Yeah, it’s cold, but not so cold as it can be. Waiting for -50ºC.
See more my pics. Some of them are not sharp. My camera got frozen in a moment. The lens were so slow to focus. Read more…
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I have a German friend, Bjorn Steinz. He is a pro photographer based in Prague. Two years ago he visited Yakutsk in November. He spent a few days just walking around on streets and taking pictures of people. Since then I promote his works and website oka2 Photography on every occasion, and I am grateful to him for giving such an permission :)
Here are what he came out with.
On Nov. 4, 2009, in Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a group of three people descended into the world’s deepest ice vertical tunnel, Shergin’s Shaft, that had been buried and forgotten for more than half a century. It was the important historical, scientific, cultural event called “The Storm of Shergin’s Shaft” designed to get a few rare samples for permafrost researchers and show a new way to observe never-melting, frozen soil layers.
In March 2007, a few friends of mine, Yakutsk-based adventure cyclists, Marat, Maverick & Scorpion (don’t know why, but they call each others by nicks), traveled from Yakutsk to Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold. A funny thing. They documented the expedition pretty good. They’ve got a lot of high resolutions photographs, perfect videos and… Since the travel they couldn’t find time to make the full report.
Recently Marat promised me to make his report with pictures. Time is passing, but he didn’t finish his text yet. Well… While he is trying to find spare time, I decided to create my own post using some of his photos and the video done by Maverick for friends’ fun and digged out occasionally in the archive. Here is what we have by now.
This is a good question asked by a friend of mine from Fairbanks, Alaska. He is a big fan of photography and off-roading. His Flickr nick is rpiereck. Wonderful pictures he has. So… Frankly saying, it was me who first asked him “How do you prepare your Jeep for the winter in Alaska?” In his reply he gave me the detailed description, afterwards he returned my question back :)
The above picture was taken in Yakutsk on Dec. 11, 2008, when it was much below -50C.
Further, please, find info on how cars are prepared in the world’s cold regions, Alaska and the coolest Siberian region, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Read more…
At my Flickr account I received a good question from an Australian user, tanetahi. In his comment to one of my first autumn pics he wrote:
Do people get depressed or complain much about the cold as you progress from summer to winter in Yakutsk, or is the severe climate just accepted as an inevitable part of life there?
My answer was “September and the early October are very depressive. No, we don’t complain about the upcoming cold. We just regret sunny summer days are over, and we have to prepare to the long winter.” That’s actually depressive.
Further, please, see the slideshow with Yakutsk autumn photos. Read more…
Andrew I with a creative studio “A Novigator” announced a descent to the deepest well in the world, Shergin’s shaft, to take place in Yakutsk on October 20, 2009. Update, 21.10.2009: The even was postponed till November 04, 2009.
An exclusive speleological tour into the unique well, that is 116 meters deep, as long as a 40-store building,and surrounded with permafrost! Read more…
Thanks to my writing about Yakutia for international readers, I have a unique opportunity to communicate with very interesting people. One of them is Rob Lilwall, a travel cyclist of London. Five years ago, he decided to embark on the journey of his life.
Bored of his work as a geography teacher in England, Rob eventually packed his panniers and took his bike for an adventure. He flew as far from England as possible. To Magadan. That was where he and his old school friend, Al Humphreys, hit the Road of Bones. It was the end of September and the beginning of a Siberian winter. At that point everything seemed perfect.
A month after he wrote Read more…
