A participant of the Great Arctic Expedition shared his emotions before the trip

Artyom Ismagilov, a member of the research team of the Great Arctic Expedition, admitted on July 31 that he was not afraid of the upcoming work — he was feeling nervous and anticipatory before departure. He shared his emotions with Izvestia.

"I've been interested in the Arctic since I was a child. I've watched TV channels about nature, and I've always been interested in the Arctic because it has endless white deserts. And since I'm a skier, <...> I love snow very much," he explained.

The team will be transported to the starting point by helicopter — in a few days they will have to cover more than 100 km to Cape Chelyuskin along the western coast of Taimyr Island. On the way, the volunteers will collect samples, which will be handed over to scientists for further analysis.

"We have set up a route so that, in addition to biological research, we touch on some historical points. Because the entire coast of our Arctic is literally littered with names that are associated with the discoverers," said expedition leader Matvey Shparo.

He added that about 10,000 people had applied for the project. In the future, the applicants had to go through a series of tests — intellectual and physical competitions and other events. The final stage was the training camp in Karelia. The final team consisted of 14 schoolchildren and college students.

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Another participant of the project, Kristina Fomina, chose the "Guardians of History" direction — within its framework, volunteers are reconstructing a memorial complex dedicated to the first polar explorers. Her father helped her prepare for the selection, who taught the student how to work with tools.

"When I arrived in Karelia, we were told: "We need to assemble a stele 2 m high. It became clear that all this is not a joke. We have learned everything," she stressed.

The expedition starts from Moscow on August 6. The event has been held since 2018.

In June, Alexander Saburov, head of the Arctic Floating University expedition, director of the Institute for Strategic Arctic Development at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NARFU), said that Arctic exploration gives a powerful impetus to technical development, allowing to study the shelf, extract minerals and monitor the ice situation.