Paris / New York - Transcontinental 2009

DiploStrat

Expedition Leader
Best Wishes

I guess we have determined that the Jeep Rubicon is not the best vehicle for Siberia. ;-)

Seriously, stay warm and good luck on your next lap.
 
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Oilworker

Explorer
What is the best vehicle for this part of the world?
Probably the locally build special purpose trucks. The Land Rover Defender 110 that tried to tackle the terrain between Cap Schmid and Uelen last year (Cape to Cape Expedition) had to give up, too, and was towed to Uelen by a local amphibious tank (sort of AA Chukotka)....

Other than that, the current ice situation isn't as good as it used to be this time of the year a few years ago, but there's still quite some ice.

20090406_Arctic-Sea-Ice.jpg


and a current (April 03, 2009) satellite image showing the sea ice situation
20090407_Arctic_SeaIce_Bering.jpg


I have marked a few cities for orientation.
White areas are permanent ice and the colours show the density of sea ice. The thickness of which may vary due to currents, which (e.g. Bering Strait) can be very strong and also prevent the ice from building a large, closed surface.

Let's keep our fingers crossed, as its only over when it's over.

So long,

Robert
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
April 14, 2009:

Dear partners, friends, participants, supporters and all we met or who excitingly follow us,

We were bound and determined to return to Russia still in April in order to continue and successfully finish the “Paris / New York – Transcontinental” - expedition in 2009. However, on Wednesday, April 8, 2009, after due consideration and the check of all possible scenarios, we had to take the difficult decision to suspend the expedition for app. 6 months. The decision is based on the project goals, whose compliance is top priority for us.

Snow masses, which are exceptional also for the Tschukotka-region, strong gale-force storms and blizzards as well as reparations at the vehicles led to a uncatchable time difference in contrast to the necessary schedule, despite absolutely most effort of the whole team.

The “driving over the Bering Strait on ice” and the “traceless managing of all parts (also the difficult app. 2500km at the Alaskan west coast) would not be possible, even not on a route much more in the north. Therefore we will continue the expedition in fall/winter 2009/2010 with the following unchanged goals:

- Accomplishment of a historical, spectacular journey with the use of renewable energies
- Traceless round the world with a CO2-neutral balance
- Driving across the Bering Strait
- On the track of the emigration of nations round the world on wheels for the first time ever

Among others, the upcoming time will be used to neutralize the so far produced amount of CO2 with tree plantings and the preparation for the continuation of the journey. All activities, news, and project steps will be published as usual on the project page www.pny2009.com as well as in the internet panels in all languages.

Matthias Jeschke and Jürgen Graf / project leadership
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
In the last weeks it was quit calm about the expedition Paris / New York – Transcontinental – we had not been inactive but scheduled and checked many things what was related to the proceeding of the expedition. Within the next days we will public an important announcement to the expedition progress. Feel free to inform you also in twitter http://twitter.com/pny2009
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu

Click the logo to enter the Partner15000 site


Initiative Partner15000 – In joint strength!
Initiative Partner15000 – In joint success!


Dear partners, friends, companions, supporters, everybody who met us, who had been excited and all people who get connected to the project,

The expedition "Paris / New York - Transcontinental" is aimed to surround the world by car at a CO2 neutral basis. With 400 km (248 miles) the expedition stands on the verge of reaching the Bering Strait. It was a hard fight against forces of nature, technical difficulties and the time. With the support of local people, the expedition teams fought against hurricanes and snow bounds, struggled forward mile for mile till total exhaustion. Now the historical chance, to drive over the ice of the Bering Strait in winter 2009 / 2010 and to become the first team that surrounded the world only on wheels seems within reach. If this succeeded, it would be the absolutely first drive on and drive across the strait with wheel driven vehicles.

Since the required adjournment in April 2009 we work intensively on the continuation of the expedition. We had to discover that the constant deterioration of the global economical general conditions turned into a large problem for us. Due to additional budget cuts we cannot fight anymore against the financial burden of the necessary spare part procurement, the vehicle repairs, the logistic and the continuation costs.

