Full-time adventurer setting out again soon

Dimitri Kieffer stands atop an iceberg and surveys the miles he must travel across the Bering Strait. (KARL BUSHBY)

Last spring, former Microsoft manager Dimitri Kieffer walked, skied and swam the 56 miles across the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia in 14 days.

There, he and fellow adventurer Karl Bushby, from England, were detained for 54 days for visa violations before they were allowed to leave Russia.

Kieffer, who left Microsoft in 2004 to become a full-time adventure traveler, figures he actually walked 200 circuitous miles to Russia, often across moving ice.

Kieffer, 40, has traveled the world in search of adventures, and he's still going strong.

He and Bushby are planning their next trek: a 1,630-mile journey between the Russian cities of Uelen and Magadan, starting sometime after Jan. 10.

Uelen is where Kieffer and Bushby entered Russia after crossing the Bering Strait; Magadan is an isolated port city in Siberia.

Kieffer expects the trip to take 120 days.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com