From Dimitri,
I am stopping my expedition in Egvekinot this year for the following 2 reasons:
- After having talked to a lot of locals (hunters, wezdehod drivers,etc...) I have decided that it makes more sense for me to wait til next Winter and return in January 2008 to continue my journey on zimnik winter roads towns, potentially going on the following route: Egvekinot- MysSchmidta - Pevek-Bilibino-Chersky - then down on the Kolima river to Seymchan where I will then connect with the Westward road to Yakutsk.
- My current propusk permit could not allow me to take advantage of the last 3 weeks of snow (May) and continue now from Anguema north bound towards Myschmidta.
Editor's note: Karl has chosen to continue on at this time through a separate route through the Spring.
_____________________
Arrived today at 9am (May 16th) in Egvekinot after having completed about 425 miles by foot and on back country skis from Uelen. First advice before anything else: If anyone of you is going to talk to Karl before he leaves Anguema, I strongly advice him to leave his sled at some point on the road (before kilometer marker 66) with one of the few trucks going by, and continue with the bare minimum towards Egvekinot.
The road is quite dry for the last 66 kilometers, with only a few patches of snow. As a result, he could permanently damage the bottom of his sled.
At KM 33, he might be able to sleep as well at the "rest area/gastinista" if he does not arrive in middle of the night... I did not stopped there for that reason!
Summary of latest events:
1. Karl and I met with Sasha the local policeman in Anguema on Monday night(5/14). We all agreed that since Karl and I now had different plans (Karl is now continuing on the Southern Chukotka route and I am planning to resume my expedition in January 2008 on the Northern Chukota route), it did not make sense for us to continue together.
I got the green light from policeman Sasha to leave Anguema alone as long as I would stay on the road all the way down to Egvekinot which I did. I left the Chukotsnab Satellite phone with Karl since he was going to be behind me and could potentially "rescue" me in case of an emergency and in case I could not get assistance from one of the truckers.
After leaving Karl amicably, I departed Anguema at 9am on Tuesday May15th and completed the last 90 kms of this section in 24 hrs, taking advantage of the Belli Noche ("white night") and the fact that there is only 1 flight per week Egvekinot-Anadyr on Thursday and therefore I needed to press on to make it).On the road, I talked to the few truckers that came by and they all advise me to drop my sled asap since the last 33kms did not have much snow.
At 2:30pm, at mile post km 66. I dropped my sled with Egvekinot firemen driving by who agreed to take it in their truck and keep it in Egvekinot until my arrival. I quickly gathered a small duffel bag containing the bare minimum to be able to make it through the night while walking (water, food, clothes, IPOD...). I walked through the night on this beautiful road with an interesting past. At 9am today May 16th, I arrived in Egvekinot by foot straight at the airport where I quickly asked if I could buy a ticket for Anadyr the next day, which was allowed (weather permitting of course).
OK, what are my plans for the future?
1. Flying tomorrow to Anadyr (weather permitting) and trying to coordinate with Bering Air my departure on the next flight to Nome. If no flights are scheduled for the next few weeks and if the pogranitshik allow me, I will fly through Magadan, Moscow or else to get back to Seattle.
2. Once I arrive in Anadyr tomorrow, I would very much to like to meet with
the following people, (amongst others) to help me secure my return to Chukotka.
-Natalia Slugina (to explain my plan for next year and see how I can secure my propusk for 2008)
-Anatori Panov (to explain my plan for next year)
-Svetlana Kazmin (to solve some fine related matters)
-Pogrenitshik (and get my satellite phone and beacon back)-Local administration (to register if I stay more than 3 days )
-The owner of the company ACR4 (26864) to see what I can do to buy a Russian satellite phone and emergency beacon. I am not sure yet where I am going to stay in Anadyr.
That's all for now!
Btw, Egevkinot and the mountains around is quite pretty! It even has a ski lift! Thank you for your support once again!
Dimitri
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
Dimitri and Karl reunited in Anguema, Dimitri continuing alone.