However we want to proceed and we are doing anything to turn the vision of the historical Bering Strait crossing on wheels into reality. But we need the support of many people. Only, if we will jointly succeed to secure the missing budget, of 750.000 EURO (1 Mio US-$), excluding tax, within this difficult time by mid of August 2009 we will be able to finalize all substantial provisions and to proceed with the expedition.

With the initiative Partner15000 we would like to adjure and invite you to support this project, no matter whether on a large or small scale. Strengthen the expedition and become a part of the project. Benefit as an investment partner from the advantages.

The initiative Partner15000 will be the third main sponsor of the expedition "Paris / New York - Transcontinental". It is a campaign powered by Extrem Events to form a worldwide limited community of 15,000 members driven by enthusiasm and benevolence to financially support the project. Not only individuals but also companies, clubs or associations can become a member.


Because we are aware that solely the people of the Partner15000 will make it possible to continue,

* We will dedicate the homepage www.pny2009.com to all supporters;
* We will designate the names on the homepage;
* We will eternalize all names of those who support the expedition with 250 EURO onwards onto three exclusive bronze boards (prior to the continuation of the expedition, two of those 3x3m sized boards will be assembled on exposed locations in Paris / France and Egvekinot / Russia for 30 years. If we do reach New York, the third board will be assembled on an exposed location as well);
* To all supporters, irrespective of the donated sum, we will offer exclusive future Business-Event-Travels (BET) to selected destinations on this globe.
* Additionally we will invite partners who invest 10,000 EURO or more to a one week Business-Event-Travel to Russia, organised by Extrem Events on our own cost.


To achieve a quick worldwide spread of this information we would be happy if you could forward this information to all of your friends and company partners. You will find this text at our Download area in six different languages – German, Russian, English, Spanish, French and Italian.

Again we would like to invite you to support the initiative Partner15000 and thank you in advance for your dedication.
 

theksmith

Explorer
what's the current status of this? still waiting on more funding or do they have enough money to give it another try this winter?
 

JPFreek1

Explorer
The team is planning to recommence the expedition in about three weeks but we're still looking for sponsors to help with the support costs. There are opportunities for enthusiasts who want to join the expedition to join the team (for a fee). If you or anyone is interested, shoot me a PM as we're helping coordinate the efforts of the team in North America and I will be joining the team for the last leg of the journey once they cross the Bering Strait and arrive in Alaska.

Thanks!
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
December 11, 2009

It just happened, but it could have happened any other day as well: I wake up, it is 8 am. I am completely beat-up. Signs of illness. Since my arrival I have more or less worked 16-18 hours a day in the cold of the garage. I have been outside to get some fresh air 4-5 times at the most, then back inside, going to bed at 3 am and so on. I only have a little sense of time left, because it is dark again at 2 pm. Until then there's only dawn (the sun only comes out for 2-3 hours when there are no clouds in the sky. Also, I don't see daylight anyway due to the garage. As always I immediately check my mails; today almost just bad / very bad news. Then a telephone conversation with Juergen. A little improvement, because he had a good news and I had to laugh out of joy over the wheel spacers. :)

I dress in warm clothes, go to the sink, wash my face and hair quickly with yellow water which comes from the pipes - hopefully it's only rust from the pipes. Then I go to the dining room. Luba, the cook, throws her hands up, shakes her head and starts a fierce communication about me and most likely with me. I understand that I must be looking very bad today. She means to me to sit down you do what she says). Then explanations are following about what has to be done in which case of illness, etc. I don't understand a word, I just read her signs). When she is done explaining and workig, there are two slices of bread in front of me which have some kind of 5-8 cm thick layer of salad on them. I perceived that she pressed some garlic in front of me and I have a sense of what my palate might get to taste soon. Because you do what she says, I eat the medicine.

It is as if you take a garlic clove the size of a really big poignant onion, take a bite, suck it dry and savour it. Due to the taste, slapstick, aches in my mouth and no idea how I will ever be able to finish these two gigantig pieces of bread, I have to laugh. Luba is happy. She thinks I like it. I'm bursting from inner laughter.
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
December 15, 2009

Cars are – except for a couple of things that need to be done as soon as the team finally arrives on December 26 – pretty much ready to go.

