Expedition group on North to South Pole road trip stops in Detroit
A group of modern-day explorers kicked off the first-ever transglobal expedition from the North to South Poles this week, making a pitstop at Detroit’s Michigan Central Station.
The 23-member team, composed of top scientists and explorers from around the world, is embarking on an 18-month journey around the Earth, with plans to collect first-ever scientific data along the way.
Andrew Comrie-Picard, group spokesperson and former racecar driver, said the journey started in 2020 as the brainchild of Russian billionaire Vasily Shakhnovsky.
Shakhnovsky is a former shareholder of Yukos Oil, an oil company birthed in 1993 from the transfer of Soviet-owned oil and gas reserves to the private sector. He left Russia in 2003 after Yukos was dismantled by President Vladimir Putin.
Shakhnovsky now refers to himself as an adventurer and partnered with Russian businessman Alexander Abramov in 2020 to make his dream expedition a reality.
“After I climbed Mount Everest with (Alexander), we got this idea independently of each other … to go around the world by car so that we don’t ever lose touch with the Earth’s surface,” Shakhnovsky said in a promotional video.
Comrie-Picard said the team has partnered with various scientific and educational institutions to complete vital research along the trip.
“Two are based out of CERN, in Switzerland, the large avion particle collector there … we actually have a scintillator in that truck right there which can detect cosmic ray penetration data,” he said.
The team is driving a fleet of Ford vehicles, the AT44 F150 Hybrid, AT35 Ford Expedition and AT44 6x6 F350, with various modifications to ensure they can last the journey.
Each of the vehicle tires is connected to air pumps within the bed of the trucks via wiring, so they can be deflated as low as 3 psi — making it possible for the trucks to essentially float above thick snow and ice.
The team also has a one-of-a-kind Yemelya, an amphibious vehicle designed for transportation over waterways, with modifications designed by team members Vasily Elagin and Emil Grimssom.
Grimssom said he was recruited to the team after they had tested all the available Yemelya vehicles and determined they would need to build their own.
Prepared to discover a new species or solve a burning scientific question, the group said they couldn’t be more excited to begin the trek.
“When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was explore,” Comrie-Picard said. “Curiosity is something that is already so engrained in us, to learn, to adventure, to meet new people and places — and we’re so excited to tell people that not only is it possible but it can be really fun.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Expedition group on North to South Pole road trip stops in Detroit