Driving from Alaska to Siberia

Pelerin writes "The team from the Ice Challenger project are driving from Alaska to Provodanya, in Siberia; across the 56-mile field of ice floes that each winter "joins" America and Russia. At the last minute the Russian authorities have denied the entry permit but the crew says they're on track to reach the Big Diomedes islands, which lie across the date line, thereby proving it's possible to do this. This feat is not as easy as it sounds due to the harsh Artic winter conditions, and the fact that the ice floes themselves are drifting at a pretty good clip. It takes a specially built vehicle to tackle this adventure. Geek quotient: pretty high :)" If you just want to drive to Alaska, you might go with Philip Greenspun. And if these guys don't make the trip to Russia this year, they might not get a chance. Update: 04/08 12:21 GMT by T : DrShrink adds to the story: "The two made it to Siberia, however were turned back due to not gaining permission to enter Russian territory."

Comments

Similarly Across Antarctica

[jacobb]

I saw a TLC program a month or so ago, where they used some specialized trucks to drive accross antarctica... They had some problems with huge ravines and blown tyres, frozen motor oil, etc. etc. but they made it.
Note: it _could_ have been the arctic, i forget now... but it's awesome all the same.

Amphibious vehicle?

[PhotoGuy]

While it looks like quite an amazing feat regardless, there are some pictures of that special vehicle floating in water; if it is amphibious, it kind of streteches the definition of "driving" across. If at times you're floating, it is sort of like taking a boat when necessary.

Downplayed link at the bottom of the article

[woodix]

I consider myself a political fence rider--let me just get that out there now. The latimes article at the end of the article just sucked the life out of me. It directly describes the weird discomfort of a way of life ending(?)--certainly changing. 'Figure those people have been there 2500 years. They've adapted to the worst imaginable environment on earth and suddenly within a decade, it's all different! That's just beyond my comprehension.

I think that was the first time I ever read something and thought "Crap, it could all be CO and Methane by the time my unborn kids are old enough to drive." That's some scary shit to think at 22.

These are the kind of environmental articles that get my attention. It's not some steven seagal-like attempt to blame it all on big business nor an impassioned plea to adopt neo-luddite policies. It offers no solution (at least it hadn't when I got to the point I could no longer read it). It just throws out the facts and leaves and unspoken challenge to do something about it.

Who the fuck knows what's going on with our planet, but until we can figure out a way to break free of this solar system, maybe we should be taking better care of the place. Maybe that's just me though and I should be modded down for being a flamebait-throwing, karma seeking troll.

I just wanted to go on record there.....

Re:Downplayed link at the bottom of the article

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in OR, on the coast. Whale watching is a major tourist trap down here. Everyone down here has noted (including scientists) that the population of grey whales has rebounded significantly this year, and their health is MUCH better.

Despite the rather fatalist view of the article, there is a LOT of fluctuation in nature, and really, we're only beginning to notice it now, methinks, because we're far enough along in our record keeping...

Taking the Tunnel.

[Alien54]

They could always wait and take the Bering Straight Tunnel when it is completed.

After the completion of the English Channel Tunnel, this is now seen to be at least in the realm of possibility.

Heck, there has been some discussion on this already.

Re:Driving from America to Asia

[WetCat]

Actually, making a permanent roadway will benefit only US and Chukotka, because
Chukotka itself has no reliable connections (no hard-surface roads, no railroads) with Russia
mainland.

You Can't Believe?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think MORE western tourists and other folks need to be denied permit to enter Russia, so that they maybe look at how THEIR countries deal with us. I am a Russian studiing in Canada. I can SEE the U.S. from my Residence's window. Yet, I can't go there. Guess why. No, I don't want to settle there. I just want to hike around the Finger Lakes in NY. You guys are so used to the fact that you can go anywhere while not letting all those "inferior" people into your countries! This has to come to an end. The more publicity such refusals receive, the better.

Re:Oh my...

[NonSequor]

I'm completely in favor of bringing back "thou." You may have noticed various attempts at pluralizing "you." These efforts are pointless as "you" is already plural. "Thou" is the singular form. At some point in the past the speakers of the English language collectively decided to be excessively polite and address everone using the more formal "you." So now we refer to a party with whom we are speaking by means of a plural pronoun, regardless of whether or not more than one person is being addressed.

By the way, a comparison using Google as an ad hoc measure of the popularity of a spelling of a word showed "arctic" to be vastly more common than "artic." "Artic" is little more than a common misspelling of "arctic."