Valentin Yefremov — Explorer
On May 21, 2005, marked "urgent," the world's leading news agencies reported that Russian explorer Valentin Yefremov had become the first person in history to reach the North Pole by hot-air balloon and land there. The daring adventurer from Nizhny Novgorod managed to beat the Americans, who had also been attempting to reach the coveted spot by balloon.
When introduced, Valentin calls himself a "professional polar explorer." This man is consumed by the North, by the Arctic. He feels uncomfortable in ordinary life. Almost every summer, when the means allow — financial means, that is — he sets off for the islands of the Arctic Ocean. He lives an utterly ascetic existence. His ex-wife — an Eskimo woman with white flaxen hair — lives somewhere, either in Prague or Vienna, with another husband. His daughter has grown into an adult woman whom he has not seen in years, yet he speaks of her as though they met recently. Yefremov is tall and big-boned, his mustache merging into a short, trimmed beard, his long hair held back across his forehead by a strap. Once, on returning to Nizhny Novgorod, in December 1992, he pitched a tent on the Otkos, not far from the Chkalov Monument, and lived there for several weeks. He would treat his guests to strong, thick tea boiled on an alcohol burner, and to vodka served in a small wooden cup. He explained that vodka is simply indispensable on expeditions, but must be consumed with great care: "Have your measure — then stand up and stamp your feet on the spot, or go outside the tent and do a few vigorous movements; otherwise, instead of warming up, you'll freeze!" he shared from experience. In the second half of June 1993, Yefremov set out for Bennett Island. The weather favored the polar explorer and his two companions — a videographer and a radio operator. At first the news from them was optimistic. For two months, Nizhny Novgorod shortwave radio operators were in contact with the travelers. Then for another two months there was no word from Yefremov whatsoever. Polar aviation pilots came to the rescue — they located the group and flew the people back to the mainland. It turned out the radio had failed. Yefremov's record includes some remarkably daring expeditions: he traveled by dogsled to Sannikov Land; over two navigational seasons he traversed the Northern Sea Route, first from Yakutsk to Cape Dezhnev, and then from Cape Dezhnev to Murmansk. After test flights over Nizhny Novgorod, he ventured in 1999 to fly by hot-air balloon from Tiksi to the Anjou Islands. In the spring of 2005, Yefremov was joined at the North Pole by Eduard Mazur, a technician from Yakutsk, and Vitaly Gazoryan, a Moscow-based videographer. Valentin flew in the hot-air balloon Svyataya Rus (Holy Russia), while Eduard and Vitaly traveled by snowmobile, carrying equipment and — most importantly — gas cylinders for refueling the gondola. Gazoryan periodically flew alongside Valentin and filmed from the balloon. The expedition launched on Cosmonautics Day — fittingly — on April 12, 2005, from Sredny Island in the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Only on May 21, after grueling adventures and exhausting hardships, did the satellite navigator show nothing but zeros. Whichever direction one looked — it was south. All parallels and meridians converged at a single point at the top of the Earth: the North Pole! The three friends stood at the summit of the planet and seemed to hear the creak of the Earth's axis, worn out from its eternal rotation. They had conquered 980 high-latitude kilometers. And they earned the right to erect a post at the North Pole bearing the distances from there to the three Russian cities where each of them had begun his journey to the Pole: Nizhny Novgorod (3,758 km), Moscow (3,821 km), and Yakutsk (3,122 km). The travelers made the return journey on a helicopter that came to collect them. They landed on Dikson Island, where they were presented with certificates confirming their polar achievements. There is one other equally committed hermit-explorer in Russia like Yefremov: Fyodor Konyukhov, conqueror of the world's waters. When asked about the Nizhny Novgorod residents "wanderer of the North," Konyukhov replied that he would like to meet Yefremov. And in the summer of 2005 in Moscow, after Yefremov's balloon flight to the North Pole and Konyukhov's return from his round-the-world voyage, that meeting took place. The two extreme adventurers decided to undertake a joint venture. Yefremov, without revealing the details, commented: "It must be an incredible project and a sensational record — we just need to think everything through carefully!"