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Dmitry Shparo | |
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 Dmitry Shparo during the Bering Strait crossing | |
| Born | (1941-08-23)August 23, 1941 (age 84) Moscow, Russia |
| Known for | Arctic explorer; endurance skier |
Dmitry Shparo (born August 23, 1941) is a RussianArctic explorer and endurance skier. He is internationally known for twice reaching theNorth Pole on snow skis.
In 1979, Shparo led the first ski expedition fromEurasia to the North Pole. In 1988, he completed a full traverse across theArctic Ocean from Russia toCanada via the North Pole. In 1998, Shparo and his son, Matvey, became the first people in modern times to ski across theBering Strait,[1] from Russia into North America.
Dmitry Shparo was born inMoscow, Russia, in 1941, shortly after theSoviet Union was invaded byGerman troops. Shparo was the son of Igor and Nina (née Gimers) Shparo. His father was a journalist and a fiction writer, while his mother was a mathematician. Shparo's grandfather was declared an "enemy of the nation" in 1927 and sent to alabor camp in Siberia, never to be heard from again.
In 1953, followingJoseph Stalin's death, Shparo's mother got a job at the Institute of Applied Mechanics, where she was involved in calculating thetrajectories of both the first Sovietcruise missile and the first artificial satellite,Sputnik.
In 1967, Shparo graduated from theMoscow State University, earning aPhD inMathematics. Following graduation, he began teaching full-time at theMoscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISIS).
In 1970, Shparo traveled fromLake Taymyr, the largest freshwater body in Eurasia north of theArctic Circle, toCape Cheluskin (the northernmost point ofAsia) via the islands ofKomsomolskaya Pravda in theLaptev Sea. Following completion of this expedition, Shparo was recognized by the national press and news affiliates. Newspapers published his journals and announced their sponsorship of a new polar expedition, with Dmitry Shparo leading the way.
In 1973, Shparo developed an interest in Arctic exploration. At this time, explorers were viewed with a great deal of suspicion in the Soviet Union. Their routes had to be approved by theCommunist Party committees and localKGB offices. Following Soviet approval, Shparo led several low-profile expeditions up the outskirts of Russia.
Soviet authorities were taking the Arctic Region seriously. The Polar Ocean was a place d'armes of the ongoing military competition with theUS. TheKremlin wanted to see victories in this battlefield, not defeats. The stakes of the proposed ski-trip to the North Pole were such that the final decision rested with thePolitburo. Its response was laconic: the expedition to the North Pole was "unsuitable and pointless". In March 1979, Shparo left to the North Pole on skis secretly, without the Politburo's permission.
In late April, when news of the flagrant disobedience finally reached the Politburo, its conformist majority was outraged. Kremlin leadership urged the Chief of the KGB,Yuri Andropov, and theMinister of Defense,Dmitriy Ustinov, to send out military helicopters in order to return the escapees and punish them accordingly. Shparo and his teammates were halfway there and Mihail Suslov, the Party's chief ideologist, suggested that chances of their successful arrival to the Pole were quite high. Shparo was allowed to finish his trip, and reached the North Pole on May 31, 1979.
Soon after Shparo's name went into theGuinness World Records, he undertook a new trip, crossing the Arctic Ocean during theArctic night in total darkness. He walked in the night for two months, from the drifting polar station "North Pole-26" to another drifting polar station "North Pole-27". His 700 km (430 mi) route lay through constantly drifting and crashing ice, and temperatures dropped as low as −70 °C (−94 °F). In February 15, 1986 he arrived at the pole of relative inaccessibility, becoming the first man to reach it on skis.
His projects include an expedition toFranz Josef Land where the winter home ofFridtjof Nansen was found; an expedition to theCommander Islands inKamchatka, where the grave ofVitus Bering, a world-famous navigator, was discovered, and many others.
As a mathematician, Shparo insisted that the North Pole, as an ever-shifting spot, existed only as a mathematical concept. But even with such an abstract goal in mind, his trips always had a very practical component. Shparo had become one of the earliest Soviet ambassadors of goodwill to theWest, beforeglasnost andperestroika.
In 1988, Shparo co-led the Soviet-Canadian expedition, first to cross Arctic Ocean from Russia via the North Pole to Canada, lifting the Ice Curtain.
