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Expedition Siberia: -49F "One long uncomfortable nightmare"
Dec 13, 2004 08: 34 EST
Yesterday, the Siberian team reported -49°F and a run of a record 25 km. As they are heading deeper into the Siberian winter, the temperatures drop and the light fades by each day.
If you haven't experienced a cold of -50F (where most thermometers bottom out) you cannot imagine the pain the guys are going through: "We're extremely tired and cold right now. We're just advancing one step at a time, focusing a few meters ahead. We're freezing pretty much all the time."
Healing frostnip
They write that at least their skin has adapted to the cold, and their frostnips are healing as they travel: "It's just like getting burned, a small sore, where you temporarily loose your feeling on this particular spot, until the new skin grows and you're ok again. It seems to take a couple of weeks to cure."
"We can live with it, but we will never like it"
But the cold is getting to them: "This extreme cold bothers us a lot. It's no easy thing to handle. Right now, we seem to be able to tolerate it relatively well, live with it, but we will never like it.
There's very little joy in freezing basically 24 hours a day. The main problem as I see it, is that we've chosen to travel during the darkest and coldest time of the year, the dark winter.
This means, it doesn't matter what time of the day - it's always -45°F. There's no sun and very little light to make a difference. It is just downright freezing cold all the time! There's absolutely no joy at all, in itself, to continuously freeze. The act of sleeping in a tent in -47°F is just one long uncomfortable nightmare. "
Each day is a battle
The guys stuff themselves with a pound of porridge each morning and pour butter on everything to get enough energy for the last 3-4 days before the next village.
"Unfortunately, as you well have noticed, our dispatches since we left Zyryanka, have been dominated by a self centered drama. Very macho. But, the fact is, there's basically only one way to live in this extreme cold, pure survival from one day to the other."
Wolves and friendship
But there are joys too: "Last night two wolves gave us a spectacular howling concert for an hour, not far from our tent. Awesome to say the least. Another highlight is the comradeship between young Johan and myself.
Even though I could be his father, we get along extremely well. There are no quarrels, no hard words, only perfect cooperation and friendship. Johan is a truly nice young man. He spoils me, with his unselfish hard work. A true explorer. There's few of them around today."
Telling our story
And then our own Shackleton ends: "Another subject which creates a lot of joy, is writing these dispatches. A better way to create bridges between cultures cannot be found, I think.
We creep far down into the inner depths of the sleeping bag every other day and write. It's really relaxing and gives a perspective on things. But there's a lot that there's just not enough energy to tell. Not enough battery power and we write double dispatches. One in Swedish and one in English. But as they say here along the Kolyma: 'Normal!'"
Did you know?
The difference between -50F and -40F is dramatic. Whilst you still can function alright at -40, below -45F everything dies. Stoves won't lit up, batteries won't work, all gear becomes brittle and breaks easily, eye contacts freeze inside the eyes, skin that touches metal peels off, and eyelashes freeze stuck together. Lucky enough, it's rarely windy in such extreme cold. When wind arrives, temperatures typically rise.
The start of this Siberian winter crossing expedition didn’t go too well – mosquitoes, broken fishing poles, a rising river flooding their camp site, doctors judging them too fat to go, wife leaving... This expedition paddled their way through Siberia and eventually took to land to get a taste of what Siberia is really known for – bitter coldness.
Husband and wife adventurers Mikael and Titti Strandberg, planned embarking upon an epic journey through Siberia stretching over 3500km. Joining them is a young guy, a great outdoor talent, and good hunter, Johan "Delta" Ivarsson. Before the expedition started, however, Titti decided to abort as previous medical conditions mean it’s very unsafe for her to be exposed to such cold for as long as they will.
Image live over Contact 3.0 and Contact 3.0 GEO: Automated position map, "Sunset or sunrise, they often overlap" and "Painfull face at -49°F" courtesy of the team.
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