the head of the expedition, which was organized by “Center for support of expedition activities”, Anton Urmanov. We were together last year on the Kuril Islands. Then found two Japanese guns. Oh, how we dragged.
– First, we contacted a descendant of the first climbers to the Eastern summit of Elbrus Kilar Khashirov – Asker. This wonderful man helped us with the logistics. Arranged transportation and housing. Got helium! Very helpful and the Government of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic. The party took on 12 people. Among them, two participants with limited hearing and speech. It is the task of the “Center” is to involve children with disabilities in active field work. We had an environmental scientist, a historian, and even the artist Ilya Robe. On the Northern slope of Elbrus we have put together and pulled 40 kilograms of garbage and made recommendations to the national Park, how to minimize the negative impact from tourists. But most importantly – we launched a unique stratospheric probe. This was done by the inventor of the probe from the laboratory of “Stratonovich” Denis Efremov.
How is the life of an ordinary weather balloon. Pumped helium, and the balloon flies up devices. After 30-40 miles the shell breaks: pressure breaks the ball from the inside. And equipment data for parachute system or down to earth. 40 minutes and the flight is over. What were gathered, and then processed by scientists. And Efremov suggested your approach. Shell-mounted remote controlled valve. Once the pressure is approaching a “red line”, it opens and bleeds helium. You can fly on. Maybe even higher if the load is small. Our probe flew 170 km in 3 hours. What is not a record? And then the inevitable “bunch” on the ground.
now You can see extraordinary photos of Elbrus from the pilot balloon. And the whole expedition was extraordinary. Rarely seen such support in our time. New races are ahead. Maybe next year the miracle of the probe will travel to Antarctica. There he will gather several times more scientific data than regular meteorological instruments.
