Moscow-Chukotka Expedition

Expedition Participants Review Their Trip

The participants in the Expedition, organized by the Russian Chapter of the Explorers Club, today held a press conference in Moscow together with Ford Motor Company to review their historic journey across Russia from Moscow to the city of Anadyr in the Chukotka Autonomous District.

“We are proud to have completed this Expedition, traveling autonomously across the country along a route never before attempted in this manner,” said Alexander Borodin, chairman of the Russian chapter of the Explorers Club. “We met many unique people during our journey and would like to thank everyone in the cities and villages along the way who offered us their support and assistance.”

The Expedition participants are grateful to their sponsors, the Chukotka Regional Administration and Ford Motor Company, for being a part of this project. They would also like to thank the Expedition’s partners, including 4×4 Club, Pirelli, Radioma, Peli, Rambler, and SGU-TV.

A short film of the Expedition, which premiered at today’s event, is now available for viewing on the website.

Success!!

We traveled the final 80 km exclusively using positional coordinates, without any sight of road or trail. As morning approached, we passed by the settlement of Shakhtyorsky and then across the Anadyr River estuary. By 11:00, we had arrived in the capital of the Chukotka Autonomous District, the city of Anadyr.

The Expedition has been completed successfully! Over the course of 32 days, our Ford Expeditions traveled almost 14000 kilometers from Moscow to Anadyr, with approximately one-third of the route passing along winter roads, frozen rivers and off-road. Hurray! We’re too tired to celebrate just yet and we’re finding it hard to grasp just what we’ve accomplished. It will probably all begin to make sense in a few days time.

On April 14, the Expedition returns to Moscow…
 

Finish Line in Sight

Having refueled our automobiles in the morning from the supplies of Chukotkommunkhoza in Uelkal, we set out on the final stage of expedition. It was only 180 km to Anadyr. These were the hardest kilometers yet…

The vehicles finally began to object to being pushed to their technical limits. About 100 km from Anadyr, the bolts holding on one set of caterpillar tracks tore away and the tracks fell off. The car was a depressing sight. After a short conference, we resolved to take one bolt from each of the other tracks and reattach it.

We finished the work at night, at which point we were met by another unfortunate incident. The locks somehow closed on one vehicle with the engine still running, but we eventually managed to get the door open. Fortunately, there were no further incidents as we got back underway in our race towards the finish line.

Egvekinot - Uelkal

In the morning, we cleaned the ice and snow from our automobiles, which made each of them about 200 kilograms lighter! Then we visited the Egvekinot Folklore Museum (special thanks to Tatiana and Timofeicha for the cordial reception).

At noon, we drove out onto the ice of the Bay of the Cross (Zaliv Kresta) in the direction of Uelkal. Movement became difficult once again, as shallow but sticky snow reduced speeds and increased fuel consumption. After a short conference, we decided to return to Egvekinot and, rather than taking the shortcut across the bay, to go the long way around.

Bright sun, blue sky, mountains, snow, ice - these were the most picturesque scenes we encountered during the whole the expedition. After traveling 130 km, we arrived in Uelkal at about 3:00 a.m. The major storm here a day earlier had left snowdrifts as high as a two-story house. All-terrain vehicles and Ural trucks, who had waited out the storm, were now preparing to head back on the road. A tractor-sled train approached the village from Anadyr, after having holed up 70 km from here. The weather was improving…

Iultin - Amguema - Egvekinot

We woke up early, drank some tea, and slowly got moving. We felt sure that the cyclone would catch up with us. We only got away from it around lunchtime, when we drove onto the Iultin tract, at which point we realized we’d gotten lucky and avoided the worst of the storm. The winds died down, it looked sunny. The only thing that succeeded in spoiling our mood was the upset stomach that everyone came down with. We cured the epidemic with the kind assistance of activated charcoal.

After noon we arrived in Iultin, Chukotka’s own ghost town.  The settlement never quite flourished after it was set up as a center for tin mining and processing, and this city of several thousand was abandoned in 1993. The residents departed in haste, almost like an evacuation, and took with themselves only what was necessary. Afterwards, the city died…

Our anxiety only grew after we passed through the town’s barren streets and through a mountain pass, where the road rose sharply uphill, past a cemetery, and then along a cliff. The dazzling whiteness of the snow meant it was not always possible to see the edge of the cliff. We moved slowly and carefully. The ghost town behind us said goodbye with unblinking eyes, as represented by the empty windows of its buildings.

