Arctic Trucks Expeditions 2010

From 01.11.2010 to - Status: success

Trucks on the antarctic ice

The passion some peole have developped for driving a 4wd vehicle did not spare the 6th Continent. Operating mostly from the russian base of Novolazarevskaya, an icelandic TO offers now 4wd motorised expeditions to South Pole. This winter (austral summer), three expeditions are listed - one being on its way already.

1/ The Indian National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research

The first expedition of this summer is for the Indian National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR). Starting mid november 2010, four trucks will drive to the South Pole from ALCI airbase.

The primary object of this project is to make number of scientific researches and the secondary object is to identify a location, in the vicinity of South Pole, for a fuel drop, gather the fuel drums and make the area tidy.

From Arctic Trucks there will be two highly experienced drivers/mechanics Freyr Jonsson and Eyjolfur Teitsson. One or two persons are coming from the ALCI airbase and 8 people from the Indian scientific station MATRI.

2/ The Kazakhstan National Geographic Society

The second expedition will be for the Kazakhstan National Geographic Society taking place from early December to around 20th December.

This expedition will use one or two of the AT44 from 2008 and two new AT44‘s build for the Kazakhstan group. Two people from Arctic Trucks are in this expedition, Gunnar Haraldsson and Hlynur Sigurðsson together with 6-8 people from Kazakhstan.

3/ Ski Race Antarctica 2010

The third expedition will assist a ski race to the South Pole organized by Extreme World Races. This is similar to the project Arctic Trucks people and vehicles supported during the filming of BBC‘s "On thin ice“. This expedition will take place from mid December to 10 January.

For this expedition, two new AT44 6x6 will have their maiden trip to the South Pole along with two new AT44‘s. Additionally two of the 2008 vehicles will be used to support and film the ski teams for the first 150km from Novo up to the high plateau where an airplane will pick them up and fly to 320 km from the South Pole where the actual races will start.

From Arctic Trucks, Gisli Jonsson and Aron Reynisson will go as expert driver/mechanics and Guðmundur Guðjonsson will be going as driver/paramedic. A film crew from the German ZDF and Austrian ORF will join along with crew from the organizers of this race Extreme World Races.

(Source : Arctic Trucks' website)