The first 100 km out of thousands
It took five days for Victor Simonov and Fedor Konyukhov to cover the first 100 km of their journey North Pole – South Greenland. Their sled and 12 dogs took off from the top of the world on April 6th heading south towards Victoria Fjord. The first day the explorers covered 7 km, and as soon as they set up a camp for the night, Fedor broadcast their coordinates via the satellite phone (provided by Iridium Communications).
The next day they left 20 km behind and encountered a lot of open water, which only confirmed their initial predictions that this journey will be extremely dangerous and difficult.
During the first few days, Fedor and Victor had a few visitors arriving on Mi-8 from the Barneo arctic station. Amongst them were Nikolay Patrushev, director of the Russian FSB and Artur Chilingarov, vice-president of the Russian Geographical Society. For the landing the pilots were using the coordinates that Fedor provided via navigation equipment provided by “NIS-GLONASS”. The coordinates were right on the dot.
Foto: RTI
There is a particular group of children that is following Fedor and Victor’s adventure really closely. A certain school №227 in Moscow has a youth radio station called RU3AWH which was set up and equipped by RTISYSTEMS. Since RTISYSREMS is one of the sponsors of the project “North Pole-Greenland” it was only fitting for Fedor Konyukhov to visit the radio station and have a small conference with the young radio amateurs. At the conference Fedor was asked if he’d be willing to make a regular radio contact with the RU3AWH club using the equipment provided by NIIDAR and RTISYSTEMS. Fedor and Victor agreed that it was a great proposition and opportunity for the children to follow the expedition and see how the technology works in the cold Arctic climate. When Fedor is broadcasting on the air (R0FK is his call name) at the specific time on a certain day of the week, not only the school radio station can hear him, but anyone who has the access to the radio technology that can pick up the shortwaves. It is surprising how many radio amateurs are out there who do tune in for some news from the famous explorer. On his first attempt to connect with the land, Fedor’s call name R0FK was immediately picked up by someone from the Republic of Karelia. After that, numerous calls from all over Russia and Europe: Moscow, Chabarovsk, Biysk, Prague . . . Everyone who was able to jump into the conversation was excited: Fedor Konyukhov himself on the wave and from the North Pole! That was the jackpot for a lot of his fans.
Foto: RTI
As of right now, Fedor and Victor have adapted to their daily schedule quite well and they are meeting their goal of 20 km per day. Both explorers and their dogs are feeling and doing well. Their first destination is Victoria Fjord which lies in the Peary Land.
We will continue to follow Fedor, Victor and their dog’s adventure and post news updates.
Expedition is using satellite tracking beacons – Yellow Brick. Current position is here: http://yb.tl/konyukhov