journey was made in the name of Ivan Papanin, who spent over two hundred days researching the North Pole, back in 1937.

“This is the copy of a flag which was raised at the North Pole by the expedition of Ivan Papanin 75 years ago and we are commemorating their heroics with our trip,” Dmitry Shparo said.

Hunger for travel, the unknown and effort bordering the unattainable is what separates the teenagers from the expedition from rest of their peers.

At 16 to 18 years old, they have already reached the top of the world and their future life challenges now seem like much easier hurdles to overcome.

Via Dmitry and Matvei Shparo’ Adventure Club

Siberian villages are the coldest places in the world now! Woo hoo!

The only website that gives the full answer to the question, “Which places are the coldest on the Earth now?” is Ogimet.com. Check it!

Currently, the world’s coldest place is Oymyakon (also known as Ojmjakon) in East Yakutia, Siberia / Russia). It’s -46.9C now.

Other top coldest places on the Earth belong to Yakutian (Siberian) villages:

2. Segen-Kyuel’, -46.4 °C
3. Tompo, -44.4 °C
4. Batamaj, -43.7 °C
5. Ust’- Moma, -43.1 °C
6. Curapca, -43.0 °C
7. Verhojansk, -42.9 °C

Do you know what? This winter will be coldest in Yakutia (East Siberia/Russia) definitely, as such lowest temperatures are usual for this region. Cold winter weather dwells in Siberia as well as in Yakutsk, that’s becoming to be recognized as the coldest city in the world.

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 Russian boat RUS in Clyde River, Nunavut. Photo by CBC.ca

Adventure enthusiasts from the Russian city of Ivanovo were reported to be the first sailers, who have crossed the Polar Circle on an air-inflated trimaran. It happened on Aug. 5th, 2011. Last Satuday, their boat called “Rus” have already made it to the Clyde River in Nunavut, Canada.

When Canadians saw their strange-looking 7.6-metre trimaran, they called it as a homemade boat “made out of bamboo, rope and duct tape.”

Here is what CBC.ca wrote:

“Absolutely fascinating. I’ve never seen the likes of it in my life,” said Constable Rolland Lavoie, who’s with the RCMP in Clyde River. “I would expect that a trip of this sort to be on a huge cruise boat, something huge, but this is something out of Gilligan’s Island, for crying out loud. Very Interesting.”

Ok. Who are these Russian sailers?

They are 6 travellers from Russia’s Western city of Ivanovo (mostly known as the city of Russian brides). Their mission is to study the geography and people of the North during their around-the-world Trans-Arctic historical-geographical sailing expedition “The Path of Orion.”

Their way to the Canadian Nunavut was a long journey. They started expedition in the early May from the city of Ples on the Volga River. They reached St Petersburg by the river waterway, then crossed Baltic and Norwegian seas, made it through the Northern Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland. Finally, arrived in Nunavut, Canada.

Now they are travelling through Canada’s Northwest Passage and expect to arrive in Cambridge Bay around Sept. 5. After that their route goes to Alaska and Chukotka, back to Russia.

The Path of Orion Expedition is dedicated to the 140th Ivanovo City Anniversary.

Brave Russians!

Follow them on the Path of Orion expedition wesbite.

The 2011 Uummannaq Polar Institute Summer Expedition. To the North of Greenland.

Aaaaa, it’s my big honour to be one of Ole Jorgen Hammeken‘s many friends. He is the most recognizable Greenlandic man, who attracts the world’s attention to Greenland, its people and climate issues.

It were him and his wonderful wife, who run together Uummannaq Children’s Home in the settlement called Uummannaq.

It was them, who host Galya Morrell and Joel Spiegelman‘s Uummannaq Music project.

Certainly, they are those people, who share Uummannaq Polar Institute‘s vision, i.e. to conserve Greenland’s local culture and promote educational programs for young Inuit people.

UPI was founded in 2007 by Ann Andreasen and was inaugurated in 2008 by HSH the Prince Albert II of Monaco, Jean Malaurie, a distinguished French ethnographer, and by Arthur Chilingarov, polar explorer and Vice-President of the Russian Parliament.

