The Transglobal Car Expedition which travelled by vehicle overland to Resolute Bay from Yellowknife earlier in March is commencing operations to recover one of their trucks which was lost through the ice during their journey.
An Arctic Ford AT44 F-150 was lost near the Tasmania Islands, a small group of islands between the Boothia Peninsula and Prince of Wales Island. The operation starts on August 25, with the recovery team operating from Gjoa Haven, air bags are going to be used to lift the vehicle up from the water and bring it to land.
Once the truck is on the land, it will then be inspected and prepared to be lifted out to Gjoa Haven where it will be shipped out of the community during the next sealift.
“This is a massively complex operation in a very remote area of precious landscape,” said Emil Grimsson, head of Arctic Trucks Polar Iceland, who will be monitoring the operation.
“Months of planning have gone into this effort and the Transglobal Car Expedition has committed all of the resources necessary to succeed and ensure the team’s safety during this process,” Grimsson added.
The recovery team will be on-site for approximately take three days for account for any delays in lifting the truck.
“This is an international team of the best in the world in polar-wheeled travel, augmented with experienced cold-water recovery experts and a team of Indigenous underwater camera operators,” said Andrew Comrie-Picard, a Canadian member of the exhibition and director of its media team.
“Our respect for the land motivates our desire to do the right thing to remediate the area, and also bring the world’s eyes to one of our most pristine and beautiful places on the planet.”
The 2,200 overland journey from from Yellowknife to Resolute earlier this year was a test run of a planned complete circumnavigation of Earth just using land-based vehicles and no flights from 2023-24. Ships will be used to go from Greenland to Denmark, Turkey to Egypt, South Africa to Antarctica, Antarctica to Argentina and Colombia to Panama.