18.04.2024 N87°26'29", W032°36'32". Odometer reading 3974, daily run 63, useful 23 km.
From the above figures it follows that the terrain is very difficult, but passable, while the main difficulty is represented by endless water openings which require a lot of time and fuel for bypassing. Fuel consumption is such that in the evening I phoned Emil in Iceland, requesting 800 liters of fuel to be delivered to Greenland land-fast ice near Cape Morris Jesup. According to Savelyich, the issue of Greenland enter permits has moved from a dead point in a positive direction. The left middle spring in our vehicle has broken, the replacement took 30 minutes. Welding electrodes are running out, most of them are spent for repairing the wheel rims. Before going to bed, we decided to fly over a water opening; the honor of overcoming it the previous shift has granted to us in a friendly way, as a favor. We flew off in hope that it would begin to close, but instead it has moved apart. Perhaps, other people would be upset, but we already got used to it, so, tomorrow we will just do our job.
Such are our usual workdays here. V.Ye.
17.04.2024 N87°45'13", W031°08'23". Odometer reading 3911, daily run 43, useful 21 km. The situation with moving southwards is gradually
getting more strained.
Everything was fine in the morning, then water openings again, two or three of them were large, along one of them we had to drive about 10 km until it deigned to let us drive further southwards. Driving 10 km often means scrambling through endless ridges of transverse hummocks interspersed with second-order cracks and breaks. The drones flew a lot in search for a better fate, then Anton's charger burned out, and if he doesn't manage to fix it, then only Max will have to fly, and we will become dependent on the single drone. At 11.30 a.m. a tinkling sound appeared in the engine, I turned it off immediately, we stopped and began to investigate. Pretty soon we found the cause: a piece of a heating element broke off from a glow plug. At first, there were lazybones thoughts on how to remove the fragment spending little efforts, then common sense prevailed over laziness, and it was decided to remove the engine head, clean everything thoroughly, in short – do everything properly. Alexey Dubinin and Anton Ershov completed this work in six hours. The engine was saved. Once again, we rejoiced due to central-engine layout of the vehicle, allowing even complicated repair to be performed inside the vehicle in warmth, with a working stove, while outside it is not hot at all and an invigorating breeze is blowing. In the absence of a torque wrench, the tightening torque of the block head bolts was checked using a steelyard balance begged from the doctor against receipt. He is right in some aspect, the Russian people are great and simple at the same time; the doctor often found foodstuffs lying in barrels under the weight of spare parts, which turned valuable products into small crumbs during bumpy ride. Such actions have undermined his trust in the working class of the expedition, but he holds on, does not show how hard for him is dealing with us. In short, he is a mighty personality.
That’s how the matters are. V.Ye.
16.04.2024 N87°56'33", W034°50'17". Odometer reading 3868, daily run 62, useful 37 km.
The day is an ordinary one, the alarm clock was set at 4.00, we got up with difficulty at 4.20, because the day before we went to bed at midnight. Whiteout was present since morning, then it improved a little, but water openings and endless small breaks spoiled our blood and nerves until lunch. After lunch it got better, after 5 p.m. the terrain was quite good, but visibility dropped again. There are problems with coming to Greenland – our people on the mainland either failed to meet the deadline for submitting documents, or some documents were missing, and we got a refuse for visiting this island. Now the application for entry will be submitted anew, because the legislation does not stipulate any appeals. We have two to three weeks for consideration of the application until we get to the Greenland land-fast ice at our snail's pace. In principle, I do not object to spending some time in a Greenland-Danish prison for violation of the migration regime, experiencing the humanism of European punishment system, even if it is not as merciful as the one in our human-loving Homeland. The situation with the temporary worker visas for mechanics is also vague. But ... anyway we have no alternative to driving southwards, which is what we are doing in the time free from sad, and not very sad, thoughts.
That’s how the matters are. V.Ye.
15.04.2024 N88°16'30", W030°54'26". Odometer reading 3806, daily run 41, useful 13 km. A heavy day.
4 a.m. The green vehicle. The inhabitants, slightly crazy due to lack of sleep, discuss over coffee the difference in the concepts of "humility" and "obedience". The opinions differ, an hour and a half before departure on the line passed indecently quickly, as always. A good example: accepting some or other weather and ice conditions in our travel – is it humility or obedience? And "fatalism", what is it and how does it relate to the previous terms? So, with an unfinished dispute, we set off on the route. Planning for the next day's kilometrage has vanished from the agenda of our evening briefings, and it finally became clear to everyone that you just have to be "calm and stubborn" and work steadily, without comparing today's results with the achievements of other days.
