MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS Correspondent Sergey Rybakov/. Until the recent voyage, I shared the typical cliches "icy desert", "harsh land", "white mist" to describe the Arctic. The main conclusion I've made is that everyone has a different Arctic. What makes people leave home and travel thousands kilometers from friends and families to the place, where there seems to be nothing but ice and snow? I was curious to find an answer to this question. Together with the North Pole-41 expedition I have crossed the Barents and Kara seas, the high-latitude Arctic ice.
Special people
Those who live and work in the Arctic are simple people. They practically never use anything but first names - not at all for a lack of manners. This strikes in the beginning, but on second thought, just imagine: the North Pole ice-resistant self-propelled platform must remain on its own, frozen into an ice floe of six by six kilometers, for a year to have experts collect scientific data from what is practically terra incognita. In such conditions, relations between people simply cannot remain formal. This is a test, to an extent. However, experienced travelers say not all manage to pass this test.
"All the fuss fades away, and you become as if slightly different, you become a real you. Social games are out of question, people here show what they are, and this becomes very clear. If you could stay here for longer, say for a couple of months, you would've noticed it. The Arctic is an alternate reality, where all masks fall off," leader of the expedition's biological studies Olga Zimina told me.
Those, who do not fit, are rare, they do not stay for long, she added. On the opposite, those who get absorbed, decide to stay somewhere on Spitsbergen and can't live without traveling across the Arctic. Olga has been exploring the Arctic for 15 years. Every time, she gets excited as if it's her first voyage. This, she said, is a chance to have real life and to appreciate its small treatments.
"When we were sailing past Novaya Zemlya, for everyone onboard it was an event. You may ask - what's so special there? A foggy coast… And still - here's everyone, standing, watching. Or, say, in summer, in an expedition all of a sudden there's a flower on a hill - you make pictures from all the sides, and watch not to step on it. The rich nature in the south is like tropical beauty compared to Spitsbergen. I, however, love this atmosphere of minimalism," she said.
Arctic in my blood
The expedition's leader, Kirill Filchuk, said being in the Arctic latitudes is nothing special: he was born and grew up in a small town north of the Arctic Circle. To him, many things, which are weird for a newcomer (like the polar night), are only natural.
"We could leave the house, put on the skis, and in 30 minutes here you are amid the tundra, and in another half an hour - on the Barents Sea shore. As time was going by, I realized I wanted this life to go on, and thus this desire has transformed into my occupation," he said.
Kirill's wife and twin sons are on the mainland. Being away from the family for a long time is a problem, he said, but that long time apart finishes with a top-happy reunion. Like the Arctic nature, Kirill is always balanced, strong and resolute.
"These are people with steel nerves. They've lived though many hardships. To us, the youth, they are a great example - discretion in any situation. I can't imagine what can make Kirill go mad. Even if everything fails, he will remain balanced," leader of the expedition's ice qualities group Ivan Svistunov said.
Kirill does not agree he's got steel nerves. In fact, every polar explorer has inherited from predecessors a genuine Soviet-time modesty. Nobody will ever complain about a hard or dangerous job. They are sure it is just the job - even if they have been on the edge of doom.
Two shifts to chocolate
"Two more shifts to a chocolate bar" was a phrase I overheard at lunch. On the platform, food stock is measured in tons. The stock is composed to offer a sufficient balance of vitamins and micronutrients to every expedition member. Chocolate bars are served one or twice a week, after lunch. With time, these bars become of special value for the sweet tooth.
At the platform, everyone is sure: if you lack anything, others will share it with you. The philosophy is elementary: you need help - get it, need something - here it is.
"The Arctic does not like bad people. It spits out bad people, and they never return," said an ice researcher, Evgeny Grishin, of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI, St. Petersburg).
Life line
Any life is of special value in the Arctic. We step on ice accompanied by a security specialist, or, in other words, a huntsman. His task is to protect the people from polar bears and the polar bears from people. He has three types of ammunition: signal, pellets and 12-gauge ammo. However, his tactics follows what Sun Tzu said: "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle." Thus, the trick is to notice the bear as early as possible. While we were standing on ice, I could hear a helicopter. I can barely see the tiny dot on the ice-white background. How to see a bear here?
"When a person looks into the distance, he sees the horizon line. That is, the earth surface, and in our case it's ice, and the sky. On this line, there are objects that move: ships, planes, bears. They can be almost noticed. Thus, if you saw it, you win," the expedition's security specialist, Andrey Chugunov, said.
