Transbaikal 2003: 600 km on the Siberian lake Baikal
In 2003 five sport fanatics, Arie Loef, Erwin Hairwassers, John Danklof, Pascal van Asperdt and Timon Rutten crossed the Baikal Lake from the south to the north skating, walking and kite-skating. They made a little book with many illustrations and videos about their adventure. The text is in Dutch but there are enough illustrations to understand and follow what was going on. The book is titled "Transbaikal 2003" and can be ordered at deboekensalon (www.deboekensalon.nl). Here I will give an impression of this extreme endurance test. For the complete story you have to look at the beautiful book with a nice DVD.
The Baikal Lake
The Lake is situated in Siberia close to the border of Mongolia. It is the largest sweet water lake of the world: it is 636 km long and 27 to 80km wide. In average the lake is 730 meters deep but at one place the depth is 1637 meters. It contains 20% of the sweet water of the world which would be enough for consumption of the sweet water for the whole world during 40 years. The UNESCO has recognized the environment of the lake as a “Natural World Heritage” to protect the rich flora and fauna around the lake.
Wikipedia tells us that in the winter of 1920, the Great Siberian Ice March occurred. When the retreating White Russian Army crossed the frozen Lake Baikal, the wind on the exposed lake was so cold that many people died and remained there frozen at the spot until the spring came. This is the lake the group of Dutch skaters wanted to cross.
The Lake is situated in Siberia close to the border of Mongolia. It is the largest sweet water lake of the world: it is 636 km long and 27 to 80km wide. In average the lake is 730 meters deep but at one place the depth is 1637 meters. It contains 20% of the sweet water of the world which would be enough for consumption of the sweet water for the whole world during 40 years. The UNESCO has recognized the environment of the lake as a “Natural World Heritage” to protect the rich flora and fauna around the lake.
Wikipedia tells us that in the winter of 1920, the Great Siberian Ice March occurred. When the retreating White Russian Army crossed the frozen Lake Baikal, the wind on the exposed lake was so cold that many people died and remained there frozen at the spot until the spring came. This is the lake the group of Dutch skaters wanted to cross.
The planning of the adventure
The group decided to cross the lake in the month March of 2003 from the south, close to the town Irkutsk, to the north, close to the town Severobaikalsk. In that month they could expect temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees below zero and so certainly a very thick layer of ice would be on the lake. It was suggested to them that in the south they probably would be able to skate on the ice while in the north there would be too much snow so that they had to walk. They hoped that they would also be able to kite skate a part of the route.
The plan was to stay on the ice during the tour that would take around 20 days. So they needed a lot of equipment for survival, especially tents, sleeping bags, equipment for cooking, food etc. To transport this they planned to use two sledges which they had to carry with them during the trip. In each sledge they had around 150 kilos of material. The year before the trip they were training on the ice at different places including in Sweden to check how they could skate with the sledges behind them. It will be clear that this was quite a different enterprise than the endurance test of the Chinese youngsters who went to Tibet for their adventure. One can imagine that also the transport of all the equipment from the Netherland to Irkutsk was not so simple. They got help in this respect from a Russian travel agency Spunik.
The group decided to cross the lake in the month March of 2003 from the south, close to the town Irkutsk, to the north, close to the town Severobaikalsk. In that month they could expect temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees below zero and so certainly a very thick layer of ice would be on the lake. It was suggested to them that in the south they probably would be able to skate on the ice while in the north there would be too much snow so that they had to walk. They hoped that they would also be able to kite skate a part of the route.
The plan was to stay on the ice during the tour that would take around 20 days. So they needed a lot of equipment for survival, especially tents, sleeping bags, equipment for cooking, food etc. To transport this they planned to use two sledges which they had to carry with them during the trip. In each sledge they had around 150 kilos of material. The year before the trip they were training on the ice at different places including in Sweden to check how they could skate with the sledges behind them. It will be clear that this was quite a different enterprise than the endurance test of the Chinese youngsters who went to Tibet for their adventure. One can imagine that also the transport of all the equipment from the Netherland to Irkutsk was not so simple. They got help in this respect from a Russian travel agency Spunik.
Skating
As expected during the first part of this trip skating was possible. In total 8 days they could skate at least part of the day. Normally they got up at 7 a.m. to make some food and to prepare the sledges. They started to move around 9 o´clock. On good ice they could move relatively fast but they encountered also a lot of complications. The ice is always moving with the wind and these forces are so strong that barricades of ice are created by the plates of ice that hit on each other. Sometimes they were very high and wide and they had to look for a place where they could pass relatively easily with their sledges. They also had to take care of the snow on the ice. Often one could not cross the snow on skates and they had to go around it which was not so simple with the sledges behind or in front of them. So the maximal distance they could make on the skates was 42km in a day between 9.15 in the morning and 6 o´clock in the afternoon when the sun went down and they had to prepare for the night.