Among other UPI’s programs is an hour and a half movie called Inuk (I wrote much about this amazing movie on this blog under the tag Inuk). The film which won the coveted Haskell Wexler Award for Cinematography at the Woodstock Film Festival during October 2010, is directed by Mike Magidson and the screenplay is co-written by him and Jean-Michel Huctin. More at http://blog.inuk-film.com/

Currently I’ve got two good news about UPI:

1. It launched its own facebook page called Uummannaq Polar Institute. Enjoy and support the authentic way of the Greenlandic life with UPI.

By the way, UPI online page is http://uummannaqmusic.com/upi/

2. UPI doesn’t have break even in summer. As you know, life never stops boiling in Uummannaq! UPI fb page’s last status says:

As soon as Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II and her husband H.R.H. Prince Henrik of Denmark departed from Uummannaq, a new expedition has left to the North. Ole Jorgen Hammeken along with Jaakuaraq, Aalibarti, Hivshu and children from UCH are heading to Qaanaaq in 4 small boats…

So far they reached the southernmost settlement in Avannersuaq (Thule district) : Savissivik. Tomorrow the crew will head to Qaanaaq, or maybe even further – to Greenland’s northernmost settlement : Siorapaluk.

Uummannaq Polar Institute is worth to follow!

Feel to share the info on Uummannaq Polar Institute

Okey, this time NPR reporters turn face to the Arctic issues. The agency sends its reporters to the far North and gets evidences of the thawing Arctic. Click here to see NPR’s dispatches.

BattleHarbour about its video:

What an amazing sight to see! “Small” chunk of the massive Petermann Ice Island. This “berg” is approximately 3 miles long and 2.8 miles wide. Wow, that’s nearly 5 times the size of Battle Island!

Special thanks go out to Port Hope Simpson resident & crab fisherman, Eldred Burden, for capturing this magnificent ice structure. Truly breathtaking!

This part of the Berg has already passed Battle Harbour, but we are still awaiting the arrival of the larger chunk!

A massive ice island that broke off a glacier in Greenland 11 months ago has been winding its way through Arctic waters ever since. Satellites have now spotted it off the coast of Labrador, Canada, MSNBC.com reports,

The ice island was formed when a 97-square-mile chunk of ice broke off Greenland’s Petermann Glacier on Aug. 5, 2010. It was the largest iceberg to form in the Arctic in 50 years.

Petermann Glacier is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves. The glacier connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean. When the chunk of ice four times the size of Manhattan broke off, the Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 43-mile-long floating ice shelf, according to researchers at the University of Delaware.

The Canadian Ice Service has since been tracking the ice island, dubbed PII-A, via satellite and radio beacon.

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of the ice chunk in the Labrador Sea on June 25.

The island has been slowly breaking up and melting on its more than 1,800-mile journey so far. News agencies reported that the ice island now covered roughly 24 square miles in area and weighed between 3.5 and 4 billion tons.

But even with its diminishing size, it could eventually pose a hazard to offshore oil platforms and shipping lanes off Newfoundland.

Environment Canada dropped a beacon on PII-A on Sept., 17, 2010, to help track the island.

Resource: MSNBC.com.

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.

Members of the Ran herders collective after the court decision.

What a great news! Happy about the Samis!

The Swedish Supreme Court has upheld the lower courts, in a landmark decision that recognizes the rights of Sweden’s indigenous population and their reindeer herding.

The following news story was posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.

The case has been before the courts here for 14 years. In 1997, 104 landowners in the northern province of Västerbotten sued three reindeer herding collectives owned by indigenous Sami, or Lapp, people in the area. They charged that reindeer grazing was causing major damage to their land and forests, and protested that the Samis’ traditional rights in the area were not legal.

The Samis argued that they had been herding there for countless generations, and before the Swedes had moved into the north. Both a district court and an appeals court agreed with the Samis, and the case finally ended up in the Swedish Supreme Court.

Olle Larsson, one of the reindeer herders, expressed his relief to Swedish Radio News:

“This feels incredibly good,” he says. “It’s a great relief to know that we can continue to graze our reindeer in the future.”

The court’s decision creates a precedent for indigenous rights, and will be studied closely. The Samis’ lawyer Camilla Wiklund:

“This sets the conditions for the future,” she tells Swedish Radio News. This will put a stop to similar cases farther north, and we hope it will also apply farther south, where we have had problems before.”

Photo credit: Ulrika Holmberg, Sveriges Radio.

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.