Off-roading in Yakutsk, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

Off-roading in Yakutsk, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

I do really admire these pals. I mean Artyom and Katerina (see the above pic), the co-founders of the Adv.Yktv.ru Siberian adventure blog, and guys of the Yakutsk off-roading club “Mammoth” (http://off-road.ykt.ru/) with its chief Dima Khvatov. If to alter the text of the World Cup Coca-Cola commercial song, they might be always singing, “Give us a reason to off-road higher!” Right. They are easy-going. They are always striving for impassible terrains to go through.

Yakutsk off-roading fans are really lucky. They don’t need to ride on their 4wds, ATVs and motor bikes far away. They just need to get out of the city and make a turn from a road, and here we are. The famous Siberian taiga with lots of challenges is always near!

This time they had two reasons. First, that’s the weekend. Second, a strong wish to get dirty and have sauna inside a special tent with a heating furnace. The latter opportunity was provided by the Yakutsk-based company “Mobilnaya Banya” (A mobile sauna in English). Its director is in a red t-shirt in one of below-listed photographs. Read the rest of this entry…

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Siberia Challenge: 2010 Yakutia Open Off-Roading Championship

Siberia Challenge: 2010 Yakutia Open Off-Roading Championship

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

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

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The Winter Road Documentary Poster

This is the video preview of Nikolay Evstifeev’s documentary “THE WINTER ROAD. The Land of Fierce…” about the sever work in Siberia’s Yakutia. Here you can see how hard ordinary people’s work can be in the toughest part of Siberia.

The documentary film won The Best Directing Award at The 17th Saint Anna Film Festival and The Best Cinematography Award at The 29th VGIK Film Festival. Btw, Anton Safronov was a camera man.

The documentary is about Yakutia, the sever land of truckers, gold miners, hunters, oil & other industry workers. Extreme conditions are revealed in every capture. Survival at minus 50 degrees Celsius, ice roads on rivers, people’s attitude to nature, wild life… and PEOPLE without false manners and any compromises.

Young documentary filmmakers traveled winter roads in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia. They met many ordinary workers, who appeared to be real heroes of daily life.

“This film is very sincere! This is a real big documentary!” said Michael Porechenkov, the chairman of the 29th VGIK Film Festival jury, a famous Russian actor. Read the rest of this entry…

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GPS orienteering contest in Yakutsk, April 2010

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.

Read the rest of this entry…

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

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This road was built by the inmates of Gulag camps, most of them were buried along the way. That’s why it’s named the Road of Bones. Read the rest of this entry…

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Tomas Holman on the bike. Between Tomtor/Yakutia and Magadan, the Road of Bones (the M56 Kolyma Highway). August 2009. Photo by Eva Krecova.

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This set will be updated all the time. Need more time to select more pictures of our trip. Today you can see the first portion.

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A frozen car stuck in the ice. Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia. Photo by Bolot Bochkarev.

Actually this car wasn’t frozen accidently. Its owner got it frozen for winter intentionally. Reasons are various. First, if the car is used the whole winter, it could work a short period of time only. Second, to have a warm, heated garage is relatively expensive. Such a garage in downtown may cost approx. 1,000,000 rubles (~33,000USD). A month heated garage rent cost ~300 USD. Third, a car consumes in cold weather more fuel than in summer, and one litre is sold here at the price of ~1 USD

Read the rest of this entry…

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This video I shot a year ago on Dec. 7, 2008. It was minus 40C only.
It has 15679 views on YouTube. This is a big number to me.

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