Fedor Filippovich Konyukhov
Fedor Filippovich Konyukhov
He was born on December 12, 1951, in Chkalovo village, Zaporozhje region, Ukraine. His father, Philip Mikhailovich Konyukhov (born in 1917); mother – Maria Yefremovna Konyukhova (born in 1918); spouse – Irina Anatolievna Konyukhova, Doctor of Juridical Science, professor; children: sons – Oskar and Nicolai and daughter Tatiana, grandchildren – Philip, Polina, Eton, Arcady, and Blake.
Fedor Konyukhov, future famous traveler, was born and raised in a simple farmer’s family, in which there were five children: three sons and two daughters. Early in their lives they were used to hard labour in the fields of a collective farm and work in their garden; Fedor would also quite often join his father (who was a fisherman) when, during fishing season, he sailed to fish in the Azov Sea. He was happy to keep watch at the rudder, and helped fishermen to pull out the nets. His father, being the veteran of the WWII who finished the war at Budapest, quite often told his children stories about fierce fighting against the Nazi, encouraged them to labour diligently, and to protect their land. Young Fedor was deeply impressed with the interesting stories told by his grandfather, lieutenant-colonel of the Tsar’s Army, about Georgy Sedov, who served in the same garrison with his grandfather. Before his last journey, which ended tragically, Georgy left his Orthodox cross with his friend and asked him to give it to the strongest one among his sons or grandsons, who would be able to fulfill his dream. And, as we know, Fedor carried out his last will – he has been to the North Pole three times, and one of these times he traveled alone – with that same cross on his neck.
Fedor prepared himself for long voyages since he was very young, at first, maybe, not quite consciously. He learned to swim and dive well, sail in a boat under oars or sails. He bathed in cold water and slept in hay stacks. He was the best football player and long distance runner among his classmates; and he was attracted most of all by the sea, the waves and its romanticism. Having read Goncharov, Stanyukovich, Jules Verne and other singers of the sea, at the age of fifteen, he made his first voyage in a row boat to cross the Azov Sea.
Realizing that sailing seas is his calling, Fedor finished Nautical and Arctic colleges in Odessa and Leningrad, receiving the specialties of navigator and ship engineer. In 1977, he organized a yacht voyage along the route of Vitus Bering and other mariners in the North Pacific. Curious pathfinder and patriot wanted to find how his countrymen in feeble ships three centuries ago managed to discover islands and gulfs, discovering Russian America and building settlements there. Fedor pursued such noble goals also when he traveled to Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Commander Islands. In Chukotka he rode in dog sleighs, estimating the chances to reach the North Pole in this way, but later he preferred regular skis for this purpose. Everywhere he took interest in the life habits of the indigenous people, who survived in the extreme conditions of the North, made several scores of paintings there that decorated several personal exhibitions of the artist.
Storming the North Pole was preceded by skiing journey to the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility on a Polar night in a group led by D. Shparo; journey through the Baffin Island (Canada) as part of a Canadian expedition; trans-Arctic skiing cross en route USSR-North Pole-Canada under D. Shparo; participation in the first autonomous expedition “Arctic” to the North Pole under V. Chukov.
In 1990, having obtained good experience of skiing during Polar crosses Fedor set off on his individual journey. It was not easy for a lonely traveler to cross ice mounds and open water; not only that – there was a heavy rucksack on his back and he had to drag a sledge with the supplies. He slept on ice as it was, having only a tent and a sleeping bag. After 72 days, he reached the North Pole, fulfilling his dream and carrying out the last will of Georgy Sedov. But one time he came very close to death when the ice underneath began to mound.
It did not scare him so that he would stop, and in only five years he set off to cross the ice desert of Antarctica alone. To orient himself in this extreme environment, he used a portative space navigator – “Navicom” tuned to the orbital satellite. With its help, on the 59-th day of his journey, the traveler reached the exact spot of the South Pole and erected the flag of Russian Federation there for the first time ever. This time F. Konyukhov alone acted for a whole expedition crew. Commissioned by the Atomic Ministry he was measuring the natural radiation field of the Antarctic on his way to the Pole. According to the medics instructions, he estimated the physiological and psychological condition of the human body under the simultaneous exposure to high altitude (more than five thousand meters), low temperatures (down to minus sixty degrees Celsius) and strong winds (up to thirty meters per second). He was also conducting surveys for the program of Scientific Research Institute of Arctic and Antarctic. And he accumulated rich materials for these institutions and his books.