As soon as we passed, the winds picked up. Visibility dropped to 1-2 meters. Andrey got out of the car and led the expedition further. Our speed was reduced to that of a pedestrian. At the site of an impassable bridge, the trail turned off into the tundra. There were markers along the trail at a distance of 2-3 meters from each other, but only the nearest one was visible. These were the remains of the storm that had raged in the Amguema tundra the day before. The tail end had caught us.

We made a short stop in Amguema, which has been completely rebuilt over the past few years. The village provided a unique visual treat – a town full of contemporary well-built housing, with all of the necessary infrastructure, way out here in the tundra.

The final 80 km to Egvekinot were quickly traversed. Along the way, we crossed the Arctic Circle for the second time.

It was already dusk when we arrived in town. We had arranged comfortable lodging for the night – our own two-room apartment, graciously provided by Muslim Abakarov, the head of Chukotkommunkhoza in Uelkal.

Cape Schmidt

We got underway early, just after dawn. After several tens of kilometers pushing through the tundra, we came upon a well-traveled winter road. Coal transporters use this section of road to deliver fuel to all the nearby settlements.

The first of these settlements we reached along this stretch was Polarniy, located right on the coast of Arctic Ocean.  From there it was another 80 km to Cape Schmidt. This section of road proved to be quite complex. Fog and deep snow slowed down our advance and only just before Schmidt did the going get easier. Several kilometers from town there was a marker – the 180th meridian. So if we were to head directly north from here, across the north pole and straight ahead from there, we would eventually arrive in Greenwich. Here we were, trying to travel as far east as we could and we ended up in the Western hemisphere!

Cape Schmidt greeted us with strong winds and light snow. A walk out to the tip of the cape proved to be somewhat less than pleasant – the wind nearly blew us into the ocean.

Cape Ryrkarpiy, later known as Irkarpiy, and then Northern, and finally Cape Schmidt, has seen a bunch of legendary people over its history. Semyon Dezhnev was here, as were James Cook, Nordenskjold, and Schmidt with his crew on the Chelyuskin. There are separate monuments to Cook and Schmidt here. Cook looks similar to Baron Munchausen while Schmidt looks more like Lev Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana. 

It was already dark when we set out on the winter road towards Iultin and Egvekinot. We were in a hurry as a cyclone had been approaching the coast. Visibility fell to 5-7 meters, the snowfall got heavier, and the winds picked up. After traveling only 20 kilometers we decided to stop for the night. The winds outside our windows got stronger and stronger, and it was very cold.

Chance Meeting in the Tundra

We left Pevek early in the morning and, by 10:00, we were already in Komsomolsky. The headquarters of the Chukotka prospecting cooperative is located here, which is also the start point for the road to the Volunistiy mine, which almost halfway between Pevek and Anadyr. We continued along this road and then along the Palyavaam River.

By evening we had reached the turn-off towards Cape Schmidt and stopped for the night. The nearest populated area was still 200 kilometers away. It was therefore quite a surprise when, at 2:00 in the night, someone knocked on the window of one of the Fords!

A reindeer herder had been passing through and decided it was his responsibility to welcome these guests of the tundra. None of us managed to fully wake up, so no conversation was had. The Chukot continued on his way into the darkness… 

1500 km to Anadyr

We are getting ready to continue our journey. One car, “the technical”, will remain in Pevek in preparation for subsequent shipping to Moscow. The other two will travel further. Here, we will also leave behind the trailers which have served us so well thus far, as we’ll be pulling sleighs behind us from this point on. We still have about 1500 km to go until we reach Anadyr…

Pevek Gourmets

We are staying in a comfortable house 10 meters from the coastline with a great view of the Arctic Ocean. Complete silence. At night, the aurora borealis lights up the sky. We’ve been getting some rest… We’ve been cleaning ourselves up… and we’ve been looking at the film and photos we’ve taken over the course of the expedition.

Alexey Simakin has demonstrated his culinary talents. For dinner, we were served Pevek-style smelt fish salad and Polynesian turkey with rice. Then we rested some more…

The Northernmost City in Russia

We traveled onward, slowly, but without significant problems. Even the heavily-traveled section of road from the turnoff for Kupol, a major gold mine currently under development, to Pevek wasn’t much of an obstacle, although here we did run across more than one truck that had either gotten stuck in snow or turned over on the slippery shoulder.

The mountains and wooded landscapes gave way to almost Martian vistas. Before nightfall, we made it to the village of Rytkuchi, a reindeer-breeding community on the shores of Chaun Bay. The Expedition has reached the ocean!

Not long after midnight, we arrived in Pevek, the northernmost city in the Russian Federation. At latitude 70° N, on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, it is also the northernmost point on our route. Since leaving Moscow, we’ve traveled 12250 km.