Russians to North Pole: “We can not cross this alive chaos on skis.”

When Russian explorers Matvey Shparo and Boris Smolin kicked off their latest expedition—to become the first people to reach the North Pole during winter, a route some 1,000 kilometers long—they knew they could expect darkness. Lots of it. Cold—in the nippley, minus-50-degree neighborhood. And obstacles. Many of them. Like swimming across open water in survival suits, pushing their sleds. Illuminating the ice with rockets. Frostbite—every time they stopped for more than three minutes.

What they didn’t expect was the polar bear who carried off Smolin’s sled. Or the time Shparo broke through a floe. Or the “nights” they had to sleep outside their bags for easy escape—in case the ice suddenly fell apart beneath their tent. Why would any sane human being want to suffer so much? “To demonstrate that Russian people still have capacity for great deeds,” apparently. Their endeavor, which kicked off on December 24, 2007, is chronicled here , where the two men are mere days from finally reaching the top of the world. Hope it’s light enough to tell —Evelyn Spence