Participants of the Expedition "Antarctic. 200 Years of Discovery" Reached the South Pole

Photo is provided by the expedition participants
Photo is provided by the expedition participants

According to the report of participants of the expedition "Antarctic. 200 Years of Discovery", that was made on Moday, December 24, they reached the South Pole. Earlier in the expedition’s account on Instagram it was reported that the group was very much out of date.

"In the morning, due to erroneous calculations, we drove 40 km in the wrong direction. It would seem a little, but here we are severely hampered by constant snow gaps up to 1 meter in height. We had to go back for a few hours and turn to the pole at the right point. We need to do it because this is the only way to reach the South Pole" - noted in the report.

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Photo is provided by participants of the expedtion
Photo is provided by participants of the expedtion

According to the report, the delay occurred during the passage through the Clean Air Sector, in which any traffic is prohibited. Its length is 150 km in the north-east direction from the pole itself, and it is necessary to drive round.

In spite of this, the expedition reached its destination on the night of December 24. In general, the campaign goes according to plan: in 24 days the group traveled more than 2.5 thousand kilometers, took 31 hours of video, spent 2950 liters of fuel from 4000.

Now the expedition is moving to the next point of the route - the Russian Antarctic station "Vostok". It is the only currently used inland Antarctic station. Climatic conditions in the "Vostok" area are considered to be among the hardest on Earth. In 1983, the lowest temperature on the planet from all meteorological stations in the XX century was registered here: 89.2 degrees below zero.

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Photo is provided by participants of the expedtion
Photo is provided by participants of the expedtion

Now the participants of the campaign feel good. There is everything necessary for life in polar conditions in their supply.

Valdis Pelsh: “Our living conditions are luxurious: we have a table, a computer, hangers for everything we need, large shelves and comfortable sleeping places. At night, in order to save fuel, the heating is turned off. By morning, the cabin temperature drops to a maximum of -10 degrees, despite the fact that overboard can be up to -40. But we do not suffer at all, because we have very warm sleeping bags designed for forty-degree frosts. "

Recall that the expedition is coincide with the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctic by Russian navigators Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev and there are seven participants. Among participants are: drivers-mechanics - Vasily Elagin, Alexey Makarov, Vladimir Obihod and the film crew - Valdis Pelsh, Christina Kozlova, Alexander Kubasov and Denis Negrivetsky. The project was made possible also thanks to the grant from the RGS. The anniversary date will be celebrated in 2020 - by this time the film "Antarctic. 200 Years of Discovery" is supposed to be released.

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Photo is provided by participants of the expedtion
Photo is provided by participants of the expedtion

Antarctic is a continent in the extreme south of our planet. It is washed by the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. The area is more than 14.4 million km², of which 1.6 million km² are ice shelves. In addition to the cold pole - the temperature at "Vostok" station dropped to almost -90 – in Antarctic there are points of the lowest atmosphere relative humidity, the strongest and most prolonged wind and the most intense solar radiation.

Antarctic is a neutral territory. On the mainland there are polar stations of Argentina, Russia, the USA and other countries. The territory of Antarctica can only be used for peaceful purposes.