So, slowly we become polar explorers, we have come to the understanding: who you are here and what is your scale in this great icy desert, in which, by the way, we are the only humans. The nearest people are not far, just 750-800 km away. I recall how at Monday's zoom conferences the issues of securing our group were discussed in a businesslike manner, whether Barneo would operate, from which latitude certain services of Greenland, Canada or Russia would rescue us if necessary. And now - "there's only taiga all around, only taiga, and we're in the middle." It was a song. A romantic song. Beauty, in general.
That’s how the matters are. V.Ye.
14.04.2024 N88°23'12", W030°44'52". Odometer reading 3765, daily run 78, useful 50 km.
The weather is like in spring; we slept with the working stove in order to melt water for breakfast during the night, it was hot. We sleep "tops to tails"; closer to morning I found someone's bare feet near my face, as further investigation showed, they were Ershov's feet. After coffee and oatmeal, simple driving followed, aggravated by crossings on ladders at the limit of their length, so that we even inserted extension bars. At my demand, only the drivers and Safonov remained in the vehicles; Safonov prefers a terrible death in the icy abyss to getting up before 11 a.m. The principles, you know… Worthy of respect. The man is ready to struggle for something, even at the cost of his own life. We are still in the dead zone – no bears, no seals with squareflippers, these are curious, they like to watch who is playing tricks at the floor above. We haven't seen even a single trace. We are in the Canadian–Greenland zone, everything is as proper as can be, nature is protected, but still there is no one around. In the Russian sector, on the contrary, just watch out to guard your barrels with foodstuff from the bears, seemingly, there is some kind of magnetism in our mess… Where did they all go? It's not interesting to go to Israel now; in general, a difficult question.
That’s how the mysterious matters are here. V.Ye.
13.04.2024 N88°50'04", W020°30'59". Odometer reading 3687, daily run 58, useful southwards 34 km.
We departed for the line at six a.m., the day before we went to bed late at night, drove until 9 p.m., then dinner, then replacing the dust caps on the steering rack instead of those that broke at the beginning of the travel at frost below -40°C. We slept hardly more than 4 hours, the folks are tired and demanded to return to the 12-hour working day, because this is only the time of moving, evening maintenance and repair is not included in this time. Today was a creative day in the sense of overcoming the water openings, we are gradually getting impudent and start driving on the thinner ice; if the ice can be penetrated with just two strokes of an ice chisel, we drive on. A couple of times the wave on the ice was quite severe, we swayed like in a considerable earthquake. A couple of times my trailers broke through the ice, they are heavy; at lunchtime we refueled, some two hundred liters of fuel were drained from our rear trailer (only the green vehicle tows two trailers, the others - only one each), it became a little easier. We are accumulating the useful experience, my heart warns me of eventual meeting with serious water, and adequate understanding of the capabilities of the vehicles and the ice can save us time. By the evening (according to our time count) it warmed up to -20°C, whiteout immediately arose, visibility is bad, the speed of movement and searching for passages in the "fences" drops immediately. The doctor started distributing Gala-Gala foodstuffs from Russia, they are quite good. I can't say that about their price, even if I want to.
That’s how the matters are. V.Ye.
12.04.2024 N89°08'15", W007°07'30". Odometer reading 3629, daily run 58, useful 37 km.
Multiple ice breaks, rather extensive areas of broken ice – this is the beginning, almost traditional, of recent time. Closer to noon the heavy trailers fell into water, the front trailer was pulled out by the vehicle, while the front attachment of the torque arm broke on the left side of the second trailer. Repair work, welding for an hour and a half, combined with lunch. We drove until nine in the evening, at the end of the day the trailer of the yellow vehicle also broke the ice. They are heavy, filled to the brim with fuel and grub, so we need to be more attentive to our tails. The doctor started distributing the foodstuff that had arrived from Russia-Barneo, that is - Russian, or at least friendly, food. We felt it immediately: the mustard is the true mustard, lard ("salo") that came from bat’ka (i.e. from Belorussia), rye biscuits made from Borodinsky bread, everyone became more cheerful, except Andrew Ivanovich, he does not feel elation hearing the word "borsch". In general, the life of the Canadian polar explorer from sunny Los Angeles is not easy in the company of harsh Siberian, Moscow and other men. While I am writing the diary, outside the window something made of iron is being forged; that is, Alexey Dubinin, a completely restless man, replaces the steering rod end boots on our vehicle for the ones sent to us by Alexey Shkrabkin from Moscow via Barneo. Eventual encounters with water are not excluded, so all the seals should be kept in order as much as possible.
