Kolymskaya Pravda: Interview with Members of the Expedition

The following is an excerpt from an article by Alexey Kurilo of Kolymskaya Pravda, the local newspaper in the town of Chersky:

First up, I spoke with Alexander Borodin, chairman of the Russian chapter of the Explorers Club.

- Please describe your expedition.

- Our expedition is called “Moscow-Chukotka”. It involves three Ford Expedition automobiles specially modified for travel under Arctic conditions. We have a crew of six people, two people in each car. They include: the leader of expedition Alexey Mikhailov; myself, Alexander Borodin; technical director Andrey Rodionov; two outstanding specialists in operating vehicles under winter conditions who worked out in Chukotka for many years - Sergey Goryachev and Victor Parshikov; and one more young man, Alexey Simakin, who has participated in the “Camel Trophy” event.

- Some travel “for the fog and the smell of the taiga” while others travel for some commercial reason. What is the purpose of your expedition?

- The main purpose is to travel this route from Moscow to Anadyr, which as far as we know, no one has traveled. Another aspect to our journey is the fact that the route passes through places connected to the history of discovery and conquest of Siberia and the Russian Arctic. Thirdly, we wanted to draw the public’s attention to the history of Russia and to contemporary life in the country’s most remote corners. Beginning from Veliky Ustyug, where Semyon Dezhnev was born some 400 years ago; through the city of Perm, where Yermak began his march into Siberia; through Yakutsk, where the Cossacks and explorers established fort and moved further to the east and north. We’ve been taking photos and videos, capturing our impressions about how these places appear today, and we hope that the result of this expedition will be an overview of the history of the mastery of Siberia and the Arctic. - Is there information about your journey on the Internet? - Yes, there is the site www.moscow-chukotka.com. We sent our last update to the site on March 31 from Srednekolymsk.

- The path the expedition took across the Republic of Sakha, to Chersky, was probably just a warm-up. The most serious test lies ahead of you. How was your travel from Srednekolymsk to our town? Did you have any problems?

- Frankly speaking, we traveled relatively easily from Srednekolymsk to Chersky. I assumed it would be more difficult. We had some problems earlier, when we departed from the Yakutsk - Magadan highway and crossed the Chersky ridge. That portion of the trip took more time than planned, as there was a lot of snow. It also presented us with different challenges than we had anticipated. In any case, it slowed down the expedition’s progress.

As for the Srednekolymsk-Chersky leg of the journey, we spent about 24 hours on it. Moreover, we drove without hurry and made a stop in Andryushkino. From Argakhtakha to Andryushkino there were several sections of the winter trail where the snow was quite deep, so we had to hold back a bit.

I had a lot of questions about the automobiles. Andrey Rodionov enlightened me on the technical aspects of the Expedition.

- In principle, we are using production model vehicles, without significant alterations to the engine or to the undercarriage. We just added some shielding under the engine. Stronger bumpers have been installed in the front and rear of the vehicles so that it would be possible to hitch and tow them. The strong bumpers are a great help in the installation of the caterpillar system. Each of the vehicles has an additional heating element (autonomous gas stoves with very low fuel consumption), additional batteries, strong trunks and, on two of them, extra 200-liter fuel tanks and winches.

We conducted complete technical service on the automobiles in Moscow and then put them through diagnostics in Krasnoyarsk. Ford Motor Company provided us with the vehicles and they were very interested in making sure that the cars operated at maximum performance all the way through to the end of our route. They proposed that we undergo the technical service inspection in Krasnoyarsk at the local Ford dealership.

For some portions of the journey, we re-fitted two of the vehicles with a caterpillar tread system, the third car did not have this option. When, for example, we crossed the Sasyr Valley, we had to tow the third one. The treads are very useful – they help the vehicles move well off-road – but fuel consumption is quite large.

… on the evening of April 2, three Ford Expedition all-terrain vehicles left the town of Chersky. A car from the local administration accompanied to the first turn outside of town. After bidding farewell to Sakhamin Afanasiev, deputy head of the district administration, and drivers Anatoly Korsun and Andrey Artamonov, the travelers they departed for Anyuysk. Their cars quickly disappeared in a veil of snow, shaded by the twilight. Residents of the lower Kolyma area wished them a good trip and good luck in their auto-expedition. The luck they will need, as the Bilibino – Pevek portion of their trip features consistently complex road conditions, and in other spots further along where the winter roads often exist only on maps.

Alexey Kurilo, Kolymskaya Pravda

Kolymskaya Pravda: Travelers Arrive in Chersky

On the morning of April 2, the travelers and their three Ford Expedition automobiles arrived in the town of Chersky, the administrative center of the Nizhnekolymsky district (Sakha Republic). As the type of gasoline they required could not be found in Chersky, they had to travel to the village of Petushki to refuel at the oil storage facilities of JSC Sakhanefte-gazbit.

At 15:00, the expedition participants visited the College of Peoples of the North.  It was visible that the guys were tired, but their mood was cheerful. They even joked: “Why do you want to photograph us before lunch?” In order to keep the complaints to a minimum, I also photographed them after lunch.

The deputy director of the college, Svetlana Mineeva, recounted the history of this educational institution and described how they prepare young specialists. Here, these visitors to the Lower Kolyma region dined and then headed over to the Nizhnekolymsky Museum of History and Culture of Northern Peoples.

At half past five in the evening, the expedition continued on its way. For the motorists, up ahead awaits the city of Bilibino in Chukotka.

Alexey Kurilo, Kolymskaya Pravda

Moscow-Chukotka Expedition on TV

SGU TV will air a second report on the Moscow-Chukotka expedition on the program ”Pod Solntsem Oykumeny” on March 26, 2006, with a repeat on March 28.