Across Canada/Arctic in F350's

[Doin_It]

This story was in todays "Calgary Herald" so thought you all might like to see the story. These guys bought 3 F350's in Canada shipped them to Iceland did all the mods, and shipped them back to Nova Scotia. Mods listed in the paper were 400L (105 US gal)extra diesel tanks, diff locks, ultra low gear boxes, 46' rubber, huge wheel well flares, air suspension, 16,000lb winches, diesel heart in the canopy/box, and passed through Calgary and are off on there 6200Km trip (3900miles)

See it here: http://www.arctictrails.is/en/

[flywgn]

Ohhhh, great, Doin_it, now you've done it. I can just see the transition in our F250 on the horizon. Those trucks are trick. Forty-six-inch rubber! Wow!

What a trip. Bet Scott will be glad to read about this expedition with his upcoming Arctic winter drive in the planning stages.

Thanks for that link.

[paulj]

diesel heart in the canopy/box,

Is that diesel heat? With temperatures of -40 that will be nice.

I'm guessing the next leg, Inuvik to Tuk... overlaps with Scott's plan.

It's interesting to compare this planned route with quest for the Northwest Passage, both by the ill fated Franklin expedition, and the successful Amundsen one. In fact one of the stops is named after Amundsen's boat the Gjoa Haven. There was recent PBS Nova program about this: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/

Here's a tidbit for Scott that Amundsen learned(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/huntford.html)

Another thing he learned was how to travel in very, very cold conditions. One of the peculiarities of snow is that below a temperature of about -40°C it becomes rather hard to make anything slide. But the Inuit knew how to deal with this. They would coat the runners of their sledges with water, sprayed on in such a way that it formed an elastic layer of ice, and on that you can even travel on sand, which is what that kind of drift snow's like anyway.


paulj

[Doin_It]

Yea, sorry I see that slight bo-bo, its diesel heat.

There trip and I quote from the paper "This is all the brainchild of Iceland native Omar Frithjofsson. He was 18 when he first poured over a book that detailed the exploits of Vilhjalmur Steffansson, an Arctic explorer from Iceland whose trail they are following nearlyn 100 years later."

So I'm guessing the map they show, must be Vil's.

http://www.arctictrails.is/en/leidin/

[Scott Brady]

Great post! Thanks for the inspiration :)

[mountainpete]

That's a pretty serious route they're taking. Seriously dangerous and should make for an amazing TV show (don't think it will be in English though).

[Doin_It]

I see these guys are plugging along still. They have posted a couple of great links. One talks about ice roads, which is infromative for you guys in the south, the second is a great "zoomable" map of Canada (Toporama). Now I know where some of my tax money is being spent.

http://www.rtl.ca/Winter_Ice_Roads/body_winter_ice_roads.html

http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/index.html

[paulj]

Note that they have had to shorten their loop considerably. After driving north from Yellowknife to Inuvik (along the Mackenzie River) and the Arctic coast, they were only able to drive east as far as Kugluktuk (Coppermine). There they decided weather was too mild to head further east. So they turned south to Yellowknife. No indication as to whether they will try anything more.

paulj

[chet]

I was wondering what was going on. They left it too late. They should have gone lat feb early mar. then they may have made it. It has also been a really mild winter up there. I know someone that drives truck on the ice roads to the diamond mines and he said they have curtailed load limits and shortened the season considerably.

[Scott Brady]

I'm guessing the next leg, Inuvik to Tuk... overlaps with Scott's plan.

It's interesting to compare this planned route with quest for the Northwest Passage, both by the ill fated Franklin expedition, and the successful Amundsen one. In fact one of the stops is named after Amundsen's boat the Gjoa Haven. There was recent PBS Nova program about this: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/

Here's a tidbit for Scott that Amundsen learned(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/huntford.html)

paulj

Great links Paul, thanks for posting them!

[paulj]

They are back in Yellowknife, with a trip summary and pictures on line:
http://www.arctictrails.is/en/frettirpage.asp?ID=990

http://www.arctictrails.is/photos/20060403225255326698.jpg