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Danger & Difficulties
Minus 98.7 degrees Celsius is the lowest temperature that has ever been recorded on Earth. The thermometer that did so was positioned just beyond the estuary of the River Kolyma in north-east Siberia. There, the permafrost is one and a half kilometres deep and the remains of mammoths over 10,000 years old have been found, almost perfectly intact. For much of the year, daylight is nothing more than a faint glow on the horizon in the middle of the day. At 94 kilometres per hour, howling winds of unimaginable ferocity sweep over these empty spaces where polar bears weighing up to one ton wander among the ice fields, sustaining themselves on seals, fish and the occasional reindeer. The only people who manage to survive here are the Chukchi, hunters who also tend reindeer. They are perfectly adapted to survive under these extreme conditions. There is also a very isolated research station: the Northeast Siberian Research Station in Cherskii, near Ambarchik Bay, where three Russian researchers live throughout the year. Not only do they carry out research into the cold climate and the tundra, they also hunt and fish in order to survive, just like the native peoples. This is where Expedition Siberia 2004 will end.
For most people, Siberia is synonymous with cold, deportation, prison camps and limitless expanses. It is certainly big. Siberia accounts for one twelfth of the earth’s land surface and is almost 14 million square kilometres in size. It takes seven hours to fly from its most westerly point in the Urals to its most easterly outpost on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Most of Siberia consists of flat tundra and far-flung expanses of wooded taiga, mountainous and undulating in places, with deep ravines. Here it is still possible to encounter small groups of people who have never heard of Stalin, the Second World War or Perestroika. The average winter temperature is minus 35 degrees Celsius, but it often dips to minus 60 degrees. At such times mercury freezes solid and brandy becomes the consistency of syrup. It is so cold that trees explode, blue sparks fly from falling timber and when somebody exhales, their breath is transformed into a shower of ice crystals, followed by a tinkling sound referred to as “the whispers of the stars”. This icy whisper was experienced by almost three million prisoners deported to the most feared of Stalin’s work camps: the Kolyma Gulag, the Auschwitz of the Soviet Union. Only a few per cent of those sent there between 1937 and 1953 survived. The others starved, froze or were worked or beaten to death in the dreaded gold mine. Most of them first entered this land of gold and death via the harbour of Magadan on the Sea of Okhotsk. That is where our Siberian Expedition will start.
We plan to traverse Siberia from the south to the north over the course of a year, beginning in the late spring of 2004 – a distance of 3,500 kilometres. Parts of our journey will take us through areas that are little known, where there are neither roads nor people: a landscape dominated by the taiga, the largest contiguous forest area in the world, where freezing polar temperatures and permafrost reign supreme. The River Kolyma meanders for 2,500 kilometres to the East Siberian Sea in the north and we intend to follow it as much as possible. We shall travel on skis, by foot and on snowshoes through a landscape that is almost permanently white with snow, taking with us what we need in rucksacks and on sledges. If it is possible, and if the River Kolyma is free from ice, we may try to travel by boat or canoe if we can find one along the way, doing all the paddling ourselves of course. We will follow the River Kolyma because there happen to be a few permanent settlements along its banks where we expect we can buy meat, both dried and fresh, as well as milk. We also hope to be able to provide ourselves with food by fishing and hunting. There is a great variety of fish in the river, such as pike, salmon trout, char and other fish of the salmon family. The river is also a source of food that attracts to itself the game that is in the area, of which there is an abundance: brown bears, elks, wild reindeer, wolves, foxes, hares, bighorn sheep and forest birds. Polar bears and seals are common in the far north.
There is no doubt that ours will be a classic adventure. Physically, an extreme challenge awaits us. It is a demanding journey, lasting at least a year, through areas of extreme cold, deadly dangerous icy winds and vast snowfields several metres deep, pack ice, open water and areas where the ice is not to be trusted. Great distances will be covered in solitude, in places where the chances of meeting another human being are remote and the risks of suffering severe frostbite are great. A long and very dark winter will hamper our progress, while the brief summer will plague us with hordes of mosquitoes and gnats. At all times we must be on our guard against marauding polar bears and brown bears. No help can possibly reach us. If there is an accident, we shall have signed our own death warrants.
Although many difficulties will beset us, the severe cold will be greatest danger. This will be one of the coldest and most dangerous journeys ever undertaken in modern times. In order to prepare ourselves, we moved to Särna in the north of Dalarna County in 1999. This is a village at the foot of the Scandinavian mountain ranges. There is thick forest cover, swamps, meres, lakes and rivers. Särna also lies in one of the coldest spots in Scandinavia: temperatures have been known to drop to minus 56 degrees Celsius, although the average winter temperature is around minus 20. The local culture revolves around hunting and fishing. These activities, and trekking in the mountains occupy all our leisure time throughout the year. Our daily life in this isolated area is also made up of long winter months, solitude, exposure to the elements and hard physical labour. Särna is also at the southern foot of Sapmi, as the Lapps, or Sami, refer to their territory. The culture of the Lapps closely resembles that of the native peoples we expect to become acquainted with in Siberia. Reindeer management, animism, shamans, hunting, fishing and the knowledge of how to survive in extreme conditions are common denominators. Särna is, in some ways, Siberia in miniature. During the five coldest months of the next winter, 2003-2004, we intend to sleep in a tent behind our house.
We are choosing to travel in this adventurous manner since we realise, after sixteen years of extreme expeditions all over the world, that the purpose of the journey cannot be achieved in any other way. The purpose is namely to document, in a down-to-earth, positive and fair manner, parts of our world that are unknown at the present time but very important for our future. It is, moreover, a means of travel that takes you up close to things in a manner that is non-aggressive, close to nature and, as a rule, healthy. As for the people we meet along the way, we have noticed that it is very easy for them to relate to the hardships we endure, since their daily life is usually governed by physical labour, the capriciousness of the forces of nature and the eternal hunt for food. This immediately enables us to gain admission to their lives. |
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Will we be able to handle the extreme cold, the long dark winter and the lonliness for a full year?
How do we protect ourselves from visits from curious grizzly bears and polarbears?
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