The WomenQuest members weren't supposed to be at Borneo yet, but a flight was ready yesterday and the flying weather later in the week looked iffy, so off they flew from the Siberian mainland, Citizen reporter Alison Korn among them. Visitors bring their own food and cooking stoves. From the air, the little village looks like a slightly upscale bunch of ice fishermen who just happen to have their own runway. It's a pretty neat place. But it's more than good fun.
Safety is a huge factor in the ice station's existence.
Borneo means that help for an injured skier is less than an hour away by helicopter, whereas trekkers on the Canadian side of the ice cap may be a 12-hour Twin Otter flight from safety. And 12 straight hours of good flying weather are not always available in the Arctic. The Russian pilots are the same group who used to set up Borneo and other seasonal stations as Soviet military bases each spring. One of the helicopter pilots has 10,000 hours of flying experience. The whole operation has operated with amazing smoothness.