These photos were taken by Arsen Tomsky and Maxim Prusakov during their 5-day Buotama River trip, June 10-15, 2010. Arsen has already floated the Buotama in July 2008. He remembers, how he and his three friends, Sherlaw, Marat and Maverick, spent three long days walking to the starting point for rafting. Loaded with stuff and rubber boats, they ovecame 30 km of taiga in order to reach the area of the Lena Pillars. The first day was so tough that he was forced to squeez a tooth paste tube to reduce slightly the weight of his backpack. Read the rest of this entry…

Kobyaj is located north from Yakutsk. It is the only place in Central Yakutia, where you can enjoy the amazing view of the Verkhoyansk Range from the Lena River

Breath-taking rafting is guaranteed in the Yakutian region of Kobyaj

Fishing in the mountain area... What can be more exciting?

I am pretty proud to present the region called Kobyaj. Below, please, find elected summer pictures (frankly saying, I have a lot of photographs, including winter ones).

Kobyaj is people’s name for the Kobyajsky ulus located north from Yakutsk in Central Yakutia, Siberia/Russia. It is the only region (see the map) that includes partly the Lena River and the Verkhoyansk Range. Read the rest of this entry…

Bruce Parry (with a tripod) and his team in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia

Hurray! Bruce Parry with his IndusFilm crew is in the Siberian town of Yakutsk! What’s he doing here?

Bruce Parry (born 17 March 1969, in Hythe, Hampshire, England) is a former Royal Marine instructor who is now a TV presenter and adventurer, known particularly for the documentary programme series Tribe (known as Going Tribal in the United States), co-produced by the BBC and the Discovery Channel. Resource: Wiki.

I met Bruce Parry two days ago on Lenin Avenue in Yakutsk. Actually he and his team arrived early, on June 17th. They have already visited a village near the town, went for two celebrations of Ysyakh, Yakut national holiday. One was held in Gorny ulus (three hours by a car from Yakutsk) and Megino-Kangalassky region (just in the front of Yakutsk on the opposite bank of the Lena River). Yesterday they departed for Sakkyryr to travel with Even reindeer herders. On the day of the meeting, they visited Epl Diamonds’ diamonds-cutting and jewelry’s factories and drove around the downtown shooting general views of the city.

First, I would love to tell the story of how his arrival happened to be possible. Read the rest of this entry…

Location: Yakutsk, Siberia/Russia.
Dates: Jun. 11-13, 2010.
Off-roading contests: sprint, GPS-orienteering, trophy.
Participants competed on 4x4s, ATVs, motorcycles, bicycles, trekkers.

More texts are coming. Meanwhile, see 64 photos of the real Siberian challenge. Read the rest of this entry…

On April 25, 2010, the day before the snowstorm, Mammoth Yakutsk Off-Road Club hosted the city’s GPS orienteering contest. Further, please, see the photographs of top participants. A team of Pokrovsk (in the first following pic) won the competition.

GPS orienteering is very popular in Yakutsk. Hard to recall, when it gained ground. I think, five years ago. All males/females, who do not spare their own off-road vehicle, consider it an honor to compete in collecting all marks with numbers (this time there were 72) faster than others.

Everything looks pretty funny. It is not enough to find marks by GPS coordinates. It is also highly required to touch a mark and a car at the same time, and all this act must be photographed. To reach a mark, a driver must get his/her car closer to the check point and, if space is still huge, stretch himself/herself as long as possible. That’s why contenders may look in pictures extremely amusing Check out.

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Take a look at 38 exclusive photographs of how Polar Airlines was rescuing the French Arctic explorer Jean-Louis Etienne in the Arctic tundra of Yakutia’s Siberia after his 5-days North Pole balloon crossing on April 11th, 2010. Read the rest of this entry…

A French balloon explorer Jean-Louis Etienne flying via the North Pole from Norway to the Siberian republic of Yakutia. By Francis Latreille

Jean-Louis Ettienne

YAKUTIA/SIBERIA, April 11, 2010 – Yesterday a 63-years-old French balloon adventurer Jean-Louis Etienne has reached Yakutia’s Arctic Circle and finished his 5-days Generaly Arctic Observer flight expedition done from Norway via the North Pole to Siberia.

In Saturday’s morning he reached the Russian Arctic coast in the area of Yakutia’s Ust-Yansky region. He was expected to land in Tiksi, but the weather (winds and fogs) changed his direction. He was blown eastward to the Ust Yansky region. By that moment he had got pretty tired. The weariness and thick fog on the route to Batagai, the Verkhoyansky region, forced him to land soon in the Northern part of the Yakutian region of Ust Yansky, hundreds kilometers north from the villages of Ust Kujga and Deputatsky.

He spent night in the Arctic nowhere, where temperature at night was below -30 degrees Centigrate.

This morning Jean-Louis Etienne and his balloon equipment was picked up by his support team and brought to Yakutsk by a helicopter.

More info + the video. Read the rest of this entry…

The archival video: 4wd ice jumping by Mamont Yakutsk Off-Road Club on Jack London Lake, Magadan Oblast.

Here we go! Ajar Varlamov’s photo report on his recent dog sledding along the Lena River to the Lena Pillars National Park, one of the biggest in the Siberia’s Republic of Yakutia. Major heroes in his pictures are, certainly, Yakutian laikas (representatives of the famous Siberian huskies). 24 photos Read the rest of this entry…

Just a few Ajar Varlamov’s photographs of Yakutian laikas (a type of Siberian huskies) taken in the course of his recent dog sledding to Lena’s Pillars. Read the rest of this entry…