In 1989, Shparo and his American colleague, Paul Schurke, led the Bering Bridge Expedition fromSiberia toAlaska in an attempt to reconnect Arctic cultures separated by theCold War. UntilWorld War II, theInuit of Siberia and Alaska had traveled back and forth across the Bering Strait to hunt walrus and visit relatives. However, in 1948, the Stalin and the Truman governments locked down the border. Shparo and Schurke asked the Kremlin and theWhite House to open the border to asled dog expedition.
Along with the preparation of dogs and sleds, Shparo and Schurke had drawn a protocol of intentions and talked the Governors of both Alaska andChukotka into signing it on the ice on the Bering Strait. According to this protocol, nativeChukotkans andAlaskans were allowed to travel, hunt and trade freely again. The protocol was signed at the end of April 1989, several months before theBerlin Wall collapsed. The border was reopened and presidentsBush andGorbachev praised Shparo and Schurke for their achievement. Disintegration of the Ice Curtain did not receive the same high-profile treatment as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, yet the main goal of the expedition had been achieved: Inuit families across the border were reunited.
In 1996, Shparo attempted to cross the Bering Strait again – this time on skis and in the company of his two sons. The expedition failed when overnight thecoastal ice had carried the sleeping adventurers 16 mi (26 km) away into the openBering Sea. Shparo, conceding defeat, set off therescue beacon, and awaited rescue. AUnited States Coast Guard (USCG)C-130 Hercules was dispatched fromKodiak to pin down the location. To the horror of the USCG they found approximately 20polar bears, and the group was feared lost until they were finally spotted, and rescued by USCG helicopters fromNome. In 1997 a second attempt failed when Nikita, the oldest of Shparo's children, fell through the weak ice and sustained severefrostbite. In 1998, in the course of the third attempt, Dmitry and Matvey Shparo managed to successfully cross the Bering Strait, becoming the first people to do so by skis and thus securing another spot in the Guinness World Records and personal congratulations from presidentsClinton andYeltsin.
In 2005,Prince Albert of Monaco chose Dmitry Shparo, along with son Matvey as partners and advisers in his April 2006 North Pole dog-sled expedition aimed to highlightglobal warming and to commemorate his great-great-grandfather,Prince Albert I, who made four Arctic trips a century ago.
Influenced byRick Hansen, a Canadianparaplegic athlete and activist for people withspinal cord injuries, Dmitry Shparo founded Adventure Club in 1989. It is a Moscow-based charity foundation, that in the past 23 years sponsored numerous adventures for disabled athletes and disadvantaged children worldwide. Under the personal leadership of Shparo,blind,deaf,amputee, andquadriplegic people have ascended mountain peaks and crossed deserts, including the ice ones.
Dmitry Shparo also stood behind the parachute jumps on the North Pole, running races to the top ofEurope – Mt. Elbrus, round-the worldZiL truck expedition, Moscow –Uelen –Seattle –Toronto –New York City –London –Kaliningrad – Moscow and circumnavigation in the yachtApostol Andre. TheCruising Club of America's Bluewater Medal 2001 was awarded to the crew in New York. In 2005 Dmitry Shparo with the World Race Trust co-organizedThe Great Russian Race - a 15-week, 7,000 mi (11,000 km) charity ultra-marathon relay from Vladivostok – at the intersection ofNorth Korea, Russia, andChina, seventime zones east of Moscow – to St. Petersburg – near the border ofFinland and Russia. $340,000 were raised for the benefit of abandoned, orphaned, and homeless children in Russia.
In recognition of his polar achievements, Dmitry Shparo has received several honors and awards: theOrder of Lenin, the highest national decoration of the former Soviet Union, (other prizewinners includecosmonautYuri Gagarin,Fidel Castro, andNikita Khrushchev), theOrder of the Red Banner of Labour, the prestigiousUNESCO award, Fair Play, and gold medals from several geographical societies.
Shparo's career as an author has developed alongside that of explorer. Among his books areA Way to the North,To the Pole! andThree Mysteries of the Arctic. In 2006, Shparo completed a biography ofFrederick Cook, defending Cook's achievements and reputation which had been strongly questioned by other historians and biographers.
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