Golomyanniy island Russian Polar Base, Arctic ice melting. MLAE-2011

Russian Arctic Expedition MLAE-2011. Russian Arctic Ocean ice Expedition.

Cloudless sunrise after frigidly cold night. Atmospheric pressure has gone down. Wind is out of the south. Light snowfall. It is splendidly nasty. I am sitting on Golomyanniy island Polar station. Behind are seemingly endless 24 hours of driving over shore ice belt of the island Oktyabrskoy Revolyucii.

Further on, closer to Sredniy island, border guards make us promise to join them tomorrow in banya. And at last, the long awaited “polyarka” Polar Base with sourdoughs – Lutchnko and Omelchenko. Anatoliy is a young father of Svetlana’s two year ols boy. He is leaving for the continent in a few days.

Igor Mihaylovich, on the contrary, has just recently entered the duty and along with two young meteorologists will remain here until spring. It partakes of homecoming. Laughing, they hand us our own forgotten here last time, towels and our two boxes full of metal scrap parts and engine oil are sitting there untouched from last visit. We will stay here for three days to do some maintenance work on vehicles and gear and to rest a bit and will head out once again. Although we are not yet certain if we will move north or south from here. Today’s task is to get in touch with all the competent sources and to get as accurate description of ice situation an movements for today.

Russians in the Arctic. Russian MLAE-2011 Expedition on
Golomyanniy island
Meteo Station
Arctic Research and Development.

We are presently on Golomyanniy.

Water is on three sides of the island. Anatoliy Omel’chenko who is here since the year 1991 and and he says that it is the very first time he sees it at this time of the year. We give ourselves two – three days to make the decision. Fortunately neither vehicles nor the gear require any serious repairs. Both Va’nkov and Zaitcev keep their restless hands busy implementing the improvements modifications thought up during the many long hours spent breaking the ice on the way. We will make the decision and we will immediately make it known to all of  you, our continental friends.

Vasily Elagin

Translated from Russian by Ilya Kovalev

Sergey Isaev and Vladimir Obihod. Russian Arctic Expedition to the North Pole 2011 MLAE-2011

Russian Exploresr of the Arctic: Sergei Isaev and Vladimir Obihod inside Yemelya-4 amphibios vehicle.

MLAE-2011 Kara Sea, Pancake Ice. Vasily Elagin

APRIL 6 2011

Yemelya-4 crossing open water in Kara Sea, Arctic Ocean. MLAE-2011

Yemelya-3 sliding off into polynya, Kara Sea, Arctic Ocean. MLAE2011

The expedition has covered 2558 km since leaving Urengoy. We are currently at the latitude of Voronin island and seven kilometers to the east from it. In front of us is polynya. It separates us from the long-awaited shore ice belt which we believe continues all the way to Sredniy island. Last three days were spent battling the ridges and polynyas. We had never before in all of our preceding expeditions to the Arctic encountered such density of obstacles per kilometer. Kara Sea fast tracked our new recruits’ apprenticeship course. Each day requires the use of the entire arsenal of our ice ridge negotiation instruments.

Ladder driving course.
In the Kara Sea we encountered a thoroughly new to us type of obstacle: fields of pancake ice with round “pancakes” from 5 to 20 meters in diameter, with icy snow fringes, some over a meter tall. Between them – cracks up to a meter deep. Driving over these, “pancakes” is and experience you wouldn’t wish to your worst of enemies, not to mention our beloved “Red” and “Green” buggies. They drive over this horrible terrain in first and second gear while managing to pull three trailers after them, which puts great strains on their transmissions. But thus far the machines are handling it well. We all miss our friends and relatives and send greetings to everyone back home.

Vasily Elagin.

Translated from Russian by Ilya Kovalev

Abandoned Polar Station of Russkiy island. MLAE-2011 diaries.

MARCH 24 2011

Whiteout in Kara Sea MLAE-2011

Blizzard persisted for four days. Warm, up to -7 С°, low drifting snow and whiteouts. Strong wind. From Dickson on the Arctic seems to be throwing at us all that its got. Clenching our teeth we push forward looking at GPS and the map on computer screen more than through the windshield and reach island Russkiy. The vehicles and the crew are behaving well. We are on the move 24 hours per day. Night shifts are easier than days as the ridges and terrain is easier to read at night in the light of our projectors, than in the milkish whiteout of the day.

Abandoned polar station on Russkiy island in Kara Sea. MLAE-2011

We come across an abandoned Polar station on the Russkiy island, its windows and doors are taken broken by the bears. Strong Arctic wind creates another polynya that stops our progress to the North. We send greetings to all our meteorologists (Day of a meteorologist in Russia), wish them luck in everything including their witchcraft job. We have a celebration of our won as well: today Afanasy Makovnev, turns 49 and invited us to celebrate with him. All’s well, and our best wishes go out to everyone on the continent.

Afanasy Makovnev is 49 today. MLAE-2011

The expedition is currently on the Russkiy island in Kara Sea and the island is surrounded by a large polynya. The crew is searching for a passage to move further North to the Severnaya Zemlya. Coordinates on 16:00 MSK:N77° 1.847', E95° 32.401'

Translated from Russian by Ilya Kovalev