Priest Fedor Konyukhov to place cross at bottom of Mariana Trench

Famous priest, traveller and adventurer Fr. Fedor Konyukhov, together with endeavor with polar explorer Arthur Chilingarov, intends to plumb the depths of the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first to reach the very deepest point of the Mariana Trench and place there a stone Orthodox cross, reports RIA-Novosti.

On Monday, 23 January, stone mason Vladimir Mikhailov gave a limestone cross to Fr. Feodor. Exactly fifty years prior the first ever dive to the bottom of the Mariana trench was made by the crew of the “Trieste” on January 23, 1960, a distance of approximately 10.9 kilometers (6.77 miles), with a similar submersion by the Deep Sea Challenger in 2012. Konyukhov noted that previous expeditions have reached this depth of 10,900 meters, but there remains unexplored a very narrow trench of 11,025 meters (6.85 miles) depth.

Konyukhov, who has had countless adventures across the continents, oceans, and through the sky, will set out on this latest endeavor with a well-known polar explorer, vice-president of the Russian Geographic Society Arthur Chilingarov to become the first to reach the very deepest point of the Mariana Trench. “Arthur Nikolaevich (Chilingarov) and I will plunge into the Mariana Trench. I as an Orthodox priest will place a cross there,” said Fr. Fedor.

The date of the expedition is currently undefined, as their two-person submarine, in which the pair intends to spend a few days in the deepest of trenches, is not yet built. The record plunge may happen in 2018.

In the summer of 2016, Fr. Fedor made a solo round-the-world flight in a hot air balloon "Morton", which became the fastest circumnavigation flight for air balloons of any type – it took the traveller 11 days, 4 hours and 20 minutes to cover 35,168 km.