The Arctic Coast

After two days of looking around Murmansk, I had pretty much maxed out all there was to do there. I hadn’t traveled 2,000+ some miles from Moscow to just sit around my hotel room and wait until my train to Petersburg came at 7pm, so I started searching for tours around the area. I scoured the Internet for excursions and even inquired with one company about visiting a reindeer farm and a place with sled dog huskies. But unfortunately nobody returned my emails. So I figured I should ask the front desk if they had any suggestions. Luckily they did have suggestions.

The nice girl there, Anastasia, provided me with a card of a local tour guide. I figured since it was winter and I wanted a tour the next day I may be out of luck. Nonetheless I figured I might as well try and shot off an email hoping for something. Within about a half an hour I got an email back asking what type of tours I’d like stating, I could choose from seeing the huskies, visiting a reindeer farm and going out to an Arctic Ocean village. Since I am a Husky…….that is a proud graduate of the University of Washington whose mascot is a husky, I contemplated seeing the dogs. But this just didn’t have the wow factor that going to The Arctic Ocean had.

So, after thinking it all over I signed up for a tour to a village called Teriberka on The Arctic Ocean. I was unsure exactly what it entailed, maybe looking around the village, some light walking around, maybe a visit to a museum, some cultural program and that was it. Neither did I realize what I was getting myself into.

I met up with my tour guide, Yuri, in the hotel lobby. He was a tall thin but well built guy with long hair tied back in a ponytail. It took us a good two and a half hours to reach the village. After a quick stop at the local café for a bathroom break and a chance to look around the village we headed further up the Arctic Ocean Coast. 

Eventually we got to a point in the road where the snow got pretty deep. Yuri tried several times to get some traction and go forward, but we just sat there spinning our wheels. We couldn’t go forward or backwards, the van was stuck. And this was no ordinary van, this van had high clearance and was built for the snow, still we may as well have had a Lada from the 1980s as it didn’t matter we were stuck! Yuri hopped out of the car after several futile attempts and started shoveling. He shoveled for a good 10 minutes and then got back in and still nothing! We were stuck. He repeated this for about a half hour. Eventually as luck would have it he was able to shovel out just enough to be able to back out but unfortunately we would not be going forward and had to park the van. So, at this point our only option to go forward was to walk.

The wind was howling and I do mean howling! The air temperature was not that bad, about -3 to -4 centigrade or around 28-30 F. But combined that with the frigid wind chill, blowing snow, ice, brutal headwinds and even some sand to mix in with it, it was difficult at best to walk. We walked and we walked over rocks, through snowdrifts and over ice. I could see the Arctic Ocean over to my right with its violent crashing waves against the rocks. It was thrilling to finally see the Arctic Ocean, which now meant I’d been to all four oceans, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and now the Arctic. And even more thrilling to imagine was that at that point I was closer to the North Pole at 2,000 kilometers than I was to Moscow!

After a few pauses to look at some of the scenery and some of the rocks, we continued on. I was struggling mightily as I had not brought the proper footwear since I had no idea we would be doing so much hiking! I only had tennis shoes on and not my “arctic grip” boots, which put me at a real disadvantage, as the snow was DEEEEEP! At times I would be going along and suddenly I’d drop down a foot or two into a snow bank. But I kept going until I fell into a hole and severely bruised my leg. After a moment or two of expletives and assessing any damage, I was able to pick myself up and continue. We were going to go down to the beach, but seeing how I was struggling Yuri decided we’d instead stop at a rock that was not covered in snow and have some tea. He brought with him some pads for us to sit on. We sat down and in true Russian fashion sat there surrounded by snow with howling winds and drank tea. With the winds screaming and the frigid wind chill I was quite grateful that I’d layered to the max!

We spent about ten minutes drinking tea until Ivan, the other group member, decided he wanted to go to the beach after all. So Ivan got up and started hopping effortlessly over all the rocks, snow and ice making his way toward the beach. As I sat there huddled on a rock with a teacup in my hand trying to stay warm I wished that I’d have had that type of energy. I guess having been born and raised in Seattle I just wasn’t cut out for Russian winters. Yuri eventually got up and told me to wait on the rock and that he was going somewhere, where I didn’t know! He said he’d be back and left his stuff. I really did not question thinking he was just going out for a bathroom break or somewhere. Looking back on it, I should’ve asked him!!

