Aussies are expected to be among the foolhardy entrants in the sixth Ice Run riding Ural outfits across 2000km of the world’s deepest frozen lake.
Six were involved in the 2015 Ice Race and four last year, so there are bound to be more crazy Aussies in the March 2018 event.
The Ice Run travels across Lake Baikal in Siberia which is 636km long, 31,722 square kilometres in area and more than 1600m deep.
Temperatures in the region dip to a balmy -22oC and the lake spends most of the year frozen.
Parts of the ice are sculpted smooth by the wind, but there are also treacherous sections with large tombstones of ice and massive crevasses to navigate around.
There’s no set route, but entrants will be given a selection of GPS co-ordinates for fuel drops and hazardous areas to avoid.
Ice Run entries open
Entries are now open for the 12-day event for teams of two.
Participants will ride 1980s and ‘90s Urals which were pretty much the same as in 1940 when the Russian army took the German BMW R71, pulled it apart, copied it and slapped a Ural badge on.
Teams are provided with a mapping file for their GPS, the necessary spares and tools to fix and maintain their bike, and snow chains and ice spears for pushing relentlessly forwards once they hit the crevasse fields and cracks on the ice.
A ground crew and 4×4 emergency support vehicle will track teams in case of genuine emergency.
Entry fee is £3795 (about $A6165) per team.
Raising funds for environmental charity
All riders are also asked to raise at least £1000 (about $1600) for the official charity, Cool Earth, an environmental charity that works with indigenous communities to halt rainforest destruction.
The Ice Run has raised more than $100,000 since it started in 2012.
Check out the photos below … looks epic, eh?
