As Vladimir 59 ° North, 35 ° East by storm.

Adventure Sport absurd: whether desert, snow, hell or high mountains - Travel Crazy expire on a scavenger hunt kind of bizarre to all intersections of longitude and latitude visit. blogs ONLINE settled in Russia from satellites show the way.

 

There are a few sounds, a cross-country skiing certainly do not want to hear if he was still 15 kilometers through a snowy Russian wilderness before him. When the next village called Bortnikovo inhabitants and its 17 miles away.

These noises heard the roar, for example, a brown bear - still have hunters in the fall not far from here two of the animals killed - or a wolf hissing.

But in wild animals is Vladimir Chernorutsky prepared. He has a small guns, multiple rocket fireworks marks the "Sailing Wind" and "lucky star" and a dozen "Black Death" China-Kracher in the pocket. Thus, he wants in an emergency the beasts chase.

The most unpleasant noise to which Vladimir is not prepared, it sounds like a bursting Ast. To hear it is at the point 59 ° 01'01 .8 "North - 35 ° 03'57 .9" East on a cloudy Saturday morning. It is a rotten crack skis, in the middle just behind the heel breaks.

"Dmitry brings to you", is the first thing on the Malheur Wladimir has to say. Dmitry is the owner of the small white wooden skis and was so nice to them for two days to lend. But a mordlüsterner Moscow is not the problem, because Moscow is about 500 kilometers away. The immediate problem is a huge swamp, which is only passable in winter, when frozen and he is covered by snow.

A coordinate as the target

Beyond this, about four miles away, lies the objective of this tour. There is no peak or vantage point, but a Coordinate: 59 degrees north, 35 degrees east. Vladimir wants to be the first man, this intersection of a geographical longitude and latitude reached.

Google Earth, blogs ONLINE
Miles through the snow: After the village Bortnikovo the route to Point 59 North - 35 East only through pristine wilderness

"Confluence hunting" ( "confluence" means something like "Along the River") is called the adventure, with the GPS device loszuziehen to those coordinates to find items. The idea came from the American Alex Jarrett. With car and GPS device, he traveled in February 1996 by the United States, made a few photos of fractional coordinates and intersections
published on an Internet site. Gradually followed by other technology-loving travelers his example. Thus the network an "organized sampling of the World", as Jarrett's global collection of photos and reports of geography nerds hobby and once called the Amundsen.

"It's about a country not a guide to know, but by the change of the landscape at regular intervals - from intersection to intersection," says Vladimir. The 48-year-old mathematician is a financial consultant for several Internet companies and worked alongside for
confluence.org as coordinator for Russia. So far, he has 80 Confluence points (CPs) attended. At 48 of them was the father of two children, first. "Previously I was on vacation along and made me otherwise viewed the sights. But now, the CPs are often the reason for the trip."

Whether it is on target to see something interesting, is not so important when satellitengeleiteten intersection scavenger hunt. In a world in which there are fewer and fewer places unbesuchte unexplored and there are those GPS expeditions a possibility, even the discoverers to be. Long were people on the moon, the Everest and the North Pole, but there are still around the 10,000 unexplored Confluence points on the mainland. Points on the water are only in the immediate coastal area.

"On the evidence photo must always be a landmark visible on land," says Vladimir the rules. It decides on all Russian attempts as to whether they evaluated and will be released.
All 48 points in Germany have long been visited in Europe are only a few initial visits to the coast near the water possible, for example in Portugal and Norway.

Eight hours, nine hours Skitour

Suddenly Vladimir holds and makes a picture of the dense spruce and pine are the surroundings. As a motive it is not particularly suitable, but it's not about a pretty landscape: That was exactly half of the 8.65 kilometers from the car to the finish, he says.

Somehow it goes with the broken ski. At almost every step the left foot sinks into the snow, sometimes almost to the hip. But surrender is not in question - after all even took the car in a blue Ford wagon Wladmirs from Moscow to the northwest good eight hours. After a night in a hotel "coziness" in the 10,000-souls-town Ustyuzhna, the hot water in an area already for the "luxury room" qualified, was still before dawn at the start point of the tour in the Vologda region.

RUSSIA-QUIZ

AP