Russian amphibious Arctic cars on the move from Canada
Posted: Mar 27, 2014 08:33 am EDT
(By Correne Coetzer) The previous North Pole season, Vasily Elagin and his team did a 61 day, 2000 km drive across the sea ice from Russia to Ward Hunt Island, Canada, via the Geographic North Pole, in their Yemelya-3 and Yemelya-4 amphibious vehicles designed by Elagin. The team then drove to Resolute Bay where they left the vehicles to continue this season, heading west to Russia. They plan to cross the Bering Strait on their 6810 km route.
The Russians started driving on March 12 from Resolute Bay and arrived in Cambridge Bay on March 24. Vasily says they are following the recommended route of Canadian Ice Service, which is longer than the one they planned, but with safer ice. Their vehicles are heavy loaded. Each vehicle tows 1000 liters fuel (at the start) plus spare parts and other supplies.
The cars continue driving in 69 degrees North. Rough ice in certain areas made progress slow and they could drive only in second gear. They came across polar bears and many tracks in the areas with thin ice and seals.
Distances reported on odometer:
March 12: 50 km (March 12)
March 13: 47 km (by the evening they could drive in forth gear on smooth ice, but at the end of the day only in second)
March 14: 87 km (lost 2.5 hours to repair the hitch on the rear trailer of the green caravan)
March 16: 140 km (10 hours, smooth ice with hummocks in the evening)
March 17: 95 km in white-out
March 18: 100 km ( first 30 km at walking pace in white out)
March 20: 40 km
March 21: hummocks all day, used ladders on car for route finding and flattened ridges manually
March 22: 78 km (of this 1.9 km across ridges from 8 am until 13h30; second half of the day the rest, 76.1 km; -30ºC)
March 24: Cambridge Bay
March 25: 113 km (stopped due to a fault piston rod.
Geographic North Pole is at 90ºN
1996 position of the Magnetic North Pole:
78° 35'42.00"N, 104° 11’54.00”W
Resolute Bay: 74° 41.808N, 094° 49.402W
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Ski Teams starting from Cape Discovery, Ellesmere Island, to the Geographic North Pole (90ºN)
Unassisted, Unsupported:
Yasu Ogita, Japan, solo
(start March 7)
YouTube
Team Eric Larsen and Ryan Waters
Last North Expedition:
(start March 15)
Ryan Waters, USA
Mountain Professionals Facebook
Eric Larsen, USA
Starting from Geographic North Pole (90N) to Canada
Assisted, Unsupported
'Arctic March' team:
(Start April 2, Barneo/weather permitting)
Eric Philips, Australia
Bernice Notenboom, The Netherlands / Canada
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Other:
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Weather links:
The Arctic Weather products link on the Canadian Ice Service IPY Legacy page
Two-day sea ice drifts for the whole Arctic Ocean on the Danish DMI website
ENVISAT ASAR images on the Polarview website
Canada Weather Office satellite image
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
University of Illinois cryosphere images
Wayne Davidson’s Extremely High Horizon Refraction
#polar #northpole2014 Russiancars #amphibiouscars #russianarcticcars #MLAE2014
courtesy MLAE 2014, SOURCE
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