A challenging road expedition called, ‘The Attraction of the Arctic: the Yamal Circle,' will kick off in February 2016, according to a report on the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic's website. The travelers will follow the route of the Dvina-Ob leg of the Great Northern Expedition, headed by Stepan Malygin, but in the opposite direction.

Vehicles will depart from Beryozov, where Malygin's expedition finished in 1737, and travel down the Ob River to Salekhard and then to the Malygin Strait. As it reaches the strait, the team plans to cross over to Bely Island on drifting ice, then cross the polar tundra and make it to the Popov Hydrometeorological Station.

The return trip will run along the western shore of the Yamal Peninsula and the Sharapovy Koshki string of islands where Malygin's expedition spent the winter in 1736.

The expedition will cover the entire 8,000 km.

‘The Attraction of the Arctic' project started over five years ago. The team researches the routes and the history of the Great Northern Expedition.