By Jon Pople.
Location : Lake Imandra, Monchegorsk
Region : Murmansk Oblast, Russian Arctic Circle
Murmansk Oblast Region, is located in the North West of the European part of Russia known as the Kola Peninsula. It is surrounded by the Barents sea and the White Sea (from North and East). It has borders with Norway and Finland (West) and the Republic of Karelia (South) Almost all the region is above the Arctic Circle. It has an area of some 145,000 sq km. Population is 998k with 92% in urban areas.
Most of the small cities are actually one factory towns relying on mineral extraction. The landscape is one of Tundra and Taiga, mountains, marshes and lakes. During winter it is a freezing harsh environment with temperatures dropping as low as -28.
It is also home to one of the most extreme Kite races in the world. A 100 km out and return race across the frozen wastes of Lake Imandra. (Maps and Plan)
The initial planning stage
I guess the adventure started the same way a lot of adventures start, in the pub half cut. My best mate Graham announces that we’re going to Russia. Some place called Monchegorsk for an extreme parakart race on a frozen lake called Imandra. He had read about it somewhere and it sort of sounded like it was up our street.
Initial planning consisted of flying over the route on Google earth; this took approximately twenty minutes with no tea breaks. Initial research done we agreed that it was an achievable mission. How hard could it be, getting the ferry from Newcastle to Gothenburg, driving the length of Sweden up the Baltic and the breath of Finland to the Russian border at a place called Salla. Once through the border it’s a hop and a skip up past the Arctic Circle to Monchegorsk, easy.
Getting things ready
Soon as we could in January we sent off to Russia Direct for our Visa’s which we received back promptly, and what nice visa’s they are to. If you’re into collecting stamps in your passport I can thoroughly recommend going to Russia it’s a real belter of a visa. Then Car breakdown insurance including Russia (West of the Urals) was obtained from the RAC along with travel insurance. We also got our international drivers licenses sorted. With most of the paper work done we got on to the fun bit of learning fluent Russian. We had a quick brainstorming session and boiled the whole language down to 4 words “duvar piva pachelta , spasibla” 2 beers please, thanks. I'm also trying to learn “will you Marry me”, but I have been advised that my current pronunciation sounds more like “I think you need a shave” so I'm leaving it alone for the moment.
You must have the right gear
Now for any extreme mission you need the gear for the job, with this in mind we flew up to Newcastle where we hooked up with a good buddy of ours, Alistair Guthrie. He had made contact with outdoor clothing company Montane who have provided extreme gear to numerous expeditions. They gave us a cracking deal and we left with some duck down jackets and outer shell layers. Next it was off to Wildtracks in the centre of Newcastle where Gray was to pick up his all in one Polar down suit. Talk about funny, he looked like Mr Marshmallow man off Ghost Busters. We also picked up a few other bits and pieces including wrist mounted GPSs, ice screws a couple of ice axes for comedy value and protection against bear attack. Well you know the old saying, “you cannot take enough toys”.
The Parakart
In terms of the buggy setup, we were in un-chartered territory we had seen a bit of footage from Holland with buggies mounted on blades. This is fine if you are on solid ice but the terrain we were facing would require something far more versatile and capable of handling a variety of surfaces, including ice, hard pack and fresh snow fall. With this in mind we went back to the boozer for a project management meeting to discuss the pro's and con's of either a board / ski mounted buggy against a wheel mounted buggy.
In the end Gray settled on a set of Knobbly Bigfoot tyres. They were transformed for use on ice by inserting a screw through each knobble from the inside, with a spring flat nut on the other side to keep them in place. The points were then ground down to form a peg approximately ¼ inch in length. Each wheel required about 200 Screws !!
The First Test
This done we took the buggy to the local Ice rink to test it and see how it behaved. Although we only pushed it around it felt good and having seen pictures of the lake and the likely conditions we were going to experience we were convinced that the tyres were a winner.
Here's a short movie clip taken on Graham's Phone (.mov 5MB) of our first push round the icerink.
(You will a player that supports the Apple .mov format)
Another neat little touch was provided by a company called Buggy Bags, no prizes for guessing, they make really sweet bags to put on the back of your buggy. Great to get all those bits and pieces in when you’re going on safari, beer, doughnuts, kleenex tissues etc.
The Kite
The kites we are taking are Ozone as always, the boys have been sponsoring Graham for a number of years now and their continued support and encouragement is always appreciated. Grahams race kite at the moment is the Yakuza which has powered him to success throughout 2005-6 but we are also taking Ozones latest offering the Access which is, the boys tell me, the perfect kite for beginner to advanced riders wanting an affordable de-power foil that can be used for buggying, land-boarding or snowkiting, and all that without taking a breath! I'm lovin it, but don't tell Ronald!!
Whilst the main focus of the trip is getting Graham to win the race in a record time, Alistair and myself will be taking skis along and giving the Kite Skiing a try out. I love to ski and am really excited about giving it a go. Also as with all the trips we go on its fantastic to hook up with the locals and really go for the cultural exchange, spread a few smiles and build some bridges. We have already made some friends over the internet and I would like to thank Sergi our friend in Monchegorsk.
He has been a great help with information and advice for the trip. If you are interested there is a web site for the event which can be found at:
http://imandra.monchegorsk.ru
or a Yahoo Groups site at:
http://groups.google.com/group/IMANDRAproject
OK that’s it for now, as things unfold we will keep you up to date and hopefully bring back some great movie footage and pictures for everyone to see.
"Dasvidanya dovarich"
"прощание для теперь моих друзей"
Jonny Pople
PS: On a personal note, I'd especially like to thank the directors of PSU for breaking all the company handbook rules and allowing me to be off work for 3 weeks. It's much appreciated guys!
