support team
Roads of Metelitsa
The Metelitsa crew is known in the world as a women’s only organization which realizes scientific-and-sport expeditions in high latitudes of the Arctic and Antarctic. Metelitsa is included in a number of the most significant women expeditions of the world in the last 2000 years. Only our crew was honoured to be included on this list.
Metelitsa was founded in 1966 by Valentina Kuznetsova, master of sport and a radio engineer. Originally the crew was a ski marathon team.
1966 (December – 7.5 days, 725 km) Moscow - Leningrad;
1968 (February – 5 days, 400 km) Moscow - Smolensk;
1969 (January, February – 33 days, 2,600 km) Moscow - Leningrad - Helsinki - Turku - Tampere - Tornio.
Today the Metelitsa crew consists of specialists in medicine (physiology, psychology, traumatology, ophthalmology, surgery, gynecology, endocrinology, neurology, therapy). There are also radiotricians, photographers, ecologists and other specialists too. Members of the crew are mainly masters of sport, candidate masters, first degree masters of ski, orienteering, radio sport, sky-jumping, mountain climbing and other types of sports. During 30 years there were over 20 expeditions in high latitudes of the Arctic and Antarctic, among them: expeditions in Taimyr, Franz Josef Land, a unique scientific programme in complicated conditions under – 710 C, at the height of 3.5 km above sea level. The high latitudes of the Arctic are scrupulously traced by us.
1974 (April, May – 13 days, 300 km) – Halmer-U - Amderma
1975 (April, May) – East Coast of Taimyr (M. Pronchischevoy bay – Cape Chelyuskin)
1976 (April, May) – Cape Chelyuskin – Severnaya Zemlya
1977 (April, May) – Franz Josef Land (Graham-Bell island – Kuna island – Grili island – Hase island)
1979 (April – May) – 10 days, 300 km - Franz Josef Land (Rudolph island – British channel - Armitedge main land – Luidgi island – Hase island)
1981 (April, May) - Franz Josef Land (Rudolph island - Hase island)
1985 (April, May) - Halmer-U – Ust-Kara
1986 (April, May) - Franz Josef Land (Guker island- Allen-Yung Strait - F. Nansen island – Salisbury island – Cook Strait – Champ island – Hase island)
1987 (April, May) - Franz Josef Land (Hase island – Payer island - Rudolph island)
1990 (April, May) - Franz Josef Land, International group (Hase island – Viner island – Guker island)
1993 (April, May) - Franz Josef Land (from Graham-Bell island to Jackson island)
1993 (July) - Franz Josef Land (Jackson island – wintering reconnaissance of F. Nansen and Ja. Iohansen)
1995 (March, April) - to the North Pole, on drifting ice, 83-88 degree
The crew is highly professional in holding scientific research in the field under extreme conditions and with a maximum physical load. Five ladies from Metelitsa have reached the True South (American station Amundsen – Scott) and staked down the flags of Moscow and Russia.
1988 (February) - Antarctica I (Molodezhnaya station, reconnaissance)
1988 - 89 (December, January, February – 57 days, 1,420 km) - Antarctica II
(Molodezhnaya station – flight to Mirny station and further – ski crossing: Mirny station – Komsomolskaya station – Vostok staion)
1995 - 96 (November, December, January) - Antarctica III. To the South Pole from the 87th degree.
Today Metelitsa performs charity work. They also deal with social events in their district and do this to help their community where they have been situated in the same address for 23 years. Moreover, Metelitsa have been good Samaritans and have always organized scientific and social events.
1991 (October, December) - Motor rally I – around Scandinavia (Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland)
1993 (May, June) - Motor rally II - around Scandinavia (Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland)
1997 (July, August) - Motor rally III – around North Europe and Scandinavia (Russia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway)
1998 (April) - Motor rally IV from Moscow to Lapland (Rovaniemi)
1998 - 99 – Delivery and settlement of the Chapel in Novaya Zemlya
2000 - Metelitsa took an active part in the programme “Water – monument of holy history”. In Antarctica there was the extraction of water of Jesus Christ’s time. The water was presented to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin; President of Ukraine, V. Kuchma and President of Belarus, A. Lukashenko at the Prokhorovskoe Pole.
2001 (November) here was organized and performed the presentation of the water of Jesus Christ’s time which was extracted in Antarctica to Patriarch Alexey II..
of the water of Jesus Christ’s time
During one of the high latitude expeditions in Chukotka, Alaska which included the Bering strait in 1991 (February, March) – Chukotka – Alaska, International group (St. Laurence settlement – Wellen - Wels – Nom) the crew decided to realize a round-the-world expedition which was warmly kept by aborigines. The crew worked on this project and as a result got the Government regulation 1992 (on holding round-the-world expeditions). But at that time Russia was not concerned about any actions. But the crew did not quit dreaming and still kept working on the project. At the present time the International ski relay has grown into the International social-cultural project “Pink gull” (2007 – 2008); (“the pink gull” a rare bird which lives only in ecologically clean regions of the Arctic). Every human being is as fragile and unique as this bird and the entire North needs care too. We wish to present the North as we see it, to introduce the North because you cannot love something that you cannot see. Nowadays, Metelitsa works on holding the round-the-world tour. One of the “pearls” of the tour is Turukhansk or “Goldsmelting Mangazea”. A brethren’s building construction project is being developed, that is a wooden church and guest house for the Turukhansk Holy-Trinity monastery. The preparatory works are managed by a friend and a partner of Metelitsa E.A. Opolovnikova
Contact information:
Tel.: +7 495 433 26 20
Fax: +7 495 433 23 70
e-mail: melitsa@newmail.ru, meteliza@nm.ru