It’s already a good tradition. Annually, Mammoth Yakutsk Off-Road Club arranges the spring race, that officially opens the season for the club’s all-terrain events. It happens in April, when snow is still on the ground. This year was not exception.

Last weekend, the club held the snow race tournament called «Spring Melting.» Participants were devided into different categories depending on a vehicle type and they needed to compete who would come to the finish line first.

Ok. No more words, take a look at my following photographs.

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Yesterday I took photographs of how truck drivers — Michael Zakharov and his four sons — were preparing for this year’s last long run on the winter road from Yakutsk to Srednekolymsk, Kolyma area of North-East Yakutia, Siberia, Russia.

A long ride, indeed, and very risky. Around 2500 km on one way through the Kolyma federal road (settlements of Khandyga and Ust Nera) and the Arctic winter road (Ust Nera — Sasyr — Zyryanka — Srednekolymsk).

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What can happen, when ice road truckers take a risk and cross the river on the thin ice in spring? Their trucks fall through the ice and drivers kill much time to extract their vehicles.

Take a look. This video was shot on the Indigirka River in the area of Oymyakon. This is in Yakutia, Siberia / Russia. Time was the late spring, April.

A kinda exciting adventure, but it wasn’t funny for drivers.

In the early November, Yakutsk-based Vladimir Potapov (fb profile) arranged the winter snowmobile expedition to the Arctic zone of the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia (Siberia/Russia).

The route was Ust Kujga (map) — Kazach’e (map) — Laptev Sea.

The mission was to deliver the remains of the Yuka Mammoth from the area of the Yukagir community, Laptev Sea, to Yakutsk. It is the same place, where the famous Yukagir mammoth head was discovered seven years ago.

The Yuka mammoth corpse was found in the well-preserved condition by Vasily Gorokhov’s community four years ago. It has four legs, proboscis, and wool.

The expedition was filmed by BBC TV Channel and scheduled to be on the air on February 25th, 2012. It will be a 60-min story.

See more Arctic expedition photographs taken by Egor Fedorov.

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Dimitri Kieffer halted Nexus Expedition until 2012! This year he and Gulnara made it from Magadan to Yakutsk by bicycles. By the way, I wrote two posts about his expedition at AskYakutia.com.

On his last day in Yakutsk, he and fellows of Yakutsk Bicycle Club excersized downhill cycling in the city’s suburb. See more winter cycling pictures.

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Yesterday I started using the Instagram iPhone app. My god, I fell in love with it. Take a look at photographs of Yakutsk (Yakutia, Russia) taken by the iPhone and uploaded on the net with the help of Instagram. All of them instantly appeared on my Twitter account @yakutia.

In pictures: a couple on Ordzhanikidze Square, Russian Airborne Forces celebration on a fountain, the rainy morning and the British motor bikers, Ed and Ben, ready to ride to Magadan through Stalin’s Road of Bones. A story about these motorcyclists are coming soon on AskYakutia.com.

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Happy International Women’s Day, dear ladies! Have great spring and year ahead with a lot of flowers!!!

Hereby we present today’s short photo report done by Evgenia Arbugaeva (her website) in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Russia. Her themes became 8th March and a passenger bus turned out to be a flower shop on wheels. Today we had a lot of them standing in every district. It’s useful. No need to run around the city for flowers search. Enjoy!

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Previously, I wrote that Alexander and Constantine Smurygins, republic constructors from the city of Mirny, invented and created the all-terrain vehicle called «Uraankhai» able to drive smartly through taiga and swim Siberian rivers. It was the news spread across all regional newspapers and online portals. Read the full news story.

A week ago, Vice President of the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia Dmitry Glushko gave that off-roader a try. Further, look at photographs of his test drive.

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The Uraanhay off road vehicle was designed by the Smurygins especially for terrains of Yakutia, East Siberia and Far East.

From now on, the Yakutian affiliate of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (in short, rescuers) will use the hand-made all-terrain vehicle called “Uraanhay,” Yakutsk Vecherny Newspaper reports.

The new off-roader is able to drive smartly through taiga as well as to swim Siberian rivers. It was created by Alexander and Constantine Smurygin in the city of Mirny, West Yakutia, in the course of 1.5 year. Now it is based in Yakutsk.

Such an all terrain vehicle is suitable for search-and-rescue operations in the northern Siberian region. Thanks to the rover, the number of expensive rescue helicopter flights (1 flight hour costs from 4500 USD) might be reduced greatly.

Its advantages are easy use and good cross. The huge off-roader is not afraid of knots and bushes, and its all terrain tires are simply impossible to pierce.

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Sorry, friends. Can’t stop recording videos and taking pictures of the current extreme cold weather in Russia’s Siberian city of Yakutsk. Here is another set of media files done on the iPhone in today’s cold winter morning and noon. The outdoor temp was -44C.

I love my iPhone, but after 10-15 minutes of its use in the cold weather in Yakutsk, it’s totally useless. However, take a look at the above video done this morning, while I was standing on the crossroad near the city hall, and winter street photographs taken during my short walks to and from my work place.

Enjoy and wish us keep warm!

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