Hi! My name is Bolot. I am a journalist. Based in Yakutsk. Ask me a question about the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Siberia / Russia, and get the answer.
Well, it seems Oymyakon is currently a very hot news story topic in the European media. Last days brought many requests from there and all of them about the way of life in the coldest inhabited place in Siberia’s Yakutia.
The last one arrived from Madrid’s La Razon. A Spanish reporter wrote:
It would be also very usefull if you could tell us some aspects about this place:
-¿Do they have train? ¿Why?
-¿Do they have a motorway? ¿Since when?
-How many months winter last there? Is it true it takes nine months?
-Is it true summer is complicated because of thaw?
-What are their most frequent health problems? ¿Because of cold?
-What problems do they find in their daylife because of low temperatures?
Frankly saying, all answers to the above questions are already written on the blog AskYakutia.com, i.e. in posts tagged as Oymyakon and the Pole of Cold. To find them will take time for sure. Of course, it’s easier and faster to ask than to search required info on the resource. Indeed, that’s the philosophy of this website. Well, if I received a request, I need to answer.
I decided to make a post with listed questions about Oymyakon, because I found them frequently asked and, yeah, they are very fascinating.
Western media representatives, please, keep in mind one important thing! Oymyakon is not a part of technology- and communication advanced Europe, Asia or North America. It is located in the very depth of Siberia! People in Oymyakon live their ordinary Siberian village life.
If you are interested in how winter is progressing in its begining in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, look at mobile photos below.
This is the same view from a kitchen window of my previous rented apartment. By the way, my family moved to another place, when outside temperature was much below -40C/F.
The first picture (above) was taken at midday on Nov. 28, 2010. The temp was -40C. The second photo (below) was done at 9 am on Nov. 30, 2010. Do you see the opposite building? :) Yeah, that’s how foggy it was, when we had -47C.
“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.
The village of Anyuisk, Chukotka. The way goes through this place as well.
Off-road drivers, motorcyclists, and cyclists keep asking me about the road from Magadan (Magadan Oblast) to Anadyr (Chukotka). Like road existence, road maps, road conditions, road reports, road photos, road traffic, road weather, and any other possible road information. Some requesters are asking, if there is an unexplored road.
Actually, all their questions can be expressed in short, “Is it possible to make it from Magadan to Anadyr overland?” “Yes” and “No.” The final answer depends on many factors.
Captain Magadan on the Road of Bones. Aug. 2010, Yakutia, Siberia.
This year’s summer and early autumn the Kolyma Highway (the Road of Bones), located, as you know, between Yakutsk and Magadan, was pretty busy… in terms of hosting adventure motor bikers from many nations.
So if you’ve got questions about the current summer-autumn Road of Bones condition, please, check the following list of adventure motorcycle travellers, whom I personally met or learned about, and you can get in touch with them and require more detailed info.
What did they report? General road information remains almost the same as I described in previous posts filed under tags, Road of Bones and Kolyma Highway.
Address: 21 Lenin Avenue (проспект Ленина, дом 21), Yakutsk/Russia. How to get: From the airport by a taxi (~20 min, 150-250 rubles, max. 300 rubles, don’t pay more for the ride) or by buses # 4, 14, 109 (30-35 min, 15 rubles for one way, bus driver might ask to pay extra for huge luggages). How to book: by phone +7 (4112) 42-13-92. In Russian only. Type: appartment-based hotel/hostel.
On the map: see the below.
It is located in a Stalin-like appartment building in the very center of Yakutsk. On the main street, Lenin Ave. Across the road in front of ALROSA s 4-stars hotel Polar Star. Click the photo to enlarge.
Magadan drivers compiled the so-called road legend (description of roads) for the route Magadan – Yakutsk – Bolshoi Never – Chita. They gathered information on settlements, distances and availability of gas (fuel) stations, cafes, repairs shops, places to stay for nights, road police stations, roads condition, etc.
Everything is presented in one .xls file in Russian. Bisides, authors indicated their contacts. If you’ve got any question, please, feel free to get in touch with them. One thing to remember. They speak Russian.
For instance, distance between Yakutsk and Magadan is 2024 km, between Bolshoi Never and Yakutsk is 1157 km.
Though I am based in Yakutia, I am often asked about the availability of any GPS maps for the roads of Magadan Oblast. Well, here are a few links for downloading such files.
Nina and Nikolay Stenins, hostel owners in Khandyga. With Bjoern Steinz, a German photographer on the right side.
Here is information about where to stay for night in Khandyga. There are three hotels, but I recommend to stay at Nina & Nikolay Stenins’ place.
Back to hotels. One is called Presidential Hotel (the official name is different, but that’s the way, how people call it). It is a few-storeyed concrete hotel, where the 2nd President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Vyacheslav Shtyrov prefered to stay. As you know, he was born in Khandyga. Who can stay there? First of all, those ones, who were invited by the administration of the Tomponsky region and major locally-based companies. The second in the rating list is known as Vedomstvennaya (it is also people’s name). Usually it hosts people arrived to visit organizations in Khandyga. Actually it is a big appartment with three big bedrooms, shared kitchen, shared lounge, shared bathroom. To stay in Presidential and Vedomstvennaya costs not less 1500 rubles per night. The worst option is the third one called Hotel of Khandyga. It is a ready-to-sink two-storeyed wooden building with a dozen of shared rooms, one toilet and without kitchen and bath. It is cheap and used by guests arrived from nearest regions. If you decide to spend night in this hotel, please, keep your room closed with a locker. That may protect you from drunk neighbours :)
The best option, I think, is the Stenins’ place. Read more…
Watch the real Siberian video done on the Kolyma Highway (the Road of Bones) by Oisin Hughes, an Irish adventure biker, who yesterday made it to Magadan from Yakutsk just for 4 days only. In this vid you will see, how close to the edge he was biking in the Verkhoyansky mountain area. Fantastic and thrilling! That’s Siberia! That’s the Siberian challenge!
Oisin says, “Jesus, I nearly died when i rewatched it… Got way way way too close to the edge here, gives me the colly wobbles just looking at it…”
My comment will be simple. While being early in this summer, he was really lucky. Weather was awesome. Sunny and no rains. But… the end of his biking happened to be not so much exciting.
Further, please, find what happened and get the information on the current condition of the Road of Bones (the Khandyga – Kyubyume part). Read more…
