Two Japanese men plan to cross the frozen Mamiya Strait from Russia's Sakhalin by bike and head toward Siberia and the Chukot Peninsula in Russia's east.
Hiromasa Ando, 34, from Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Masaru Adachi, 28, from Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, are already in Sakhalin preparing for the frigid expedition.
According to their itinerary, the two will go northward from Sakhalin and cross the Mamiya Strait in late January. They are also set to pass through Oymyakon, a village in eastern Siberia known to have recorded a temperature of minus 71.2, reportedly the lowest ever for any human settlement.
Next May, the pair hope to reach the Bering Strait.
Ando is a former member of a Tottori University mountaineering group, and Adachi was a member of a cycling club at Kyoto University.
In May last year, Ando became the first Japanese to pedal across Siberia -- an eight-month solo trip that took him through the depths of the winter.
Last February, he received an award named after the late Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura.