# Could I drive to Russia? (North America to Russia) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220 "2019-04-29T15:13:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mrdeals](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Mrdeals](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrdeals)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/1 "2019-04-29T15:13:07Z")
I’m currently in Wisconsin and in search of a good road trip. Let’s say I bought a 4x4 with the beefiest tires I could find and an infinite fuel supply. Could I drive straight up through Canada, Nunavut, across the tundra into Siberia? Guess I have never been to the hyperborean regions, but I assume its very solid packed snow, and relatively flat. Is it possible? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/2 "2019-04-29T15:24:11Z")
Given the infinite fuel supply, you would drive north on the ice until there was solid ice coming back south to Siberia. However, the suggestion is that there’s a lot less reliable ice up there nowadays thanks t global warming, so maybe not. I recall someone once suggested a pair of 25-mile tunnels could allow a connection between Alaska and Siberia through the Island(s) in between. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/3 "2019-04-29T15:51:36Z")
It would depend on the time of year. In the summer there is not enough ice to get from Canada to the sea ice and from the ice to Russia. It varies by year, but only during the winter is the ice large enough. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/4 "2019-04-29T16:09:36Z")
[Not, yet…but maybe later if this bridge is built.](https://www.google.com/search?q=Can+you+drive+from+the+U.S.+to+Russia%3F&rlz=1C1WPZB_enUS807US807&oq=Can+you+drive+from+the+U.S.+to+Russia%3F&aqs=chrome..69i57.11527j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/5 "2019-04-29T16:13:15Z")
What makes you think \* it’s very solid packed snow, and relatively flat?\* In fact, it is humps, cliffs and crevasses you can lose your 4WD down. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/6 "2019-04-29T17:10:49Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [Not, yet…but maybe later if this bridge is built.](https://www.google.com/search?q=Can+you+drive+from+the+U.S.+to+Russia%3F&rlz=1C1WPZB_enUS807US807&oq=Can+you+drive+from+the+U.S.+to+Russia%3F&aqs=chrome..69i57.11527j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) I’ve heard about this idea for several years. Is there a demand? Are there any regularly scheduled ferries (or cargo ships) that go back-an-forth between AK & RU, even if they only operate in the summer? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/7 "2019-04-29T17:39:58Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > I’ve heard about this idea for several years. Is there a demand? Are there any regularly scheduled ferries (or cargo ships) that go back-an-forth between AK & RU, even if they only operate in the summer? Another issue is that such bridge wouldn’t really connect to anywhere. If you built a bridge (or tunnel) from Wales, Alaska to Naukan, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug you’d be able to drive from Wales to Naukan. But you wouldn’t be able to drive to New York or Moscow. There is a road, of sorts, that connects Wales to Tin City about five miles away. But the road stops there. And apparently there are no roads which connect to Naukan. So connecting North America to Russia isn’t just a matter of building a bridge or tunnel. It also involves building hundreds of miles of roads on both sides of the bridge or tunnel. ---
**Author:** ![Mrdeals](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@Mrdeals](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrdeals)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/8 "2019-04-29T17:44:05Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > What makes you think \* it’s very solid packed snow, and relatively flat?\* In fact, it is humps, cliffs and crevasses you can lose your 4WD down. Relax Bob, All good 4x4s have a winch ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/9 "2019-04-29T17:52:03Z")
> [@Mrdeals](#): > > Relax Bob, > > All good 4x4s have a winch This sounds like what we’d hear Jeremy Clarkson say, five minutes before his passing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/10 "2019-04-29T18:15:31Z")
Ice Road Truckers on History shows temporary Canadian roads accessible in winter that cross frozen lakes and rivers. Driving can be extremely challenging but it is possible to drive on improvised roads in the far north. Recent seasons have focused on Manitoba. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/11 "2019-04-29T18:38:36Z")
I saw [this documentary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Race) which showed that it’s possible, with the right car. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/12 "2019-04-29T18:46:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another issue is that such bridge wouldn’t really connect to anywhere. If you built a bridge (or tunnel) from Wales, Alaska to Naukan, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug you’d be able to drive from Wales to Naukan. > > But you wouldn’t be able to drive to New York or Moscow. There is a road, of sorts, that connects Wales to Tin City about five miles away. But the road stops there. And apparently there are no roads which connect to Naukan. > > So connecting North America to Russia isn’t just a matter of building a bridge or tunnel. It also involves building hundreds of miles of roads on both sides of the bridge or tunnel. Any such bridge would of course be part of a larger corridor connecting, say, the trans-Siberian railway with a railroad from somewhere down in British Columbia, or equivalent road transport. When you consider how much easier it is to ship by boat, and gets you to larger ports directly on the Asian coast or American