I understand it has not been done before, but the preparations that Rainer Zietlow took are impressive: Amarok Polar Expedition: Home. Keep fingers crossed that he will make it. His team started in Moscow, is in Yakutsk today, and will drive via Pevek and Anadyr to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka...

According to their Yellowbrick real-time tracking, the group is now close to the Kyubyume petrol station in Oymyakon District, and will reach the turn-off point into uncharted territory at Ust-Nera in the next hours: Amarok Polar Expedition: Home

Some information on their potential offroad route to Chukotka may be found on askyakutia.com: How to get from Magadan to Anadyr in summer? Via Yakutia's Kolyma | AskYakutia.com or How to get from Uelen to Magadan via Anadyr & Omsukchan? | AskYakutia.com

Worth looking at all the pages from this expedition 13 years ago led by a feisty Italian woman.
Кругосветный автопробег

These guys really pioneered this kinda winter exploration. The current guys seem to following in their footsteps till chukotka

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Correction: the Amarok group is now in Oymyakon village. Would be funny if they drive the OLD Road of Bones ...

Thank you. Very interesting, the Shparo-expedition. They shipped from Uelen to Vladivostok. Amazing: 900 l fuel tanks each car ! More on the Jewish-Italian teamleader Stefania Zini here: A Taste for Adventure

The Shparo-website lists further overland expeditions to Chukotka (google-translate):

1. Expedition Richard Chrisy, December 1994 - March 1995. In the caravan 6 "Ford", which came accompanied by Russian "Ural". The expedition reached the village. Lawrence (Chukotka)

2. Expedition Dr. Petter Johannessen, nephew of Roald Amundsen. Machinery - 4 truck "Iveco" (6x6, weighing 6 tons). Date: November 1995 - March 1996. Expedition big problems drove to the village of Cape Schmidt, Chukotka, and was transported to Alaska by air.

3. Company "Land Rover" planned way London - London - New York - London, in their cars, in December 1997 - April 1998. The transition was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the company. For the management of the so-called "Transglobalnoy expedition" were attracted famous travelers: Dmitry Shparo (Russia), Dr. Gordon Thomas (Canada), Sir Renalf Faynnes (UK). Crossing the Bering Strait was to be carried on pontoons. The expedition did not take place because of financial difficulties.

Rainer Zietlow and the Amarok Expedition have now left Ust-Nera, to go off-road (at Burustah) towards Chukotka and Kamchatka: Amarok Polar Expedition: Home (livetracking)



For comparison, this is the route that the Shparo-Expedition took:

http://www.shparo.ru/zil_expedition/zil_transrussia.htm




(below: Coal = Ugolskoye; Whalen = Uelen)


Burustah - Sasyr
Sasyr - Coal
Coal - Zyrianka
Zyrianka - Cherskiy
Chersky - Pevek
Pevek - Cape Schmidt
Cape Schmidt - Whalen

^^^ ...presumably those numbers are distances between those points in Km?

do maps of the winter roads up there exist?

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If you're collecting Pevel trips, this is the one that first inspired me:-

www.sever66.ru/?cid=2145::

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Many thanks, Fastship. Very good website.

Yes, I am gathering maximum information about Chukotka / Bering Strait / Kamchatka expeditions (which are still minimal).

My car is in Magadan and I would love to continue my Murmansk-Machackala-Magadan-drive to Mys Schmidta immediately. But I don't think I'll have a 10 day time-window until the ice melts in April. Next year maybe...

Here is the route of Sever66 in 2007 up to Mys Schmidta / Cape Schmidt in a single GAZ 66 van, including a Dutch and a German participant:

They are in Anadyr so some wonderful pictures are coming through now.

Re. the worries we are expressing with regard to cold weather gear this URAL driver shows how he prepares for driving in -39C .... tee shirt, no gloves

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Great pictures indeed.

Amazing how the locals deal with the cold.

Potential polar motorcyclists. Would you consider it cheating to make modifications at some point in your journey and to have had the parts shipped in, as opposed to have carried them in yourselves?

I ask because I've been looking at snowbike conversions like the Timbersled Mountain Horse.


Obviously you wouldn't be hooning round northern Siberia like the video, but it does show their ability out of the box to handle deep powder. The flat tray over the track could no doubt come in handy for payload, enough for the fuel needed? I have no idea.

To be honest riding the zimnik is one of those pipe-dreams I have that will almost certainly never happen unless circumstances change or someone says "Alex come and do it with us, we'll pay/we'll get sponsors." But it shouldn't stop me dreaming and if I can chip in with something I've found while Googling, I hope you'll forgive the intrusion. I know I'll be following the exploits of the person to do it with huge interest.

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^^ that's not a motorbike. If it doesn't have two wheels it's something else. If it has more than two wheels it's not a motorbike.

That machine sure can go places a motorbike never will though

If those Amoroks have been towed by those tracked vehicles I'd also question if their trip is absolutely valid - but I'd be splitting hairs.

Studded tyres on those winding zimniks would be excellent riding!

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Great product! This could be the solution for crossing the Bering Strait, or for the real offroad sections to Kamchatka.

On the zimnik/iceroads a standard motorbike will do it (however one needs fuel deposits).

IMHO there is no cheating, as long as you cover the whole distance on the ground. As Fastship said, even the Amaroks needed to be towed by tracked vehicles. Nevertheless a great adventure, and for tough guys only.

If you could easily retrofit such a device to say a big GS en-route just for the snowy parts it would be good but I can't see that being practical or realistic - but if it could...

I think I have seen land rovers temporarily adapted to tracked motive power.


The system fitted to a KTM 690 looks great. Perhaps some of our Finnish members could translate?

Kelkkalehti 2013 #001 - Snowbike - KTM 690 Enduro R + Timbersled Mountain Horse LT 137 - YouTube

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Or the Fords of the 2006 Moscow - Chukotka expedition

Moscow-Chukotka Expedition