BFF 2014: “Verhoianskii hrebet to the pole of inaccessibility”

“Verhoianskii hrebet to the pole of inaccessibility”, Russia, 2005, Piotr Rikalov, 32’

In the spring of 2005 an expedition makes what was the first and stillis the only back-country ski hike in the Russian Subarctic – along the Verkhoyansk ridge. In fully self-subsistent mode it takes the team 39 days to make it from the coastal tundra through the Kharaulakh mountains to the center of today’s ice field beyond the Arctic Circle – the upper stream of Yana River or the so called  Verkhoyanie. Each participant’s luggage was 70 kilos. They covered more than 900 kilometers, most of which were places never visited by human beings. The group went through 34 passes and 3 canyons, they climbed up 5 peaks. The end turned out to be really challenging because of the earlier spring which caused the group to do the last 150 kilometers not with ski, but on foot on the already melting ice surface.