Dimitri arrived in Anguema Friday may 11th (Russian time), after being separated from Karl. They were separated on May 7th at about 11am at N 57' 22, W 176' 50 on their way to the village of Anguema (N 57' 03, W 178' 48).
A day after their separation, Dimitri found the gold mining town of Vastoshishno.
Prior leaving Nashken, he was told by a local chukchi about this gold mining town, pointing on his map with an approximate radius of about 20 miles. The town did not appear on his map.
He was welcomed by the community of 50 miners who gave him some meals, a banya and even a bed to rest for the night !
The next morning, Dimitri took the winter road leading out of the gold mine and which took him down to Anguema in 2.5 days.
He was able to cover 50km/day, now only using his Susitna Montrail shoes, and making a fast pace to Anguema.
Dimitri believed that Karl was in good condition and probably continued straight through the tundra, not taking the risk to lose time while trying to spot the gold mining town and its connecting winter road.
However progressing exclusively through the tundra would probably reduce his movement to 20km/day.
On Sunday (Russian time) Dimitri received news from a local on a snowmobile that Karl was spotted about 9km outside of the village of Anguema.
Karl arrived in the village today Monday 5/14 (Russian time).
Dimitri and Karl are going to take a day or two of rest in the village of Anguema before they carry on towards Egvekinot, one of the larger towns on their route.
To complicate matters, they received news that their local permits will be expiring on May 30th.
They will have to resolve this issue upon arrival in Egvekinot.
Next news should be from Egvekinot.
A day after their separation, Dimitri found the gold mining town of Vastoshishno.
Prior leaving Nashken, he was told by a local chukchi about this gold mining town, pointing on his map with an approximate radius of about 20 miles. The town did not appear on his map.
He was welcomed by the community of 50 miners who gave him some meals, a banya and even a bed to rest for the night !
The next morning, Dimitri took the winter road leading out of the gold mine and which took him down to Anguema in 2.5 days.
He was able to cover 50km/day, now only using his Susitna Montrail shoes, and making a fast pace to Anguema.
Dimitri believed that Karl was in good condition and probably continued straight through the tundra, not taking the risk to lose time while trying to spot the gold mining town and its connecting winter road.
However progressing exclusively through the tundra would probably reduce his movement to 20km/day.
On Sunday (Russian time) Dimitri received news from a local on a snowmobile that Karl was spotted about 9km outside of the village of Anguema.
Karl arrived in the village today Monday 5/14 (Russian time).
Dimitri and Karl are going to take a day or two of rest in the village of Anguema before they carry on towards Egvekinot, one of the larger towns on their route.
To complicate matters, they received news that their local permits will be expiring on May 30th.
They will have to resolve this issue upon arrival in Egvekinot.
Next news should be from Egvekinot.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Dimitri and Karl separated. Dimitri arrives in Anguema without Karl.
Anguema, Russia. 66 N 179 W
Dimitri Arrived in Anguema alone after having being separated from Karl in a "whiteout" snow storm. Karl has not yet arrived in Anguema but Dimitri believes Karl is in good health and expects him to arrive soon. Dimitri has contacted the emergency rescue department immediately and alerted them of his approximate location. Dimitri said he came to a road shortly after being separated from Karl, could not locate him, and proceeded to the nearest town. He made really good time in the last two days trek to the nearest town (~100 kilometers) so he may in fact be days ahead of Karl if Karl didn't find the same road to follow.
The information from Dimitri was short and slim since he was borrowing a satellite phone from a person in the town. He will try to update us again, but he said he most likely will not call again until he reaches Egvekinot where he can have access to a public phone.
Dimitri Arrived in Anguema alone after having being separated from Karl in a "whiteout" snow storm. Karl has not yet arrived in Anguema but Dimitri believes Karl is in good health and expects him to arrive soon. Dimitri has contacted the emergency rescue department immediately and alerted them of his approximate location. Dimitri said he came to a road shortly after being separated from Karl, could not locate him, and proceeded to the nearest town. He made really good time in the last two days trek to the nearest town (~100 kilometers) so he may in fact be days ahead of Karl if Karl didn't find the same road to follow.