About ten minutes went by and I started to wonder where he’d gone, so I climbed up to the top of one of the mounds to take a look at the scenery around. No sign of Yuri! I thought it was odd, but figured he’d eventually come back. Another few minutes went by and still no sign of Yuri. Ivan was down at the beach playing around, so I was alone, not a soul for miles!!! I started to get worried, calling for him thinking maybe he was just over the next rock. Nothing!! Eventually my worry turned to all out panic. I had no idea how to get back to the van! I yelled some more and still nothing but howling wind.

What now? I did not want to leave my place in case he came back, but the weather was starting to get even worse and visibility was shrinking rapidly. I looked at my phone and by some miracle I actually had decent mobile coverage out there in the middle of nowhere!! Yuri had called me earlier that morning to make sure I was coming so I quickly dialed his phone number. But no luck! I then realized the tour organizer had written me on Facebook, so I quickly wrote him a message that Yuri was nowhere to be seen and that I was panicked. Within about a minute Yaroslav, the tour organizer called me on Facebook to tell me not to worry that Yuri is extremely trustworthy and you can trust him like your brother. He told me that if he did not show up to find a place that was not windy and to start following my footprints back to the van. The only problem with that advice was that this was wide-open tundra!! There were no trees or places I could find that would shield me from the cruel Arctic wind!

Just as I was ready to give up and try to maybe walk back to the van, I spotted someone!!! At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I thought maybe it was just a rock that looked like a person, but sure enough out there on the snowy tundra it was indeed Yuri. I waved profusely and he waved back. I was relieved to know that he was on his way. I wrote Yaroslav telling him that I’d found Yuri. He was relieved and said it was easy to get lost out there.

Yuri eventually made his way back to my rock. I frantically asked him where he had been. I said to him that he’d been gone for what seemed like at least a half an hour. He looked at his watch and said, “I was gone just about 15 minutes”! 15 minutes………no way! Maybe Arctic time is longer than back home, but there was no chance he was gone only 15 minutes. After my story about how I was worried he’d abandoned me out in The Arctic he told me he’d gone back to the van to retrieve some boots that I could slip over my tennis shoes. These would help me walk through the snow easier. I slipped them on and they did help, but there was no taking away from the fact the wind still was brutal and the conditions were rough at best.

Eventually Ivan returned from his side trip to the beach and we were ready to continue our adventure. We walked over some more terrain then hooked up with what was the road, albeit totally covered in snow. We continued walking for about another 15 minutes until I got to the point where I had to ask Yuri how much longer we would be going for. After all we’d been out there a long time, plus conditions after getting better for a bit were again rapidly starting to deteriorate. Yuri stated we’d be hiking for another half an hour. No way was I going to continue to brave these conditions for another half hour. By that time Ivan had already raced out ahead of us by about a kilometer. Yuri said he’d run ahead to try to catch up with Ivan to tell him we were heading back and to return with us. He told me to head back on the road and that I’d eventually find the van. He said he’d catch up with me once he found Ivan. I was a bit skeptical but I figured if I kept walking I’d find it.

After about 15 minutes of hiking Yuri caught up with me but he was missing Ivan. Where was Ivan I asked? He said he refused to come back and wanted to walk out the full half hour. We got returned to the van despite the harsh conditions of blowing snow, ice and hail. It was good to be back in the van and be warm especially after about 2 or so hours of hiking in the frigid conditions. Although I was happy to be back in the van, I was a bit worried as I had train to make to St. Petersburg at 7pm and we were leaving rather late. Who knew what type of conditions lay before us on our way back. After a good half an hour of sitting in the van huddling around the van’s heater Ivan finally returned! We were finally ready to go back to Murmansk!

My guide, Yuri, forging ahead despite the white out conditions

The conditions on our return trip were nasty at best, blowing snow, times of near zero visibility and very bumpy conditions. It was a good thing we had a UAZ- 2206, a cross between a VW van, 

Our trusty UAZ-2206

a cross between a VW van and a huge 4x4 truck or we’d’ve never made out of Murmansk. We arrived into town about 5:30pm with just enough time for me to pack my bags, go to the grocery store below to pick up some Coke for the road and check out of my hotel. I made the train with no problem but was sad to leave The Arctic and all its adventure behind. I may have left the Arctic behind, but the memories and impressions of my three days in the Arctic will never ever leave me!

Blue dot marks the spot! My location at my furthest point north!