The helicopter from accompanying us Akademik Tryoshnikov RSV, completed another technical task and flew away. Now that it's gone, the most "moving" subject on ice is the chief assistant to our huntsmen - Buran, a dog.
No can will travel to Arctic
People and dogs have special relations in the Arctic. Whenever on ice, I came to understand why it is so. It is rather complicated to imagine a cat or any other living creature in the Arctic, while a dog is a reliable friend and devoted assistant, ready to jump out of a warm house to be next to a human.
I talk to an ice researcher, Leonid Panov, and learn practically the entire life line of Buran, and then of Dik and of Dina - the ancestors of the pack at the Baranov (scientific station), as well as the lives of their offspring. Leonid spoke about them with the respect comparable with respect when speaking about people.
"At North Pole-37, we saw only one bear, and Dina, since she had cubs then, took a fighting pose. Dik hid somewhere, not to be seen or heard. He was about 12 or 18 months by then - a teenager, you know," Leonid said. To him Buran is almost like a cousin's grandson.
"A dog is a friend, a soulmate, a family member, a team member. I own two dogs," Leonid said with a smile.
See the stick? South is there
Time in the Arctic exists in minds, and only clock hands say it is morning and the ice camp will open in an hour and a half.
Traditionally, a weather forecast opens every morning. By now, a weather tower has been installed. It is morning, but the sun is setting. It seems to be lying in the snow. For the Arctic, it's great weather. I look to, I believe, the north - that's what the sun position prompts to me. However, I can't get rid of the feeling something is strange. The atmosphere studies' leader Denis Rize explains the sun sets here in the south. To make it clear, he points to a spade and an iron rod behind it.
"See the stick? South is there," he told me.
Denis represents the younger generation. Shortly before graduating school, he visited the Meteorology University and since then the dream was to become a meteorologist - the occupation seemed to him rare and romantic. He wanted to work in the Antarctica, and focused on it in the final paper.
"As soon as I received the certificate, I rushed to AARI. I say: I have a bachelor's degree - take me to the Antarctica. I was told the vessel had just left - come next year. I leave the office, and somebody in the corridor rushed into me, saying - Go to the High-Latitude Arctic Expedition Department. They sail to the Arctic, not to Antarctica. There, I was asked - to Cape Baranov for six months, for the winter, will you go? Sure, I will! The first time is wrapped in the romantic fleur - nothing was uninteresting. What mattered is - they take me! I could barely believe it, was afraid it was a joke," Denis said.
At first, he said, it was tough. He came to Cape Baranov during the polar night. Cold, blind, bears, and some strange people. Very soon, those strange people became close, and the frost and bears grew into nothing special. "This is what your polar life style is about now," Denis said joking.
Coming back
No expeditions are alike, Nikita Kusse-Tyuz said. Everything may be different: the vessel or the location, the term, the scale, the tasks, the participants. This is how the Arctic life is romantic, he added.
"I haven't tried to explain it to myself. Well, I have, but as the attempts failed, I gave up the idea. In different times, those may be different things. At first, I enjoyed going to new places, to be involved in something, which is impossible elsewhere. It was something unusual, and it attracted," Nikita said.
Big understanding of the Arctic comes when you return. For example, the habit of seeing the line, which the huntsman spoke about. But it's nowhere to be seen in the city. At first, you get lost, even experienced people say so. Those who were on long trips, face another problem - "color starvation." It takes quite a time to have eyes get used to color varieties. Social adaptation also takes time.
"Life changes at once. Here, you live clearly - to get up, to eat, to sleep. Even the shifts - they come in clear order. When at home, you are free, and sometimes it's tough to get tuned, and moral adaptation takes time and effort. Whenever in the city, you feel an endless desire to return, to be here, in the Arctic, with friends, to live through everything once again. This is probably what it is to be a polar explorer," Evgeny Grishin said.
Yet another time
I can understand him. Even I have that desire. Noteworthy, it's not just about the scenic Arctic nature.
"It's about some inspiration in seeing the world. Take this snow purity - you absorb it, and, when back, you still feel it for very long," said Ivan Svistunov.
His responsibility is engineering, and he's far from mysticism. Thus, his opinion is quite convincing. It's impossible not to believe him - all polar explorers are filled with this energy to the very top - for each one this occupation is above all, and they return to the Arctic again and again.
"Every expedition remains in memories as something unusual, as some new experience. At some point, all this will be over, and I will not have new expeditions. If I live to a big age, I will have only memories," the North Pole-41 expedition's leading expert in hydro-chemistry Ivan Gangnus told TASS in conclusion.