Text edited and translated by Dasha Kotenko.
“The second night I woke up from cold and heard how benches were cracking in the forest, and the sounds came closer and closer and then something fell on the top of our tent — very loud. I freaked out and started calling Andrey, but he was still snoring peacefully. So I had to survive all this horror alone. It was the only time in my life when I actually felt this primal fear that makes you run away and never look back. But I told myself it was a big bird that just decided to sit on the tree next to our camp. And let’s imagine I run out of the tent, then what? I wouldn’t last long at that temperature anyway”.
Despite constantly interrupted sleep, the guys woke up every day at 6AM without an alarm clock and let themselves stay in warm and cozy sleeping bags for two more hours before getting up and making breakfast.
In the morning a cup of tea was enough. But the guys had serious problems with cooking. The gas camping stove they had stopped working at -5 C. So they had to warm the cylinder up in the campfire or under the cloths. But they didn’t have water — it would have frozen immediately. That’s why they were melting snow, but they say it tastes like empty water. The tea made with it was horrible, besides there was always some stuff like leaves or small branches floating. For lunch Andrey and Alexander usually had bulgur with vegetables or lentil soup, delicious but simple meal.
Waiting for the water to boil the guys were dancing around to keep themselves warm. The most difficult part was to keep warm the fingers and toes. They say you can get used to the cold, but when you enter any warm place the whole body starts hurting. Then you get out and feel all these -20 degrees to the fullest. So it was safer just to stay outside.
