Today is the 1st day with the temperature around minus 40 degrees Centigrade in Yakutsk, Siberia/Russia. Cold, but not enough. Waiting for more extreme cold weather soon. Hope to experience something below -50C in a couple of weeks. But it’s my wish only. Other city residents and, certainly, my family would prefer mild winter.

Meanwhile, enjoy the current video done on the way from my parents’ place (where I left my little son) to children clinic.

UPDATE, Nov. 29, 2010: Yesterday received a reply from Andrei Ivanov to the above video. Read the rest of this entry…

This is Valera Baev, vice president of Yakutsk Nord Brotherhood Motorcycle Club, who helps international bikers a lot in Yakutsk. He is, actually, a well-known local pro studio photographer.

Here he was caught by a Russia Today reporter during the 21st birthday party of Russia’s Night Wolves Motor Club.

The caption to the photo was funny. It was like, “A biker came for a special occasion from a far away Northern Russian city of Yakutsk.”

This is one of fourteen short films made by Martin Heylen for the Belgian National TV Channel. The episode depicts how ice roads on the Lena River are used and what type of road maintaining works is conducted in winter. In the video you can see, why road workers pour waters on ice, why they strew snow on the surface and etc.

Saying a lot of thanks to Olga Monastyreva for her sharing the link with us. Olga lives in Belgia and she reports that Martin Heylen is pretty famous in his country and his TV Show about Siberia, including Yakutia, was broadcasted on a major TV Channel in the course of one month. Later it was repeated at requests of viewers. Moreover, Martin received a national TV award for those series.

Enjoy a film, though it is in the Flemish language.

Early October was like that. Snow fell. The sun appeared. Snow started melting in the daytime and turning into ice at night and truckers became the most unhappy human beings in Siberia’s Yakutia. Driving ice-covered roads is dangerous now. Many vehicles can be seen in ditches.

Above and below, please, see winter photographs taken on the Lena Highway between Aldan and Yakutsk in the Southern part of Yakutia the last weekend. Painful sights.

Read the rest of this entry…

The video was shot on the ice road on the Laptev Sea in the area of Bulunsky ulus. That’s the Arctic region of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). In short, Siberia’s Arctic.

A truck started its way in the village of Nizhneyansk (the Lena Delta) and reached the Laptev Sea. Offscreen voices belong to a driver and a passenger, who expressed their astonishment about how vast and white the sea is, etc., etc.

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…

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…

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…

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