WINTER TOURIST EXPEDITION AROUND LAKE ONEGA COMPLETED

Members in the expedition
Members in the expedition
Onega Ice
Onega Ice

The winter tourist expedition around Lake Onega, organized by teachers of the Regional Center for Supplementary Education of Children, the Regional Model Center, with the support of the Vologda Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, was completed.

It started on March 3 from the Center "Korabel Prionezhja" in the Vytegorsk district. Eight participants of the expedition continued last year's adventure, when they passed along the Sukhona River almost 600 km with two snowmobiles "Buran". Before the start, Grigory Sokolov, a teacher-organizer of the Regional Center and a well-known blogger, conducted a master-class on breeding fire for children who study in "Korabel Prionezhja".

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On the road through the snowy plain
On the road through the snowy plain

This year, the expedition members went on the 2nd category of complexity expedition with three snowmobiles. Two participants of the hike came all the way, and that was almost 500 km, using mountain skiing on tow ropes. Before the start, they applied to the central route-classification commission, sent all the necessary information to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The main goal of the expedition was to show the possibility of organizing educational leisure activities in winter conditions.

 

Vladimir Slabodyanik, a methodologist at the Regional Center for Supplementary Education of Children, says: "The experience of such travels was acquired by us in our youth, the bulk of the group went on skiing in the Polar and Subpolar Urals, Baidaratskaya Bay, Yamal, Franz Josef Land."

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Obstacles on the way of tourists
Obstacles on the way of tourists

The travelers spent the night in a tent with a small stove, but, as they say themselves, with great comfort. The low temperatures established in the water area of ​​Lake Onega (below -30 ° C), contributed to the fact that the expedition followed the planned route strictly on schedule, as the solid crust was perfectly holding heavy equipment.

Originally-planned 440 km turned into almost 500 km due to the fact that the expedition had to bypass the fields of hummocks and sastrugi (frozen ice snowdrifts). The expedition was completely in remote areas from bases and without replenishment - the entire stock of products the teachers took with them. However, as the participants of the campaign tell, most of bread they brought back - it froze on their way.

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Andoma Mountain
Andoma Mountain

The participants of the expedition were very impressed by the barbed wire and defensive structures in Karelia that remained from the time of the Great Patriotic War, which are easily recognized even under an impressive layer of snow.

Unforgettable were the winter views of Andoma Mountain, the snow-covered Murom monastery and  the mysterious Yuzny Oleny Ostrov.

In Kizhi Pogos the members of the expedition were unpleasantly surprised by the demand to pay for access to the land, as well as for visiting the Uspensky Cathedral in Kondopoga. The twenty-two-headed Saviour Transfiguration Cathedral in Kizhi travelers saw only from a distance, as it is now on restoration and covered with scaffolds. Very beautiful appeared to be Kizhi skerries with a huge number of islands in the winter.

As planned, the participants marched alongside the Shokshin quarry (the village of Kvartsitny) with the famous Shokshin porphyry, which was used to build cathedrals in St. Petersburg, Lenin's mausoleum, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a memorial complex on Mamayev Hill in Volgograd.

The teachers also visited the unique museum in the village of Sheltozero, where the local administration allowed to visit it on a day off.

The last night in the field, travelers spent not far from the village of Oshtinsky Pogost near the defenses of the Great Patriotic War. The expedition ended on March 11 at the launch site, at the "Korabel Prionezhje" Center.