The expedition of Yamal travelers from the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) along the Novy Urengoi-Shokalsky Island-Salekhard route has been rescheduled for 2018, the website of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area reports. They were supposed to cover this 1,500 km route next March on a dogsled pulled by 12 Huskies.  

Preparing for the expedition, the Yamal travelers took an 80 km ride in the Nadym District to test auxiliary equipment — two snowmobiles and a tow. Initially they planned to cover 300 km from the village of Yagelny (Nadym District) to Novy Urengoi during January 2-7 but had to shorten this route because the temperature dropped almost to —50 C.

"We'll make this 300 km test ride in March, tentatively from Novy Urengoi. The equipment should undergo thorough tests before our expedition to Shokalsky Island," said Dmitry Zhdan, the head of the expedition.

The expedition will take place as part of Arctic Spirit, a project on setting up and developing a sled dog kennel in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area.