Started my trip home on December 15 via Anadyr, Moscow, Frankfurt. Just like the entire repair trip, it was very adventurous. There have been many hours of waiting, a broken airplane which had to be fixed quickly on the landing strip before dusk, a ride in a self-made swim-vehicle across the barely frozen bay of Anadyr, crowded airports because due to cyclones and blizzards no airplanes from Moscow were able to land for 1.5 weeks, many question marks due to delayed flights and new snowfall, a hara-kiri drive over ice, many changes of flight reservations, lost documents which were supposed to be kept by people at the airport, etc.

But one thing is always on the top rung: people in Russia are always trying to help, make, do. Very relaxed, very cooperative, very hospitable.

Will be in Germany for a couple of days to take care of those things that need to be taken care of. Then we will take off.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
 

dzzz

I understand the bearing straight has been crossed before, but has anyone done the next leg to Prudhoe Bay? I don't get how they're going to do that.
 

Metcalf

Expedition Leader
I will be interested to see also. As far as I know the crossing from the Bering to anywhere in Alaska with a road connection has not been done in a wheeled vehicle. The Cape to Cape trip floated down to Nome I think.

Doing something like this is in my 'bucket list'.

I don't know why people are not looking at the vehicle technology that has come out of Iceland in the last decade. They are been driving wheeled vehicles on terrain much like this for a long time. The proven formula seem to be LARGE tires, LOW air pressure, and LIGHT weight. Gearing also helps a lot. Most of the extreme low gearing used in the USA 'rock crawling' market, specifically Toyota, came from there also.

I would lighten up the vehicles as much as possible, try and get a front weight bias, and run the tires as low as you can. With proper driving style you can run down in the 3-2psi range.

Are they planning on using the big floats during the crossing on the ice? Are they crossing right at the Bering straight or due north a bit?
 

BlueGerbil

C´est le gerbil plus bleu
December 29, 2009

When angels travel…

… goes a famous saying. By no means we claim to be angels, but everything worked perfectly – just unbelievable.

Wolfgang and Rudi from Munich and myself from Frankfurt to Moscow. Very very cooperative airport staff who helped us with all of our equipment and made exceptions.

Excellent Russian pilots who made sure that the airplane with many waiting passengers and us landed safely in Anadyr, despite very harsh winds. Thank you to Russian customs for supporting us once again exemplary with the necessary paperwork; Victor for finding us some special tickets from Tschukotavia; thanks to whoever opened this incredible weather-frame for us which made it possible to start the flight in the first place and arrive in Egvekinot with a great flight performance (yesterday there have been strong winds which made a landing in Egvekinot impossible) – kudos to the organizers and pilots of Tschukotavia for making the last flight for this year possible despite all circumstances and luggage / cargo-; Alexander and Nicolai who took care of the preparations in Egvekinot and picked us up; thanks to Wolfgang, Rudi, Jefgeny Konstantinov and Victor (the new team) for already some relaxed hours – it has just been a completely successful start and journey to Egvekinot – the city in Russia where even the winter roads end.

Thanks to Russia and Tschukotka for this greeting.

We will take care of the left over work that has to be done on the vehicles until the beginning of January, then celebrate new year’s with our friends, make some last preparations and start reporting again in the new year.

All the best,

Matthias Jeschke
 

dzzz

....................
Doing something like this is in my 'bucket list'.

I don't know why people are not looking at the vehicle technology that has come out of Iceland in the last decade. They are been driving wheeled vehicles on terrain much like this for a long time. The proven formula seem to be LARGE tires, LOW air pressure, and LIGHT weight. .........

The team doing the Top Gear polar special were from Iceland. The sponsor trucks were Tacomas, but something like a Unimog U3000 would be the ideal vehicle. It looked to be all about ground clearance and the ability to climb.

There is a map in one of the links for the Paris to New York route. As I recall the plan went straight east to Alaska and then followed the shoreline. I woudn't think this plan is realistic with their equipment, but we shall see.
 

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