Domestic and foreign specialists consider Fedor Konyuhov to be the most universal of all professional travelers. Behind his back there are more than forty journeys of different nature, including those in the mountains. Without any special mountaineering training, but possessing hard physical stamina and endurance in reaching any set goals, he decided to climb mountain peaks of all continents of the earth to commemorate the 850th anniversary of Moscow. It took five years of hard labour. As part of his preparation, he ran to the top of the Klyuchevskaya Sopka and his confidence was strengthened. Then followed Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus (5642 m), Asian Everest (8848 m), Australian Kosciuszko (2230 m), and South-American Aconcagua (6960 m). Of course, the most difficult task was to climb the Everest, but other three peaks were interesting, mysterious and difficult each one in its own way. Long dead African volcano Kilimanjaro (5895 m), praised by Ernest Hemingway, especially attracted the Russian traveler. As he ascended from the tropical zone, he gradually sensed the change of climatic and weather conditions. While at the foot of the mountain there was little growth scorched by the sun, starting from 3-4 kilometers up there was an evergreen tropical forest, higher – Alpine meadows, then rocks and, at last, the kingdom of ice and snow. As an artist he could not admire enough the beauty of the nature, he made drawings and took many photographs. But the most difficult and dangerous ones to climb were the ice-rock mountains: North American McKinley (6193 m) and Antarctic Vinson Massif. Here were the deep snow and sly ice cracks, and the breath-killing harsh cold wind. Upon making a successful descent (during which at times he had to crawl) from the range, he nearly died of cold and starvation – for more than three days the airplane could not come to pick him up because of a fierce snowstorm.
Most of his journeys the traveler made alone, but he willingly participated in group expeditions. He has also organized and headed up two interesting trans-continental runs: Soviet-American bicycle ride from Nakhodka to Leningrad (1989) and Soviet-Australian automobile drive from Nakhodka to Brest (1991). During this long journey, Fedor showed his foreign fellow travelers many sights of nature: cedar woods, Lake Baikal, mighty Siberian rivers, the Ural Mountains, and modern cities. In the wake of these races, there were published reports, documentaries, and photo albums both in our country and abroad.
Still, the main traveling route for a yacht captain lies in seas and oceans. And he is the only Russian who made three world cruises. The first time was in 1990-1991 on yacht “Karaana.” He started from the Australian port Sidney and came back to the same spot in 224 days. Moreover, he chose the most difficult route: between the “roaring” forties and the furious fifties, where the wind was mostly favourable and where the first Russian navigators sailed – Ivan Kruzenshtern, Mikhail Lazarev and others. But at the same time, along the route there were harsh cold winds, sometimes stormy winds with snow or rain, dangerous encounters with whales and icebergs, especially in the Drake Strait, at the Cape Horn. But of all it was overcome by the lone mariner, which cost him losing 11 kilograms of his body weight.
Just one year later, Konyuhov set off on his second circumnavigation on a different, equatorial route: Taiwan–Singapore–Indian Ocean–Red and Mediterranean Seas–Gibraltar–Atlantic–Hawaiian Islands–Taiwan, in the course of which he stopped on every continent. His lone expedition on a big two-mast yacht “Formosa” lasted for 508 days and was involved with one dramatic and heroic episode. Around the Philippine Islands the captain became seriously ill and he was taken to a hospital. In the meantime, pirates hijacked his yacht to another island. But Fedor is not a gutless man. When he was in the military, he served on Baltic assault landing ship and carried out command missions in Vietnam’s jungles and in Nicaragua. To find “Formosa” on a remote island, he had to hijack other pirates’ motor boat. And the drunken brigands he found on board of his yacht this bold man tied up and loaded into a rubber boat.
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