Spitsbergen 2010

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Ekstremalas.lt: The greatest achievement of the Lithuanian extreme - Spitsbergen 2010

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Ekstremalas.lt survey - "What is the most impressive of Lithuanian extreme achievements in 2010?" - Winners are the polar Expedition Spitsbergen 2010.

http://ekstremalas.lt/apie/ekstremalas-lt-26/lt/didziausias-2010-metu-lietuvos-ekstremalu-pasiekimas----spicbergenas-2010--1642.html

Expedition video film

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Can be found in photo gallery: http://polar.vuzk.lt/en/photos/polar-expedition-in-spitsbergen

Spitsbergen expedition video film presentation

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT

December 16th, in VU travellers club (Saulėtekio al. 31, Kamčiatka, Vilnius) We will show video film about our expedition. Starts at: 20:20

TV show "Teritorija" about Spitsbergen expedition

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

In new webpage of TV show "Teritorija" you can watch report about our Spitsbergen expedition.

http://teritorija.tv/lt/Laidu_irasai/i:17;

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Updated "Media" section

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Watch our pictures

Mon, 03 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT

You can now find our pictures from the expedition Spitsbergen 2010 in the section "Photos".

New section

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A new section "Media" is addet to our web page, where you can find the publications about our expedition.

We are back home

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We are all successfully back home. In 22 days we crossed glaciers, mountains, and frozen fiords, more than 400 km in all. All the plans have been reached, we also climbed mounts Galileotoppen and Newtontoppen successfully. The new power kites and sledges have let us to save much power. We have got to know nicely cold island of Spitsbergen.

News from expedition in short messages

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

2010.03.28: Travellers left the civilization. They went away from the city about 90 km by snowbikes. The expedition started. 1940-year rifle is in our hands - let them wish to meat only friendly polar bears.

2010.03.29: It is very cold here. We crossed Bile fiord using kites. Saw footprints of a polar bear in the morning not far from our camp.

2010.03.30: We are not afraid of polar bear footprints, unless they are fresh. Tomas broke his knife's blade while trying to cut his frozen bread. Evening, -22C, listening to Ciurlionis.

2010.03.31: Today is warm: -10C. Kited a river upwards. Stiff shafts of our sledges started to broke. Kuras flied a little and ripped apart his sledge bag, strewed his stuff on the slope and teared up his ski binding.

2010.04.02: Passed 20 km along Dikson fiord and valley. Yesterday we have got -28C. Today is worm, -22C. We are sleeping in crystal ice arcs ambience.

2010.04.03: The tube of our riffle is blocked by snow. -4C.

2010.04.04: We stay overnight in the northernmost tip of our expedition: 79 degrees 10 minutes. In the morning we removed the snow from our gun and shot the waste sack - we were training. Kited along Vestfjord valley and gulf 15 km.

2010.04.06: Yesterday we kited 20 km in the fiord straight up-wind. We saw a head of a seal in an ice-hole, and bowel of a seal next to another ice-hole. Today moved 12 km and rose 900 m.

2010.04.08: We traversed two peaks for the aclimatization before Newtontoppen . And now we are in a snow storm. We are listening to Ciurlionis, dreaming about pancakes.

2010.04.09: We kited till Newtontoppen peak - that is the highest mountain in Svalbard. We have climbed up and kited back to camp. We begin our way back tomorrow - after 9 days we shall be.

2010.04.11: Second day we are picking mushrooms in a snow storm. Now we are staying overnight in the place with the highest Feng-Shui level. We eat semolina with carrots. We do not want to go home, we want sweets.

2010.04.12: We finally got sunshine. We have crossed Lomonosov glacier. In general everything is ok, only it is very cold and Kuras' ski broke in half.

2010.04.14: We saw many seals on a fiord, and a helicopter of lifeguard. They were looking not for us. We sleep near scooter highway. This sucks and stinks.

2010.04.16: The last overnight in the mountains. It is 22nd. We saw open sea and met walrus' hunters. If we will not depart because of the volcano, we would gladly stay here for a week.

Governors permission to rent the rifle

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Finally we have a permission to rent a rifle for protection against the polar bears on Svalbard. Nerijus from now on is our bodyguard.

Power kites have arrived

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Jolly day. After a long waiting a parcel with Ozone Frenzy 2010/11 power kites has arrived. We are happy, waiting for the wind. Justas

Sledges and preparation

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Finally we have received desirable sledges (Erapro Paris company expedition sled 960). We had to purchase them for double price from Norway as they were out of stock in USA and Germany. Anyway it is good that we have got them.

At the moment we are bracing them with aluminium angles and at the same time stuff bags are under construction. It is intended that stuff bags will also have an additional function - it will be possible to carry them as a backpack. We will need this function while climbing up.

Nerijus

Kurs is writing

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We have returned from Georgia. We did not succeed to climb Kazbek. We couldn't do that because of the very strond winds and bad visibility.

We have climbed up to 4100 meters. From that point planned assault of the peak was not succeeded - we haven't even tried to climb higher and descended down "using clever devices" as there was storm wind without any visibility.

A bit down the wind was not so strong but here we have met with increased avalanche danger. All 3 of us remain without any major losses (except totally broken tent).

We where not only fighting strong winds and bad weather, but there was a place for downhill skiing, we have also found some time to visit Tbilisi and Kachetiya region, to try Georgian cuisine and famous wines.

Kuras is going to Georgia this Friday

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

There is a plan to climb mount Kazbek and to ride down with the skies. It is going to be great opportunity to test all the equipment before Spitsbergen expedition.

New photos added from East Sajan

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Our expedition webpage is online

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Missing information will be added in next few days

Weekend in the forest was spent without a tent

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

My old down sleeping bag and „vapor barrier“ liner that does not allow to moisten sleeping bag was tested. Results are satisfactory: it was not cold to sleep in -25 degree temperature, it was not sweaty, sleeping bag moistures only near face area and it was totally dry under back and by the legs.

Camp on sea gulf ice...

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

... unsuccessful attempt to catch smelts, prize in competition, runaway wind from Kuras, training with sledges – this is how we could describe last weekend.It was mentioned about Justas successful debut. But it was concealed that after competition Kuras also tried to snowkite the same marathon distance from Nida to Juodkrante. Unfortunately after 2/3 of the distance wind just turned off. So Kuras has got great walk (about 15 km) to the smelt catching camp where we had our camp with the tents.

Prize place in Lithuanian snowkite championship!

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Justas Gadeikis has made successful debut in kite marathon with the distance 30 km and took third place.

THE FIRST BLOOD

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I have wollowed in wet snow/ice mixture and cut my brow while kiteboarding. Need to practise more. (Kuras)