Documentary and presenter Valdis Pelsh told the RGS press office that his shooting team reached the Pole of Inaccessibility. At the Pole of Inaccessibility,there was a time when a Soviet station of the same name operated. Now only the bust of Lenin is visible in the snow. For the present the expedition, that travelers coincided with the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctic, is proceeding according to plan. 22 hours of video material was filmed in 18 days of travel and 2400 liters of fuel from 4000 liters were consumed. 1,800 kilometers have been covered of the planned 7 thousand kilometers.
Recall that seven people participate in the automobile expedition in Antarctic: 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 thanks to the grant from the RGS.
Travelers went to the abandoned American base "Plateau" on Sunday. “It seems that we run against the remains of human civilization somewhere on another planet”, wrote Valdis Pelsh. “The station is abandoned for 60 years and all its buildings are covered with snow, only the towers stick out”.
Previously, travelers reported that they received minor cold-related injury. But so far the most difficult is the lack of personal space.
Valdis Pelsh: Closer to midnight we stop for the night. In each car there is one bed, the three of us sleep in a red one, and the four of us sleep in a green one: warm, but cramped! In general, we do not get enough sleep here, and the next morning again rise exactly at 7 am. Such is the "Antarctic Groundhog Day".
Now the group moves at an altitude of about 3.5 thousand meters above sea level. As a result, there is a reluctance to eat.
Valdis Pelsh: "Getting up exactly at 7 o'clock in the morning, having breakfast and checking the cars. We need to make sure that there is no fuel leakage and measure the oil level, as well as pump up the car wheels, as in the cold the rubber becomes stiff and begins to poison the air. Then we go all day, making 5-6 short stops, during which the mechanics are checking the cars, and we are shooting a movie. Of course, we do not forget to do exercises, also we can eat and drink tea.
Our ration is a separate story. Because of the height, there is no appetite at all, we eat mainly sublimated products. Sometimes we fry vegetables or scrambled eggs. Necessarely to include in the diet chocolate, lard and nuts for energy and, of course, vitamin complexes. We continue to eat greedily the salty fish jerky - this is our main delicacy".
Note 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" will be released.
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.