121 years have passed since the incredible adventure in the North Pole by Norwegian explorers Nansen, Sverdrup, Wisting, and Amundsen from 1893 to 1912. Now, French explorer Gilles Elkaim is preparing to cross the Arctic Ocean aboard his boat, the Arktika, specially designed for polar navigation. However, this time, the expedition, which will be solo (scheduled between 2016 and 2018) and partly powered by autonomous energy sources, will benefit from minute-by-minute tracking thanks to a high-performance geolocation beacon, thanks to his partnership with Advanced-Tracking.
Gilles Elkaim's project
Gilles Elkaim's passion for the North Pole stems from the imperative that it is humans who must adapt to the environment they explore, not the other way around. This is a philosophy the navigator wishes to share with all those who will follow, closely or from afar, the stages of his journey, and which his boat, the Arktika, designed to operate using renewable energies, perfectly embodies.
Indeed, the wind turbines and the solar kit provided by Advanced-Tracking – composed of a solar panel, a battery, a case, and a suction cup mount – will harness natural elements to ensure the energy autonomy of the geolocation beacon aboard the Arktika.
The journey program
This new great adventure by Gilles Elkaim is expected to last two years and is divided into two main parts:
- The navigation itself, from the New Siberian Islands to the Svalbard archipelago,
- A journey to the North Pole with sled dogs for one month.
Already unique, the expedition's difficulty is heightened by the chosen type of navigation, which is drift, by the absence of any assistance, and by a total of eight months of polar night. However, according to Gilles Elkaim, two years and such measures will not be too much to convince humanity of the need to respect the Arctic environment…
A message to the planet
By living in this way, in total symbiosis with the Arctic environment, and by traveling there aboard a simple sailboat, Gilles Elkaim hopes to demonstrate that the polar regions, today claimed by some countries wishing to exploit their natural resources, belong to no one.
Therefore, although he chose to go solo, he made all necessary arrangements to make his adventure public to the whole world, thanks to the Delorme Explorer beacon with which Advanced-tracking has equipped the Arktika. Also operating with 7 integrated solar panels, this beacon will not only allow the navigator to plot his course point by point through the ice floe, but also to communicate his progress in the ice and his observations, even from the most isolated places.
A unique adventure, in short, as beautiful as it is thrilling, which Advanced-Tracking is proud to sponsor!