Whitesnow09 PART 2

The latest news:

The Whitesnow09 Project just won a trip to Hollywood. It seems rarther strange that we would get back on track in the most fantastic way, but this is how: Erlend and Marius entered the Whitesnow story in this competition. It was announced today that Whitesnow won. \o/

We will therefor drive from Atlanta to Hollywood this summer, stay tuned for more information on this space!


Best regards; Peter Raugland.

Vladivostok - Norway

It is terrible to write this, but Whitesnow09 is over for this time. Due to the shippingcost we were forced to leave the car in Vladivostok and fly back home to Norway.

We are now in the process to get the car on a container, we are currently in contact with two shipping companies.

The members of Whitesnow09 are working back here in Norway, and we hope to be able to continue the expedition in about 3-4 months.

We thank all of you that has followed our trip so far, and we promise to update you on when the next stage will continue.

Whitesnow09

Magadan-Vladivostok

We managed to get both ourselves and the car on a ship from Magadan to Vladivostok. A 6 days journey on the sea was an incredible experience after two weeks stuck on land due to Russian holidays. We spendt the days just enjoying every minute, talking with the crew, and of course we had a vodka-night.



Japan by night. The best picture we managed to take, since the ship moved.

Russian coastguard

VLADIVOSTOK!

8500 NOK for 3 persons and the Mercedes. about half of what we have left.
5-6 days on sea after 17 days in Magadan will be fantastic.
Next stop Vladivostok.

Yesterday, After 8 days of standing still the car it wouldn't start, but was fixed by some extremely helpful guys. Arterm towed our car to a warm garage and another mechanic fixed the problem. They of course resufed payment and so we gave them the two copies we had left of White Snow. We hope they enjoy it. THANK YOU!

Pictures in video

While waiting for the ferry we put together some pictures and added music. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7bMA4S0cxU

16 days spent in magadan. We hope that tomorrow we can get on the ferry to Vladivostok.

Magadan - We have reached our first destination. We have gone as far as we can by car in Russia.
The next part is tricky. We need transportation for ourselves and our Mercedes from MAGADAN - VLADIVOSTOK - JAPAN - USA.
The Magadan port is closed until 11.01.2010 so we haven’t gotten an exact price, but travel agents has put it anywhere between 10 000 and 20 000 USD/ 60 000 - 120 000 NOK.
We’ve contacted our local Norwegian newspaper to try to get some sponsors and we are also hoping that you donate. http://www.op.no/nyheter/article4788627.ece . If you know anything about the route from Magadan to the US, please contact us.
We hate asking and we know there's little chance this will work, but after all this we can't give up before we've tried everything.
Please help us cross the pacific!

For donations

-We will write your name on the car, starting with the hood.
-Your name will be on the credits of White Snow – The pilot.
-We will forever be grateful!

*those of you who have donated or bought the script don’t have to do it again… unless you really want to. It is because of you that we are actually still in Magadan! Thank you very much!

For big donations

-One hour with the Mercedes. (If it comes back)
-We’ll put your company logo on the car and on www.whitesnow09.com.
-We’ll probably do whatever you want.

*To find out how big a “big donation” is, contact us:
Erlend@whitesnow09.com, Marius@whitesnow09.com, Peter@whitesnow09.com
*If we get some money but not enough, we’ll use it to transport Sibira back to Norway and put her through quarantine.
Erlend@Whitesnow09.com
Marius@Whitesnow09.com
Peter@Whitesnow09.com

Some pictures

View from one of many mountain passes between Yakutsk and Magadan

Bridge on "Road of bones"

Two locals that stopped and had a chat with us along the way.

From the first couple of km on "road of bones"

Sibira in Siberia

White snow.

Bridge, this one on the M56 highway.

Hot water freezing into ice.

Road of bones

Warning-sign..

The real Siberia story.