The information from Dimitri was short and slim since he was borrowing a satellite phone from a person in the town. He will try to update us again, but he said he most likely will not call again until he reaches Egvekinot where he can have access to a public phone.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Nexus Expedition reaches the village of Nashken
Dimitri and Karl reached the village of Nashken Tuesday 4/24 at night (Russian time) and will be leaving at the earliest tomorrow (Friday morning) Russian time. I was able to reach him at the school principles office.
They are staying an extra day at doctor's orders due to Dimitri injuries on his feet. He had terrible blisters which have left him with raw open skin and he doesn't want to chance infection.
They are changing their route to save a little time and heading inland from here directly towards Anguema. He said this next section should take about 3 weeks so we won't hear from him for a while.
Aside from his feet everything seems to be going pretty well for them. They are turning inland because the winter 'road' they have been traveling on has not been saving them any real time so they may as well take the most direct route.
They are staying an extra day at doctor's orders due to Dimitri injuries on his feet. He had terrible blisters which have left him with raw open skin and he doesn't want to chance infection.
They are changing their route to save a little time and heading inland from here directly towards Anguema. He said this next section should take about 3 weeks so we won't hear from him for a while.
Aside from his feet everything seems to be going pretty well for them. They are turning inland because the winter 'road' they have been traveling on has not been saving them any real time so they may as well take the most direct route.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Lavrentiya: Storm update
Just received a report from Dimitri. He still awaits transport to the point at which he and Karl Bushby will resume the circumnavigation.
From Dimitri:
Very frustrating out here. The storm "Purga" is stronger. The whole town shut down. Today school is closed and no one is working. "Actierovanyi den" : Inactive day
I have seen tiles flying out of a roof, and try to capture a bit of the storm on camera. Needless to say, we are not leaving for Uelen yet on the Vezdehod. According to what the priest Leonid told me: "The vezdehod drivers don't want to take the risk to get stuck in the mountains on the way to Uelen for multiple days with the 5-6 female Uelen teachers returning to their village."
Not sure when the storm is going to come down but it might last a while. Quite frustrating. Karl and I are like two dogs at the start of the Iditarod, ready to go go go....
Good bye everyone,
Dimitri
From Dimitri:
Very frustrating out here. The storm "Purga" is stronger. The whole town shut down. Today school is closed and no one is working. "Actierovanyi den" : Inactive day
I have seen tiles flying out of a roof, and try to capture a bit of the storm on camera. Needless to say, we are not leaving for Uelen yet on the Vezdehod. According to what the priest Leonid told me: "The vezdehod drivers don't want to take the risk to get stuck in the mountains on the way to Uelen for multiple days with the 5-6 female Uelen teachers returning to their village."
Not sure when the storm is going to come down but it might last a while. Quite frustrating. Karl and I are like two dogs at the start of the Iditarod, ready to go go go....
Good bye everyone,
Dimitri
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Lavrentiya: waiting to depart for Uelen...
Quick update from Dimitri:
"We have been told that we will depart tomorrow morning, for Uelen, at 9am for the 6-8hrs ride in the vezdehod (“go everywhere”) all terrain track vehicles…consuming 1 liter of gas per kilometer! The ride has been offered to us and our loaded sleds generously by the regional administration, which received a letter from the deputy governor Andrei Gorodilov to look after us.
This letter has been sent to all local administrations. However, I just found out that we are going to be in a convoy of 3 vezdehods and the third one will be occupied by FSB (Overview in Wikipedia) (FSB official site, in Russian) members who are going to escort us to Uelen.
