Traditionally, the Russian Geographical Society uses off-road vehicles with high cross-country ability in its expeditions. In 2023, the Russian Geographical Society will provide an opportunity to test its equipment during four expeditions that will take place in remote regions of Russia. Guests and participants of the XII St. Petersburg International Motorcycle Show IMIS 2023 were among the first to learn about this
The Russian Geographical Society has been supporting IMIS for 11 years, providing it with information and organizational support. This year, a unique VR space was organized at the RGS booth, where everyone could go on an immersive journey through Russia in 3D. Opening the motorcycle salon, Sergey Katikov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Geographical Society on international activities, noted:
— The development of domestic tourism with the use of motorcycle and off-road equipment is within the scope of the RGS in the context of opening unique places in our vast country to a wide audience. For many years, the Russian Geographical Society has been supporting the motorcycle show, acquainting manufacturers of equipment with the scale and technical features of their expeditions. IMIS is the starting point for fruitful cooperation between the Russian Geographical Society and leading representatives of the industry, motorcycle and auto business.
The head of the Department of Tourism and Expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society, Natalia Belyakova, told in which expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society manufacturers can test motorcycle and off-road equipment in 2023.
— Every year the Russian Geographical Society organizes about 20 federal expeditions. Most of them use off-road vehicles of high cross-country ability, – said Natalia Belyakova. — This year, such events include the expedition to survey the Alsib airway, the long-term complex expedition “Eastern Bastion – Kuril Ridge”, the expedition to survey the sites of American aircraft crashes during the US Army’s military operations against Japan and the complex expedition to the island of Alexandra Land of the Franz Land archipelago -Joseph.
The expedition to survey the Alsib air route will take place in hard-to-reach areas – in the tundra and mountains of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the mountains and taiga of Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
During the Great Patriotic War, planes supplied to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease were ferried along the historical route. Work in hard-to-reach places of their fall and the removal of artifacts is possible only with the use of special high-traffic equipment.
Stels snowmobiles participated in the Polar Bear Census on Wrangel Island and in the Umka expeditions on the Franz Josef Land archipelago, heavy caterpillar snow and swamp vehicles worked in the Tunnug expeditions in Tyva and the Transpolar Highway in Yamal and the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Stels ATVs and the BigBo all-terrain vehicle was taking out fragments of aircraft on the Alsib highway.
From Moscow, vehicles will be delivered by plane to their destination, from there by cargo helicopter to the place of work. Therefore, the size of the equipment is important in this project: for example, large all-terrain vehicles will not be able to be transported to the search area.
In 2022, to participate in an expedition to search for American aircraft from the Second World War, two ATVs and a buggy were delivered by plane to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, from where they were taken to Ust-Bolsheretsk by Urals, and then the ATVs were already on their own.
In 2023, the Russian Geographical Society is ready to take any equipment capable of operating in the difficult climatic conditions of the North for testing on the Alsib expedition. These are swampy tundra, forest tundra, taiga, mountains in the vicinity of the city of Susuman and the village of Seimchan in the Magadan Region, the villages of Oymyakon, Khandyga and Zyryanka in Yakutia (Republic of Sakha), the village of Omolon in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
The lack of roads, sandy soils, mountains, elfin, snow, fording numerous water barriers will become the working days of the equipment during the next stage of the expedition. The routes will run in the south of the Kamchatka Territory, where the Russian Geographical Society will provide an opportunity to test all-terrain vehicles that can overcome mountain passes, snow, sand and rocky shores in difficult conditions.
In the 2022 season, the expedition “Eastern Bastion – Kuril Ridge” used wheeled and tracked vehicles of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which were delivered to the places of work by the Navy transport. In 2023, research will take place on five islands of the Kuril chain – Kunashir, Iturup, Chirpoya, Broughton and Simushir. Here you will need equipment that can walk in the conditions of the eastern subtropical zone of the Russian Federation, for which pine and alder elfin, sandy coasts, hills and mountains will not become an obstacle. Cross-country transport will move ashore from sea vessels. The Russian Geographical Society is ready to test wheeled and tracked vehicles, wheeled Urals, vehicles of large manufacturers that produce heavy trucks comparable to army vehicles. On the island of Iturup, you will need large all-terrain vehicles, off-road vehicles, ATVs and buggies. On Urup and Chirpoy – ATVs and small all-terrain vehicles. On Simushir and Kunashir – off-road vehicles, small and large all-terrain vehicles (tracked and wheeled), quad bikes.
In the course of complex scientific research on the island of Alexandra Land of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, the expeditionaries will test snowmobile equipment.
– Almost all of our major expeditions require either snowmobiles or ATVs, caterpillar, wheeled all-terrain vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, – said Natalia Belyakova. — We are ready to use and test any equipment that is adapted to work in the Russian Arctic, Siberia and the Far East, as well as in other logistically difficult regions of our country. At the same time, we focus on sustainable vehicles that cause the least harm to the environment, such as electric vehicles, vehicles on low-pressure tires, etc.
The Russian Geographical Society has accumulated rich experience in testing new models of all-terrain vehicles. For several years now, the Company has been cooperating with Velomotors JSC (Stels trademark). During this period, their snowmobile and ATV equipment successfully performed expeditionary tasks on the island of Alexandra Land on Franz Josef Land, Chukotka, Kamchatka, Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Irkutsk Region (expeditions “Umka-2020”, “Umka-2021”, in two seasons of the expedition “Alsib”, expedition to Kamchatka, in two expeditions for laying tourist routes – in the Ermakovsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and in the Chukhlomsky district of the Kostroma region).
The domestically assembled BigBo amphibious snow and swamp vehicle, a unique development of the ATV Laboratory, passed its first serious field tests in expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society in 2022 and also proved itself well.