Some of you might heard something about us being rescued out of Siberia. At least all the local cops have heard about it, which means that each police-checkpoint in the last couple of days has been a fun experience. Now we can tell you the story from our point of view:
After just one day in Yakutsk we headed out for Magadan and the famous road of bones. We drove around 900 km before we got to the real starting line. Our first problem on the road was not the road itself, but the disagreement between the map and its gas-stations. Also, cities that on the map didn't exist. We had 40 liters of gasoline. Ahead of us was only one town 160 km away, behind us 400 km to the last city. We had to take the chance, and luckily the city Tomtor is real. We stacked up on fuel and started.
The road itself wasn't very bad the first 25 km. Some bridges had fallen down, others seemed like they would collapse any minute, but it was possible to drive on the rivers. Then the road turned worse, with more and more snow. Suddenly, all the dashboard indicators lit up. We quickly got out, just to discover that the fan-belt had fallen off. The engine had to be turned off, and now it was a race against the clock. Every minute the engine got colder and the possibility to start it up got unlikelier. After nearly an hour of work we had fixed the problem, and the car started up again (This is where we should have turned around).
The problem was caused by snow being shoved up around the engine. We strapped a fire-blanket under the engine and kept going. This solution worked great for the next 70 km, until the fire-blanket was covered in snow which had frozen to ice. All the indicators lit up again, but luckily the fan-belt was still on. After getting 120 km in, using around 12 hours and burning a lot of fuel, we stopped just before a river-crossing. We started to remove snow from the road, but decided that we had to turn around, and give up.
On the way back we only reached 12 km before the left front wheel locked. We knew we had to get back, we tried to drive on, but 8 km later the engine was way too hot and the fuel consumption too high to get close enough to Tomtor. We were stuck.

We contacted the Norwegian embassy 09 a.m local time. Due to the timezones, we got in contact with the right person 3 p.m. We explained the situation and kept in contact with them the next couple of hours. We also contacted Peter, our danish friend in Yekaterinburg, who co-operated with the Norwegian embassy. The first information we got was that it would take 4 days to get a car out. Therefore a helicopter was the only solution to get us out. Russian UD worked on getting the permission for the helicopter to take off, which would take 20 hours. Russian police traced our sat-phone to find our exact co-ordinates. 10 p.m local time we got the latest news that the helicopter would arrive around 3 p.m the next day. We got ready to go get some sleep around 11.30 p.m, but then we could see some lights. A car approached, and two men got out (turned out they were firemen). They helped us getting the wheel turning again, and started towing us the 100km back to the city. We were back 5 a.m, they got us an apartment in a motel of sorts and took the car to a warm garage.
The next day, we were told that the temperature outside was around -50C.

A big thank you to Hege and the Norwegian embassy, Peter in Yekaterinburg and our two heroes in the UAZ!

Editor's update

I just spoke to my brother, and they are currently located in a small town some 1200km from Magadan.
Everyone's alright and spirits are high. Their dog, Sibira, is thriving as well.
The car is running and they are planning to continue towards Magadan soon. They are without internet access at the moment, so this is just a short notice in lieu of a proper update from the boys themselves.

Since their story about being stuck in the snow in Siberia has gotten a little bit of national attention, this might be the place to clear up a few misunderstandings.

They weren't rescued by a company of Russian soldiers as some reports seem to indicate, they were found and towed 100 km by two nice guys in an old UAZ. They are not driving a rented car as some papers report, it's still the same old 1988 model Mercedes that they bought in Larvik back in August.

I got an explanation about the cars technical status involving the loss of a bottom plate, fan belt malfunction and a frozen wheel, all supposedly fixed with an ingeniously placed heating blanket. I have no idea, it didn't make much sense over the telephone, they can hopefully explain it better when they write their next update.

I've also been asked to convey a most heartfelt 'thank you' from the boys to Peter in Russia, the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow, and the local rescuers.

Road to Yakutsk - Part 2

Driving on Lena River

Lena River seperate us and Yakutsk

Russian trailer passing us.

The inside of our car, the heat doesn't reach the back.

Cold winter in Siberia

Terrible road

M56...

Russian town in the middle of Siberia

Hitchhaikers. When the temperature is minus 30, and someone need a ride, you pick them up, no matter what.

Sibira

The first part of the 2000 km drive to Yakutsk

On the way from Chita we stopped to make some dinner. As usual we made it with the multifuel on the front of the car, but the view was exceptional, so we had to share it.





The first sign of Yakutsk. We had finally got to M56, the highway to hell. Just 1117 KM to drive.







Juggling the M55







The road between Chita and Skovordinio (the last city on M55, before we turned north on M56) changed between new tarmac (Russia modified the road in 2008), and stones.








M56 offers a lot. This part, they had buildt a small bridge because the original road was under construction.





After just 50 km on M56, we arrived just a few seconds after this truck had some troubles. The road was almost purely ice. The truckdriver blocked the whole road...








.. But 5 minutes later he solved the problem. He just got in the car, pushed the pedal and somehow got a bit out to the side.