The folks at Ozone Kites ( www.windzup.com and www.flyozone.com ) generously agreed to sponsor me, which meant first teaching me to fly a kite, then turning me loose in Siberia with their gear. The learning curve was fairly rapid, and within a few hours I was shuffling along a frozen, snow-covered lake at walking speed. A few days later I was zooming along at 20 miles per hour. Holy cow, with that technology, a person can cover in an hour of fun what it would otherwise take a long tired day of trudging! The pro snow-kiters are leaping in the air, doing sick inverted moves, and speeding across glaciers, flying over crevasses that threaten to swallow them up. I’m a feet on the ground kind of guy. All I want to do is ski across Siberia, following an old-lady’s spirit quest. OK folks, enough preliminary. I’m outta here. I’ve got a four-day plane flight to eastern Siberia. I go ¾ of the way around the world. If you have to ask, “Hey, dufus, why don’t you go the other way and only travel ¼ of the way around the world?” – then you don’t understand that logic doesn’t always rule in Russia. Next installment is from Russia.

Thanks to all my sponsors, good folks who believe in me and my crazy vision.
Ozone kites (Power kites)
Wilderness Engineering (Sleds)
Dakine (Harnesses and packs)
Zeal Optics (goggles and glasses)
Airtime Hood River (Rugged outdoor outerwear)

Follow a Shamans Dream across Siberia

Part V
Part IV
Part III
Part II
Part I and Interview with Jon