“What to do in Oymyakon?” is the question I receive pretty often. Usually, I give a short list of possible activities, provide the link to the page with the description of our last winter’s Journey to the Pole of Cold and with a lot of photographs disclosing what we did in Oymyakon.
Frankly saying, when we were on the way – on the Road of Bones – to Oymyakon, we didn’t have any structured plan of our visit to the coldest Siberian place. Our mission was simple. We wanted to (1) have fun, (2) enjoy the cold weather and (3) take winter pictures as many as possible. That’s it.
The itinerary was flexible and customizable, as our trip was in the Do-It-Yourself format. We had got independence with our rented UAZ minibus and democracy. It worked like this. When an idea or an offer arrived, we just made that idea public, thought over it and made a final decision. Usually, such discussions happened in the evening. Sometimes just on the go.
We tried to put all outdoor activities in the short daytime frame, i.e. from 8|9 am till 3 pm, as we wanted to take good photographs.
We stayed in a guest house in Tomtor (there are three major villages in the valley of Oymyakon – Oymyakon itself, Tomtor and Uchugei), so we dedicated our first day to this village.
1. Enjoying the cold like we did.
2. Experimenting in the extremely cold conditions. For instance, blast hot water in the frozen air. That’s the second thing we did in Tomtor.
3. Photographing.
Tomtor is, indeed, a good place for photographing. It is located in the valley with picturesque landscapes and it has a few must-to-touch-or-look spots like the hill with a splendid view on the village (see the picture above).
Though we loved people photo hunting a lot:
4. Tomtor Stella
It’s up to you what you want to do with the Stella. We, for instance, had fun around it:
Measured temperature in the front of the tablet with -71.2C:
Czech bikers, Tom and Eva, for instance, put their OFF Siberia expedition sticker on it:
Just opposite the road you will see a sort of small memorial dedicated to people vanished in Stalin’s GULAGs. Many of them were located in the Oymyakon region.
5. By the way, in Tomtor you can visit a regional history museum that tells partly about the history of GULAGs and the Alaska-Siberia World War II Air Route.
6. Visit the Yakut horse breeding farm run by the Vinokurovs, the Yakutia-famous family of breeders. Also in Tomtor. Since this upcoming winter they are ready to arrange horse trekking.
7. Right after the farm we visited the icy tunnel and payed attention to Chyskhaan (the Bull of Frost), a Yakut winter fairy hero.
8. By the end of the work day, we visited Tomtor Sports Center, where we met Andrei Vinokurov’s wonderful family.
9. Bought some nice stuff in a local store for our evening party. By the way, the winter evening in Tomtor is good to spend in the Russian banya (bath-house).
10. See the never frozen Kuydusun River and watch Andrey Vinokurov’s swimming, when outdoor temperature is much below minus 50C.
To get a quick info of what we did the last winter, visit the A Roadtrip to the Pole of Cold page.
To learn the current rates and travel expenses, check the Journey to Oymyakon, Dec. 2010 – Feb. 2011 post.
To be continued
Similar Posts:
- What is the standard tour to the Pole of Cold? Travel time, activities, accommodations, prices?
- DIY tips: How to arrange the travel to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold, from Yakutsk?
- Map of GULAGs on the Road of Bones, Oymyakonsky region/Yakutia
- Life in Oymyakon
- Karl Bushby, the UK explorer, about his walking from Bilibino (Chukotka) & Srednekolymsk (Sakha-Yakutia), Russia’s Far East
