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wpapper commented on Going for a seven-year walk bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-2... · Posted by u/akandiah
I was going to disagree with you, because there are obviously walkable roads in Siberia. However, the route as shown on the map goes straight through absolute no man's land. There is no road along the eastern coast. A sensible route would be Yakutsk - Magadan, then take a boat or plane to the US.
I would love to read the story of someone who walked from Siberia to Alaska via the shortest sea crossing possible. But above Magadan, there are no more roads. And the Kolyma highway to Magadan is considered a major adventure already, with only a small window where the rivers are low enough to be crossed by motorcycle (and therefore, man).
I'm not saying this can't be done, but it looks like a serious arctic expedition to me. Which I kind of doubt he will do. This is probably going to end like usual. Helpful Russian truck drivers take him with them for as far as they can go, then (Mommy!!) a helicopter shows up...
I had the privilege of seeing Salopek announce the project at the Knight Civic Media conference, and based on his presentation I can tell you that he is not taking this lightly. This isn't a project that he decided to do on a whim without evaluating the risks. This is a very well-planned, calculated project that desires to not only be fascinating, but also to make a statement on journalism itself. He won't compromise the integrity of it. Of course, there will be people aiding him along the way out of necessity (translators, guides, etc), but I guarantee you there won't be a helicopter or truck involved.
It seems like there's a gap between small one-off jobs that are posted on Upwork, and projects that require multiple full-time engineers. RemoteHacker seems to sit perfectly in between those two options.