Chernyj Prizhim on the Kolyma Highway, so-called Road of Bones, in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia
I have written a lot about ways between Yakutsk and Magadan, Yakutsk and Oymyakon. Actually, both are the same. They are on the Kolyma Higway, known also as the Road of Bones or M56. I thought it’s time for requests to stop coming. All posts on this theme are filed under Kolyma Highway and Road of Bones.
Instead, I started receiving very specific questions. Love them all. They are specific as their authors are not regular people. Last two messages arrived from companies that focus on extraordinary expeditions. One was from explorers, who do so-called cold climate journeys. Another from the TV show, that arranges and broadcasts breathtaking off-road driving.
Two requests are related tightly to Oymyakon and the way to this place. Actually, questions sound the same.
Read more…
A ferry on the Lena River near Yakutsk on Nov. 15th, 2010. Photo by Alexander Li, Yakutsk Vecherny Newspaper, Vecherka.Ykt.ru
Is it possible to cross the Lena River near the Siberian city of Yakutsk in November? This is a really good question. The answer is Yes and No. Everything depends on weather, precisely, on the condition of the ice cover on the Lena River.
November is the period of transition and so-called freezing-over. It’s time for the Lena River to get frozen, acquire ice cover thick enough for the use of ice river roads.
Keep in mind, there are no bridges over the Siberian river of Lena at all. The river might be crossed by ferry (in navigation period) or ice roads (in winter).
Read more…
I see that the world is pretty much interested in people’s life in the Siberian coldest places such as Oymyakon (Ojmjakon) and Verkhoyansk (Verkhojansk)… and an idea arrived…
I have friends who live in Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk. Both villages compete for the title “The world’s coldest inhabited place.” In Yakutia locals do not pay much attention to where it is much colder, because everywhere it is cold, extremely cold. Even Yakutsk is currently experiencing -47C.
Well… If you wish, you can leave your questions about life in the cold condition and I will ask all of them to my friends in Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk.
Read more…
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.
Futher, please, find my answers. Read more…
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.
Read more…
“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.
Read more…
I hear this question very often. Frankly saying, it was that show, that forced me to upload winter photographs of the Road of Bones (officially known as the Kolyma Highway) built by GULAG work camp inmates in the time of Stalin.
Well, if anyone is interested in the winter Road of Bones condition. Here we go. Further, please, find 45 pictures taken the last winter by me. Read more…
Proud to announce the opening of the photo exhibition “On the Road of Bones: Ghosts of the Siberian Gulag Along the Old Kolyma Highway” at Kris Waldherr Art and Words studio gallery in Brooklyn, New York, today.
About exhibition
Through photography and mixed media, “On the Road of Bones” reveals the secret history and hidden landscape of Kolyma, formerly the land of Soviet labor camps and the coldest inhabited region on earth. Stunning new works by young native Siberian photographers Bolot Bochkarev, Nastya Borisova, and Ajar Varlamov trace the remains of the vast highway built across the taiga, tundra, and permafrost of North Asia by Stalin’s prisoners. The exhibition juxtaposes the tragic events of the past with the powerful natural beauty of the frozen land and the daily lives of northern people.
Read more…
Vaselisa Popova, my new contact in Verkhoyansk, Yakutis, Siberia.
Good news to all travelers, who are interested in Sangar (the Kobyajsky region) and Verkhoyansk. I visited the 2010 Sakha Travel Exhibition held at Polar Hotel in Yakutsk on April 9-10, 2010. Finally, I acquainted with travel enthusiasts from those places. You can see them in the photographs.
The Kobyajsky region is famous for its fantastic fishing and rafting near Segyan Kyol as well as its Even nomads‘ settlement of Sebjan Kyol in the Verkhoyansky Range. Read more…
See how frozen carcass reindeer meat will be cut into small pieces. Photos and video were done by Artem Petukhov and Katya Ipatieva (they stand behind the Adventure in Yakutia blog http://adv.yktv.ru, in Russian) specially for eYakutia.com . Thanks, guys.
Yeah, we, Yakutians, love meat. We eat them a lot. To save money, we usually buy them of big sizes, and then we think how to cut them. Praise god, there are people who are ready to help at the cost of 20 bucks for each carcass. Read more…