As expected during the first part of this trip skating was possible. In total 8 days they could skate at least part of the day. Normally they got up at 7 a.m. to make some food and to prepare the sledges. They started to move around 9 o´clock. On good ice they could move relatively fast but they encountered also a lot of complications. The ice is always moving with the wind and these forces are so strong that barricades of ice are created by the plates of ice that hit on each other. Sometimes they were very high and wide and they had to look for a place where they could pass relatively easily with their sledges. They also had to take care of the snow on the ice. Often one could not cross the snow on skates and they had to go around it which was not so simple with the sledges behind or in front of them. So the maximal distance they could make on the skates was 42km in a day between 9.15 in the morning and 6 o´clock in the afternoon when the sun went down and they had to prepare for the night.
Walking
Many days skating was impossible because of the snow, especially the more they came to the north of the lake. Walking was a lot slower than skating. The average distance walking in a day was close to 26km which is still quite impressive given the equipment they had to transport and the obstacles they had to conquer every day. They were obliged to walk 15 days. The last 8 days they could only walk. One day there was so much wind that the snow was blown away from the ice but the wind was against them and in order not to be blown back to Irkutsk they used iron spikes under their shoes to prevent this from happening.
Many days skating was impossible because of the snow, especially the more they came to the north of the lake. Walking was a lot slower than skating. The average distance walking in a day was close to 26km which is still quite impressive given the equipment they had to transport and the obstacles they had to conquer every day. They were obliged to walk 15 days. The last 8 days they could only walk. One day there was so much wind that the snow was blown away from the ice but the wind was against them and in order not to be blown back to Irkutsk they used iron spikes under their shoes to prevent this from happening.
Kite skating
They had hoped that they could also use kites for speeding up their movement on the ice. However there were only two days that there was sufficient wind in the back to try this out. The idea is the same as in kite surfing: bring a kite in the air, connect the cable of the kite to your body and with enough wind the kite will pull you over the ice.
This is a nice idea when it works but there were several problems. Firstly, one needs a lot of wind to be able to move 2 or 3 people and a sledge with 150 kilo of material. Secondly, if there is snow on the ice, one has to navigate very much around the parts with snow in order to avoid falling. Thirdly the wind should not be to strong so that one loses the control over the whole system. These different reasons prevented the use of the kites. Firstly because of too little wind and later due to too much wind. One day they were just in time to bring the kite down before the wind would have taken over the control of the whole process.
They had hoped that they could also use kites for speeding up their movement on the ice. However there were only two days that there was sufficient wind in the back to try this out. The idea is the same as in kite surfing: bring a kite in the air, connect the cable of the kite to your body and with enough wind the kite will pull you over the ice.
This is a nice idea when it works but there were several problems. Firstly, one needs a lot of wind to be able to move 2 or 3 people and a sledge with 150 kilo of material. Secondly, if there is snow on the ice, one has to navigate very much around the parts with snow in order to avoid falling. Thirdly the wind should not be to strong so that one loses the control over the whole system. These different reasons prevented the use of the kites. Firstly because of too little wind and later due to too much wind. One day they were just in time to bring the kite down before the wind would have taken over the control of the whole process.
The arrival
On the 18th day they saw the lights of the town Serevobaikalsk but they decided not to continue to the town but to stay the last night on the lake because at 6 p.m it was not clear whether they could reach the town in 2 hours or that they would need 4 hours.
The next day they had to go only a short distance but it took longer than expected because of a wall of pack ice which forced them to change their way to the town. In the end the competitive spirit came over them again: one group went around a snow dune to the town while the other went over it and so they competed to see which group would reach the destination the first.
After arriving at the coast they went to their guesthouse where after three weeks they could put off their jackets without getting cold and where they could get a bath and marvelous Siberian food.
After some more sightseeing they went back to the Netherlands with all their equipments which gave of course some more problems but of a different kind.
On the 18th day they saw the lights of the town Serevobaikalsk but they decided not to continue to the town but to stay the last night on the lake because at 6 p.m it was not clear whether they could reach the town in 2 hours or that they would need 4 hours.
The next day they had to go only a short distance but it took longer than expected because of a wall of pack ice which forced them to change their way to the town. In the end the competitive spirit came over them again: one group went around a snow dune to the town while the other went over it and so they competed to see which group would reach the destination the first.
After arriving at the coast they went to their guesthouse where after three weeks they could put off their jackets without getting cold and where they could get a bath and marvelous Siberian food.
After some more sightseeing they went back to the Netherlands with all their equipments which gave of course some more problems but of a different kind.
The Lake Baikal 2016-2017
I don´t know whether this spectacular endurance test has inspired the Russian people to go skating on the lake but the truth is that in 2016 for the first time a skate marathon has been organized on the this lake close to Irkutsk and this will be repeated in 2017 as you can see in the announcement below. This announcement was accompanied by some other photos of the marathon of 2016. One I have presented below.
I don´t know whether this spectacular endurance test has inspired the Russian people to go skating on the lake but the truth is that in 2016 for the first time a skate marathon has been organized on the this lake close to Irkutsk and this will be repeated in 2017 as you can see in the announcement below. This announcement was accompanied by some other photos of the marathon of 2016. One I have presented below.
I don´t know whether I have to conclude that the Dutch skaters were extremely sensitive for the cold or that the Russian skaters have a different skin.