10 Aug 2017
SHO: Medvezhy Islands Exploration
After departing Wrangel Island we travelled due west. Our destination was the little known Medvezhy Islands. There are 6 islands in the group which lie to the North of the Kolyma River Delta. They were discovered in the mid 17th Century by Cossack Hunters. They were later visited by a number of important scientific expeditions including Ferdinand Von Wrangells 1821 Expedition, Nordenskiold landed on the Islands briefly in 1878 on his first ever transect of the NE Passage and in 1924/25 Roald Amundsen’s ship “Maud” wintered close to the Islands. In 1935 the Soviet Government established both a meterological station and a navigational station here as part of its development of the Northern Sea Route. Both Stations are abandoned today. We visited the Stations and the Rock Pillars from which one of the Islands, Chetyrekhstol’bovoy, takes its name.
After breakfast we loaded five Zodiacs and set off on a whale-watching excursion from our anchorage near Whalebone Alley, Yttygran Island. After init…READ MORE
From 11 nations we gathered, half flying in from Nome to the east, half from Moscow to the west. Alexander greeted us at Anadyr airport, shepherding …READ MORE
Some frustrations with the weather but some amazing experiences at Wrangel Island. We enjoyed an exceptionally good run north from Kolyuchin Island …READ MORE