The storm is supposed to last a few more days. You can follow it at the following sites: Lavrentiya: Russian Weather site
Uelen: Russian Weather site
Check the speed of wind in meters per second and the temperatures in Celsius. Last night we recorded a wind speed of 30 knots with a south bound wind. This is going to make the first few days of trekking interesting, since we will be going Northwest…"
Uelen is the point where Dimitri Kieffer and Karl Bushby will resume their expedition on foot. Last year the expedition was interrupted by confusion over their proper entry into the country via crossing the Bering strait. See article describing the Bering Strait crossing: Seattle Times, Boston News, New York Times.
See below the map of the route from Lavrentiya to Uelen that they will complete in Vezdehod with their sleds strapped on top of these all terrain vehicles, in order to go to their official start in Uelen.
"We have been told that we will depart tomorrow morning, for Uelen, at 9am for the 6-8hrs ride in the vezdehod (“go everywhere”) all terrain track vehicles…consuming 1 liter of gas per kilometer! The ride has been offered to us and our loaded sleds generously by the regional administration, which received a letter from the deputy governor Andrei Gorodilov to look after us.
This letter has been sent to all local administrations. However, I just found out that we are going to be in a convoy of 3 vezdehods and the third one will be occupied by FSB (Overview in Wikipedia) (FSB official site, in Russian) members who are going to escort us to Uelen.
The storm is supposed to last a few more days. You can follow it at the following sites: Lavrentiya: Russian Weather site
Uelen: Russian Weather site
Check the speed of wind in meters per second and the temperatures in Celsius. Last night we recorded a wind speed of 30 knots with a south bound wind. This is going to make the first few days of trekking interesting, since we will be going Northwest…"
Uelen is the point where Dimitri Kieffer and Karl Bushby will resume their expedition on foot. Last year the expedition was interrupted by confusion over their proper entry into the country via crossing the Bering strait. See article describing the Bering Strait crossing: Seattle Times, Boston News, New York Times.
See below the map of the route from Lavrentiya to Uelen that they will complete in Vezdehod with their sleds strapped on top of these all terrain vehicles, in order to go to their official start in Uelen.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Nexus Expedition's start halted by storm
Dimitri and Karl couldn't push through the storm to Uelen yesterday. Uelen is the town where they were stopped on April 1st 2006 after having completed the crossing of the Bering Strait from Wales to Uelen.
The storm is currently so strong that the driver of the Vezdehod does not want to take the risk to transport them across the tundra from Lavrentiya to Uelen.
They probaly will have to wait until Monday to head to Uelen.
Dimitri has limited connectivity so he will be giving us what he can and snail mailing his diaries on disk.
The storm is currently so strong that the driver of the Vezdehod does not want to take the risk to transport them across the tundra from Lavrentiya to Uelen.
They probaly will have to wait until Monday to head to Uelen.
Dimitri has limited connectivity so he will be giving us what he can and snail mailing his diaries on disk.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Nexus Expedition Resumes in Russia
Dimitri Kieffer and Karl Bushby are presently in Lavrentiya and planning on taking a vezdehod (all terrain vehicle) to Uelen tomorrow morning. If it all goes according to plan, tomorrow should be their first night on the trail. They have a blizzard blowing in, but it sounds like that's a bi-weekly occurrence so they're not going to let it stand in their way. 
Dimitri won't be able to communicate except when he is in villages, so it may be a few weeks before we hear from him again. We just hope that they are able to cover as much ground as they planned on.
On foot they will be pulling a 240 lb sled for 15 miles, every day, just to get up and do it again, and again, and again for 135days.
Dimitri won't be able to communicate except when he is in villages, so it may be a few weeks before we hear from him again. We just hope that they are able to cover as much ground as they planned on.
On foot they will be pulling a 240 lb sled for 15 miles, every day, just to get up and do it again, and again, and again for 135days.
With the border guards and the polar bears in consideration. it seems that the weather should be the least of their worries.
See the map of the section of the expedition they will be covering over the next months, on there way from Uelen to Magadan.Erik Nachtrieb and Ilima Smallwood
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