That’s how the matters are. V.Ye.
11.04.2024 N89°28'02", E007°35'04". Odometer reading 3571, daily run 41, useful distance 22.2 km. Not much.
The previous day the mechanics spent a long time messing with refueling, then installing the gearbox in the green vehicle, only at the end of the night they went to bed. We departed at nine a.m., stopped for the night, as usual, at seven a.m. The main news came from Krasnoyarsk: Barneo is winding up the operation, the bureaucracy did not allow completing the program, the reason is unknown to us. It is good that we have got our cargo and fuel before this moment, we sympathize with our colleagues at high latitudes, such a lot of work has been done to prepare the camp on the ice, the runway has been remade three times, and everything is for nothing, and shame in regard of the tourists. We can imagine. Our Zurab with the cargo of spare parts and various small things flew to Moscow-Tbilisi, and hopes to meet us in the north of Greenland. And our caravan, after three days of oppressive waiting, is gaining pace again, we plan to extend our working day by a couple of hours in order to make up for the uselessly lost time. Christian Haas, the glaciologist, insistently recommends us to move keeping west of the 40th meridian. There are much more breaks and water openings to the east of this meridian.
That’s how the matters are. V. Ye.
10.04.2024 N89°40'00", W38°58'16". odometer reading 3530 km. We are standing on an ice floe, but the drift has already dragged us
for almost forty km towards Norway.
We replaced the radiator in the green vehicle for the old one, which served us in many travels, but had been replaced for a multi-row version before Antarctica trip because of heavy load and high altitude. The helicopter will arrive at six p.m., Krasnoyarsk time, while we have switched over to Magadan time. Familiar persons have arrived: Roman, Alexey. Greetings from E.I. Bakalov and Dima Glagolev. After unloading we exchanged valuable gifts: we presented the men from Barneo an empty soft fuel bag, and they gave us a bottle of bilberry tincture from the Krasnoyarsk taiga. We filled up more than 2500 liters of diesel fuel, basically it should be enough to reach the Nord station in the north of Greenland. By mistake, they intended to give us 300 liters of "kalosha" grade gasoline, but recollected in due time that this cargo was not for us, otherwise the skiers of the "ultimate degree" would have been left without fuel for primus stoves. We installed the gearbox in the rear axle, now our vehicle is an off-roader again. The kind people from Barneo also shared engine oil and antifreeze with us, so now we can get along, and though something is missing, we can drive further.
That’s how the matters are. V. Ye.
09.04.2024 N89°45'52", W38°36'00". Odometer reading 3519 km, but this is because we are dragged by drift in the direction of Murmansk.
In two days we moved away from the pole by 26 km.
The news from the mainland again is not of the best sort - the flight is delayed from 11.00 to 17.00, Krasnoyarsk time zone. We immediately guessed: it is a delay rather than a cancellation, hence, the cause is the weather either in Khatanga or on Barneo. As scientific investigation has shown, neither the first nor the second was true. Some papers have been drawn up incorrectly, and the flight was not released. One can only guess how much paper may be spent during six hours of delay. Zurab has received back our cargo from Khatanga, because for unknown reasons it is impossible to load it in Khatanga, and he will try to do so in Krasnoyarsk. The wind has strengthened, but within reasonable limits, it is still too early to consider a walk to the toilet as a real feat. The mechanics have repaired everything they could in the vehicles. The fuel from the barrels and soft "blisters" was drained completely, so to say, to the drop, it turned out to be about 20 liters per vehicle. The daily consumption per one vehicle for heating and two or three starts of the engine to recharge the batteries is about 6-8 liters, so for two days we can live decently, and after that we'll have to contrive something. But - no one promised that it would be easy. We hope that within a few days the Greenlandic authorities will take a crucial decision - either to allow us to drive through the Greenland National Park territory, or send us eastwards along the northern coast to the Nord military-scientific station where we will be checked for the presence of Greenland entry visas. Then we can continue our travel southwards. These are our plans, but presently we are sitting in the vehicles, waiting for the helicopter with fuel and Zurab.
That’s how the matters are. V. Ye.