Forty school students from Moscow left for a training session in Karelia prior to the final stage of the Great Arctic Expedition of Russian youth. Only seven of them will be chosen to join the Polyus (Pole) squad in April 2020 and ski to the North Pole.

The schoolchildren will test their strength and endurance in adverse conditions resembling the Arctic environment and will face just about the same challenges as polar explorers do on drifting sea-ice formations in the Arctic Ocean. Squad members will be selected based on physiological and psychological parameters, as well as test results.

"This is the 12th Great Arctic Expedition for school students from Moscow. While in Karelia, the young people will take on an even more rigorous test than on drifting Arctic ice floes, and each of them will gain excellent experience while moving through the taiga. I wish them good luck," said Matvei Shparo, who runs the expedition.

The upcoming expedition is an educational project for Moscow schoolchildren that involves various events dealing with Arctic exploration and journeys. Fourteen schoolchildren aged 16-18 will be selected during the final stage and will form two expedition squads. Barneo, the first squad, will conduct research at a drifting station on an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean, and the Polyus squad will ski 100 kilometers to the North Pole.