Ski race starts in Kamchatka

A 980-km ski race timed to the presidential election campaign in Russia starts in Kamchatka on March 1.

The organizing committee of the ski crossing said that five skiers accompanied by three Buran snowmobiles would run across the Milkovsky and Sobolevsky districts of the Kamchatka Region, and the Tigil district of the Koryak autonomous area.

The ski race route runs through 213 remote settlements on the peninsula. Its participants are planning to finish in the village of Tigil on March 14.

The ski race was organized by the oldest association of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North "The Council of the Itelmens of Kamchatka or Tkhsan and was devoted to the 15th anniversary of this organization and timed the presidential elections in Russia.

The ski race has as its aim the development and strengthening of the public ecological movement. The intensive prospecting for and extraction of mineral resources is carried out in the Milkovsky, Sobolevsky and Tigil districts, where the ski race itinerary lies, both on land and on the shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk. The enthusiasts hope to attract the public's attention in this unusual way to the problems of environmental safety of the mineral resources extraction.