Trekkers to test Bering Strait

A Belgian and an Alaskan are scouting ice conditions on the treacherous Bering Strait for an expedition across it next year.

Dixie Dansercoer, 42, and Troy Henkels, 37, were were in the village of Wales, the last community before North America drops into water.

The two men, who are experienced adventurers in extreme cold, told the Anchorage Daily News they hadn’t expected the strong winds and expanses of frigid water, which have forced them to scrap their plan of using kites to propel them on skis across the ice of the strait.

The team joins others, usually foreigners, who are fixated on getting across the 75 km-stretch of ice and water between Alaska and the Russian Far East,

Since the mid-1980s, many, including elite athletes and the mentally ill, have tried to cross the strait by swimming, dog mushing and bicycling.

In 2002, British multimillionaire Steve Brooks and a partner made it through the ice to the international dateline, in an amphibious vehicle, before Russian border guards cut the journey short.

Most expeditions fail because of the ice, wind and water currents. Polar bears, hypothermia and frostbite are other hazards.

One man claims he made the trek. Russian explorer Dmitry Shparo and his son Matvey entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998 after they crossed from Siberia to Alaska, mostly drifting hundreds of kilometers north on sheets of ice.