Alexander Orlov, Irina’s husband, and the man who bears the main load at Barneo Ice Camp, passed away
Irina Orlova and her husband, Alexander Orlov, have been involved in the organization of Barneo since 2002. “It’s him who bears the main load,” she told us in an Interview last year, “but he also has many other projects, thus I help him in planning and management of the camp.”
As Head of the Polus Expeditionary Center and polar aviation navigator, Alexander was assisted by Irina as Operational director of the Barneo Camp.
Under their leadership, Barneo Ice Camp has grown year after year to more and more impressive logistics operations and organization in most extreme conditions near the North Pole, while maintaining the highest level of safety to all involved.
Irina said in the interview with Explorersweb/Pythom, “My husband is an experienced polar navigator, a man with a prominent background in high latitudes. When we visited that Ice Camp for the first time (around 2001), he was kind of horrified by the level of safety, while I was disappointed with the level of comfort. We felt that it’s our duty to create a sure footing for that, otherwise accidents could not be avoided.”
In Irina’s announcement of her husband’s death in Moscow an hour ago on Facebook, she gives the following detail about his memorial (Google Translated): “Friends, we have a grief – my husband Alexander Orlov died. The burial service will take place on May 3 at 12 o’clock in the church of the faithful prince Igor Chernigov in Peredelkino. Funeral in the cemetery in Põhtino at 13:30. Memorial at the Central House of the tourist (Leninsky Prospekt).” Our sincere condolences to Irina, their children and family.
Barneo is a drifting ice base in the Arctic, which is annually established under the aegis of the Russian Geographical Society Expeditionary Center “Polyus” Russian Association of Polar Explorers. It is a temporary Ice Camp, built by the Russians every March-April. The camp is built on a suitable ice floe inside 89 degrees North. Primarily the ice floe should be suitable to build a runway of at least 1200m long for an Antonov-74 from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, to land. They, therefore, need a floe of at least 2km long and at east 40 meters away from the nearest open water (lead). Barneo serves Last Degree skiers (last 110km to the NP), marathon runners, scientists, divers, fly-ins to the Pole, and more.
Last year, the organizers of Barneo Ice Camp, faced a lot of extraordinary events, when politics overshadowed adventure. Fortunately, with Alexander Orlov’s negotiations, Svalbard opened again as gateway to the Ice Station near 90ºS.
This 2017 season for the flights from Svalbard started at the beginning of April and the camp closed for the season on April 21/22.
Exweb/Pythom interview with Irina Orlova: Barneo and Frans Josef Land
Barneo: Russians and Norwegians reached agreement
Barneo 2017: Construction and Blessings – Updated
Short video of Barneo Ice Camp by Irina Orlova on YouTube
Injured Polar Bear: Evelyne Binsack’s statement
#polar #northpole #barneoicecamp #alexanderorlov
