Two nuclear reactors drive it; at the pole, a seven-tonne anchor is dropped, so that no one need worry about walking on the ice.Murmansk, in the far north of Russia. At the foot of the Alyosha statue, erected in memory of the Russian soldiers who died in the Arctic during the Second World War, a hundred and fifty Chinese millionaires have gathered. 25,000 euros a berth, double for the luxury version: aboard the 50 Years of Victory, the most powerful nuclear icebreaker in the world, they are setting out to reach the geographic North Pole, for the hundredth time in human history. Along the way, these tourists of a new kind send us back to our own questions: where is the world going, what is the polar bear telling us as the ice melts, and what place do we occupy in this great planetary jumble?
The ship speeds at twenty-one knots towards Franz Josef Land, and everyone on board has their reasons. One young passenger packed her suitcase in an hour, on the morning of her flight: a friend had posted photos of Antarctica on Facebook, the season was over, so it would be the North Pole. Another has brought only a pair of light trousers, a short-sleeved shirt and a few bottles given by friends. A former soldier, he repaired fighter planes before reading Lao Tzu changed his life; a follower of the Chinese energy arts, he wants to prove that by meditating and fasting one can survive extreme cold almost without clothes. For everyone else, Yann Bryde, the expedition leader, opens the voyage in the screening room. He promises polar bears, helicopter rides and Zodiac outings, a hand-in-hand circle around the pole, a barbecue and a party on the pack ice, and even a wedding, for anyone who wants one. “Off we go to the North Pole.”
He says he has already done the same thing in Antarctica and on the summit of Everest, and believes himself to be “a world first”.But the Barents Sea is round like every sea in the world, and one soon learns to count distances in days. People write postcards, move their pieces into enemy territory, make up over tea. Before routine sets in, the anchor is dropped off Champ Island and Tikhaya Bay. Some land, a little ice, a few huts: it was from here that Russians once tried to reach the pole by dog sled, in the name of communism. Yann Bryde is making the voyage for the fourteenth time, and for him the archipelago remains “a lost paradise”. Yet he sees change coming: with China, Brazil or India, new markets will open up, and in ten years the region will have developed. The next day, the Zodiacs pass dozens of walruses; then the ice chunks accompanying the ship become blocks, and the blocks icebergs, some “as tall as cathedrals”. For the passengers, the ice is a symbol of purity and perfection.
Today, tourists travel there by icebreaker, and exploring it is almost worth a trip to the Moon.
One of the most eagerly awaited stages of the voyage, “like a brochure’s promise”, whose every photo one hopes to take.
An old male, seven or ten years old perhaps, keeps watch on the shore: he is waiting for a walrus to come close.
“In China, you don’t get the chance to see icebergs every day.”Around two in the morning, the captain brings the ship as close as he can to an iceberg so that everyone can take its measure; in the fog that follows, the ship strikes another that no one saw coming. A dented railing, a ramp out of action: “At that little game, it’s always the icebergs and the pack ice that win”, says the captain. The Chinese, he expects to meet more and more often: they have sent their own icebreaker to the region, the Snow Dragon, have ordered others from Finland, and the Northeast Passage, used by two ships in 2009, saw forty last year. Below decks, a hundred and forty crew members keep the ship moving. The head chef, who served on the Lenin and the Yamal, tells of the bear that came on board to steal a sausage, and of the cub a sailor had adopted, until the day it broke two of someone’s ribs. In the engine room, a mechanic remembers reaching the pole in 1979, ice so thick that the propeller broke three times a voyage, and the pride of those days. Up above, Yann Bryde leads “the northernmost auction in the world”, for a charity: eight minutes at the controls of the icebreaker go for 7,000 euros, the nautical chart of the voyage for 21,000.
The ship is “very, very sturdy”, he admits: one sometimes tends to be a little too sure of oneself.
In an ordinary restaurant, you can be creative; on board, a cabbage omelette is enough to upset people.
On the chart that was sold, a spelling mistake, “but no mistake in the route”.A she-bear blocks the ship’s path. Five or six years old, probably pregnant, she has just eaten a seal and watches the humans, curious. One passenger finds her lonely, a little sad; because of global warming, she says, fewer and fewer are seen around here. Yann Bryde hopes that polar bears will not disappear, and that as many passengers as possible will be able to experience this moment. He also hopes to be there for the two-hundredth expedition; by then the bear may have disappeared, and some scientists predict that the sea ice will melt completely in summer within a few years. The GPS counts down the last metres, and the ship reaches the North Pole for the hundredth time in history. In summer, it is not unusual for the pole to be in open water: the captain pushes on further, towards ice that is safe enough. Armed with less-lethal and deafening rounds, the guards watch for bear tracks, as the bears now venture beyond their usual territories. On the pack ice, it is “the new Ibiza”. Then a minute’s silence, a last circle, and a number, 100, as a reminder that the hundredth icebreaker expedition to the pole is Chinese.
The bear to its kingdom, the icebreaker to its North Pole: each heads back towards its destiny.
Five passengers per rotation, thirty rotations in the day, six minutes of flight each.
Even a few dozen metres from the ship, you are still in the Arctic, “with all the dangers that go with it”.
5,556 kilometres from Beijing: to each their own pleasure, to each their own fantasy.
Yann Bryde had announced it on the very first evening, as “the North Pole welcome ceremony”.“Here, I feel at home. Nature is the true home of humankind.”The passenger devoted to the energy arts