Saturday 23 February : tomorrow's the big day !

The fault with the MI8 helicopter wasn't as serious as first thought. In fact, on Saturday morning, 23 February, the men were woken at dawn. It was the local authorities who had brought good news: the helicopter would be ready to leave at 10 a.m.

La station météo de Koteln'iy

A few hours later, and after a fuel stop at Stolbovoy Island (see map) where they had stockpiled 4 tonnes of kerosene, Alain, Dixie, René, Remy and the people at Cerpolex found themselves on Kotelny Island, in an atmosphere befitting the ends of the Earth. "It is really incredible here.", Alain told us via the satellite. "There are eight people at the place where we landed, two went back with the helicopter, and another one has already stirred up trouble everywhere".
The starting point has finally been decided: the two men will definitely leave from the coast of Kotelny Island, latitude 76° North, and further south than the southernmost point in Siberia - or to be more precise, Cape Anisiy (see map). "A great place to start", explained Alain. "Because we will actually be leaving terra firma".

Enfin à pied d'oeuvre...

More good news: the ice is firm, there is a light East wind and while they were flying over the area, they noticed that there were very few leads of open water.
That left the cold to contend with: -48°C, and with the windchill (see the windchill table), that gives a temperature of about -68°C. "I have forgotten that the cold was so cold", said Alain. "Wow! I nearly got frostbite on my nose, but I noticed it in time. Fortunately! We asked the people who live here what was the coldest time of the year. 'Right now!', they said. Last week, it went down to -58°C".
As the film sequences and shooting were finished, the departure was brought forward by one day: the men will set off tomorrow morning, Sunday 24 February.

Friday February 22nd : helicopter breakdown, departure postponed...

Our team is out of luck: a broken-down helicopter has grounded them in Tiksi. According to Dixie and Alain, the incident should not delay the start by more than a day.

Of course, the two men are feeling rather down. They are only too well aware that the start was originally scheduled for the first half of February. And that each day that passes will be deducted from the time available two months from now, when they are on the journey from the North Pole to Ward Hunt, which will become more tricky as the ice gradually melts, and the presence of leads of open water becomes even more of a problem.
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Thursday 21 February: the great leap forward will be on Sunday 24 February at dawn.

Tiksi Airport

Dixie called us today by satellite phone. He confirmed that the "fuel" flight had taken place, and that everything was ready to leave tomorrow, Friday, on board a civil helicopter for the North-East of Kotelny Island.

As you can see from our map: it is about three hours' flying time.

Part of Compaq Pole II team flying in the Antonov12, René Robert behind and cameraman Remy Revellin

Estimated time of arrival in the area: midday. The afternoon will be devoted to finding suitable filming locations for shooting the next day (it seems that the place is absolutely superb and crawling with polar bears.
Saturday: Cameraman Remy Revellin and photographer René Robert get their turn to go into action: they have twelve hours to record some beautiful pictures on film.
Sunday : the team finally set off!

See the route up to departure zone

Satellite phonecall of 21st Feb, 2pm

Wednesday 20 February: start announced at last

As the necessary permission has still not been received from the local military authorities, the men of Compaq Pole II have decided to negotiate a helicopter flight with a civil aviation company.

WEAHER AT TIKSI 20/02, 9pm Temp : - 36°C Windchill : - 44°C Humidity : 83% Wind : ENE / 4 mph Pressure : 1008 hPa Conditions : light snow Visibility : 13 km Cloud : overvcast / 4878m alt Jetlag : TU + 9

Tomorrow, there will be a first round-trip to drop off fuel midway between Tiksi and the New Siberia Islands, while the departure for the New Siberia Islands has been announced for Friday morning. On Sunday 24, if all goes according to plan, Dixie Dansercoer and Alain Hubert should set off at last for their great crossing.

The weather conditions remain good as forecast, despite an overcast sky.
Fortunately, a strong North wind closed the leads of open water around the West Coast of Kotelny Island, and a West wind is forecast for the next few days, which Alain Hubert hopes will enable the powerkites to be used at a relatively early stage : it is vital to make up for lost time.

Tuesday 19 February / Good news and bad news...

Let's start with the good news: when they arrived yesterday in Tiksi at the end of the afternoon, the Compaq Pole II men, now virtually on the brink of departing, were told that the wind had changed direction and that for the next few days, it would be from the West. This means that it will be pushing the areas of thick pack ice towards the spot planned for the departure and so close up the few stretches of open water or softer ice that still remain in the area. This means that their departure will be more comfortable (harder ice) in a 30-35 knot wind.

Now for the bad news: the special permission they need from the military authorities to take the MI8 helicopter out to the departure zone has still not arrived. So they will not be setting out before the 22nd, because there are two days of filming and photography scheduled on site before they leave for the great crossing...

HERE IS A VERY INTERESTING CHART OF THE CONFIGURATION OF THE ICE AROUND THE NEW SIBERIA ISLANDS AND THE ARCTIC OCEAN IN THIS REGION OF THE ICE FLOES

Monday 18 February / Flying for Tiksi

This morning at 7.30 am (1.30 pm local time in Khatanga) the entire team (the two adventurers, photographer, cameraman and the people from Cerpolex) boarded the Antonov for the two-hour flight to Tiksi, a free zone called the Sakha Republic - Yakut in Russian.

The flight to the departure area has not yet been scheduled because the ban on flights by military aircraft has not yet been lifted.

Sunday 17 February / Departure for Tiksi scheduled for tomorrow

As the weather conditions are improving over that region of Siberia, team think they should leave Khatanga tomorrow. In the meantime, Dixie, René, Robert and Alain are taking some rest walking around the city.