Alone against frozen nature
 

I‘am lithuanian adventure rider Karolis Mieliauskas, I spent seven days riding on frozen Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake by volume and the deepest in the world.


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It was a solo travel, I had no support truck behind me, no people waiting for my emergency call, no satellite phone and no experience in riding on ice, not even a tent. It was me, my motorcycle, water, hot tea, snacks, extra fuel, basic tools and some clothes.

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At the first day of my journey I faced a lot of difficulties at once. The visibilty was extremely low, the snow cover was very thick and a snow storm was raging. In the snow storm I lost all signs of track. I tried not to stop, as restarting became very difficult due to the deep snow (the amount of snow was so large, it sometimes nearly reached my knees). I was approaching the outfall of Angara (330 rivers inflow to Baikal, while Angara is the only outflowing river), which was waiting for me, such a huge body of unfrozen water in front.

Suddenly, I noticed a human trace and saw two silhouettes in the distance. Approaching them, they were on foot with backpacks, moving slowly and looking at me. I stopped, started to speak, and guess what: they were Lithuanians, just like me. The World has become very small.

During the entire journey I had to cope with extreme cold - sometimes it reached -30̊C - as well as ice cracks – passing/jumping/over them was the biggest challenge. It required a lot of physical energy. Other thing is constantly changing ice and snow condition. In the evening you think you know ice already and may imagine tomorrows ride. But once you start in the morning, you see that ice is different again. It's like this every single day. Snow became harder, ice rougher and vice versa.

Regardless of all the strugles I had to survive. I will not stop. I will continue my adventure with my loyal friend - motorcycle. Next stop - Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place in the world. 

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Follow my next journey on facebook https://www.facebook.com/thecoldestride/

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Cheers!

Looks like fun :)

I was driving on Baikal last February (in my car), great adventure. Sadly there was quite a lot of snow and I never drove across that glass-flat surface which forms in the south around Olkhon (though I did have some on the Lena).

When I was there, locals told me March is normally the season for driving on the Baikal ice, but I guess with a bike the ice can be much thinner. Where exactly were you riding?

Are you riding to Yakutsk / Oymyakon on the bike?? If so, you can take a great short-cut from Ust-Kut to Mirny (west of Yakutsk) on a zimnik, a real winter-only road. Only lorries (no crazy car traffic) and restaurants every 50 km or so. But no fuel for about 1000 km!

Looking forward to following your trip

EO

Great photos and an amazing adventure! Welcome to Horizons Unlimited Karolis!
Looking forward to seeing more :)