west coast, there is obviously no benefit to such a construction. Where it might be advantageous is if someone develops extreme high speed transport (along the lines of hyperloop in a vacuum tube) so a trip from North America to somewhere in Eurasia would be competitive in time and cost with airline flights. I still don’t see that happening in the next 50 years. As for driving yourself - yes, pack ice (which is what you get on the Arctic ocean) would be tricky and prone to crevices. Since it’s pack ice the worst issue would be pressure ridges - two currents pile up the ice against each other. The other risk is thin ice, where you break through. Plus, the ice is reliable only in winter, in the dark, at minus 50 and below. Plus, the distance, means you will use a huge amount of that unlimited fuel… I have read somewhere that the currents in the Bering strait make ice in that area unreliable, so you would have to head quite a ways north to swing around the bad ice, all far form civilization. That makes the drive to and from Wales instead (or Naukan) look short by comparison. When you reach “solid” land you will still have a huge distance to travel to get anywhere meaningful. Plus, driving over land will make the ocean ice travel look like the easy bit. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/13 "2019-04-29T18:52:52Z")
Wasn’t there a plan to build bridges & roads to reach Russia? IIRC concerns about National security were raised? A natural barrier between US/Canada & Russia is mutually beneficial? Otherwise we would need more robust defenses in the North? The Japanese invaded the Aleutian islands in WWII. We still have several major bases in Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/14 "2019-04-29T18:53:01Z")
The cost of the entire project is estimated at 65 billion dollars, and actual costs are always higher. For something like this, I thing they might be significantly higher. To even get to the tunnel crossing, you’d have to drive a large distance over terrain that is totally treacherous 5 months of the year. You’d have to drive through 55 miles of undersea tunnel and, to get to anything resembling civilization in Russia (like Moscow), you’d have to traverse 2/3 of the nation to get there. It seems to me that flying west to east would continue to be much faster and safer. I can’t see justifying the cost. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/15 "2019-04-29T19:02:41Z")
> [@Mrdeals](#): > > I’m currently in Wisconsin and in search of a good road trip. > > Let’s say I bought a 4x4 with the beefiest tires I could find and an infinite fuel supply. > > Could I drive straight up through Canada, Nunavut, across the tundra into Siberia? > > Guess I have never been to the hyperborean regions, but I assume its very solid packed snow, and relatively flat. > > Is it possible? Of course it’s not possible to drive “on tundra” because there’s a big water gap at the Bering Strait. You would have do drive over sea ice when the water is frozen in winter. If the ice isn’t suitable over the Strait itself you would need to drive farther north. I didn’t think that such a trip would be possible using a normal 4x4 vehicle, but [this expedition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Gear:_Polar_Special) showed it would be possible at least in principle. In 2007 two highly modified Toyota Hiluxes and a Land Cruiser made it over sea ice to within a short distance of the North Magnetic Pole. It would be difficult and time consuming, but considering they traveled 300 miles on their expedition and the distance across Bering Strait is only 55 miles it should be feasible. As other posters have mentioned however, there are no roads that go to the parts of Alaska and Siberia that border the Bering Strait. Getting to the Strait might be much more difficult than crossing the Strait itself. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/16 "2019-04-29T19:06:30Z")
You could actually walk to Russia certain times of the year. I think the Diomede islands (one Russian, one American), are sometimes linked by an ice bridge. Not quite what you’re talking about, and I suspect there might be a bit of red tape in trying to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/17 "2019-04-29T19:27:11Z")
I’d go in the summer, with the [top down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphicar#/media/File:Amphicar-main-ffm001.jpg). Seriously, that might be a better option. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/18 "2019-04-29T20:06:22Z")
I don’t think the OP is talking about the Bering Strait. He wants to leave from Nunavut, which is far from Alaska (two territories over). I took him to mean going right over the top, to the North Pole and then south to Russia. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/19 "2019-04-29T21:31:31Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I don’t think the OP is talking about the Bering Strait. He wants to leave from Nunavut, which is far from Alaska (two territories over). > > I took him to mean going right over the top, to the North Pole and then south to Russia. It’s the same issues there, only much longer. That’d be three or four thousand Km of sea ice, vs a couple hundred for the Bering Strait. But apparently, such a [trip](https://phys.org/news/2013-05-russians-russia-canada-north-pole.html) has been done. But not with just a single SUV. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220/20 "2019-04-29T21:45:26Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I don’t think the OP is talking about the Bering Strait. He wants to leave from Nunavut, which is far from Alaska (two territories over). Given that he thinks there is tundra between North America and Siberia, I don’t think I would make any assumptions about his geographical knowledge.😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-drive-to-russia-north-america-to-russia/833220.md?page=2)