The "Antarctic. 200 Years of Discoveries" Expedition Successfully Completed

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

Russian travelers and documentary film makers completed the "Antarctic. 200 Years of Discoveries" expedition to the South Pole. Valdis Pelsh and his colleagues passed the route in 40 days instead of the planned 50. Now the expedition members are waiting for the weather window to fly to Moscow at the "Progress Station".

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

Seven people participated in the "auto race" in Antarctic: mechanical drivers - 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 RGS grant.

5519 of 7,000 kilometers have been covered. This is due to the fact that in many areas it was necessary to go directly, take a shortcut of the route, to save fuel. Only 300 liters are left of the 4,000 liters of fuel. But the main thing is that the travelers filmed 60 hours of video and they will make a documentary about the sixth continent.

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

According to the head of the expedition Valdis Pelsh, the expedition was very difficult for them.

Valdis Pelsh: “The most serious problem is the lack of personal space, we hadn't it. We did everything together. We went together, ate together, filmed our movie. And everyone searched for an exit individually. Every evening I went into the snow-covered desert for a kilometer or two just for being alone. Someone became self-contained, someone became more irritable, someone cried. But in general, our psychological compatibility is at the highest level. We can travel to space together."

Let us recall, the expedition started on December 1. During this time, participants crossed the Pole of Inaccessibility, the South Pole, visited the "Vostok Station". On Christmas Eve, the group reached the Antarctic "Progress Station". Already on the territory of the station, the cars were not able to overcome steep climbs, and the local tow car helped them for the last few kilometers.

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.

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

And let us recall that the expedition is coincide with the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctic by Russian navigators Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The anniversary date will be celebrated in 2020 - by this time the film "Antarctic. 200 Years of Discovery" is supposed to be released.