The Yakuts consider Kihilyakh to be a sacred place. It is believed that stone pillars in the upper part of the Verkhoyansk mountains concentrate health-healing powers. People come to that place, pray to mountains’ spirits asking for having grace on them and giving blessing.

Take a look at Ajar Varlamov’s unique set of photographs taken in Kihilyakh in July 2010.

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Last week I and my boys visited the famous Russian travel photographers, Anton Lange & Ivan Shakurov’s photo exhibition “To the North”. Certainly, it was dedicated to the coldest & biggest Siberian region of Yakutia. The event took place in the republic’s National Arts Museum. Read the rest of this entry…

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…

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…

See photographs of the Even reindeer herders taken by anthropologist Florian Stammler in the northern part of the Verkhoyansk mountains in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia.

Florian Stammler is one of a few antropologists, who mainly studies the peoples of the Russian Arctic. He used to lecture in Cambridge. Now he teaches at the Rovaniemi University in the Finish Lapland. He has been to Yakutia many times. This time, a couple of weeks ago, he traveled to the Eveno-Bytantaisky region with Bruce Parry and his IndusFilms documentary team (wrote about them previously). 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…

A trivia question! Who were the first passengers of the first 3-hours Lena River journey on the cruise ship “Demyan Bednyj” on June 1st, 2010, the first day of official navigation? Read the rest of this entry…

Location: Yakutsk river port

Two days prior to the start of navigation on the Lena River, at the height of preparation for summer cruises to Lena Pillars, I went on a visit to the Demian Bednyj cruise ship captain Oleg Borisov. A very hospitable man.

When he saw me with a camera, he got perplexed, “My god, I am not in uniform. Not in full dress. Otherwise…” Yeah, indeed, why is the captain not uniformed daily, but only on a voyage?! “Now we are intensively preparing the vessel for navigation. Going through check-ups by sanitary-and-epidemiologic service, fire safety service, and others…” That way he was trying to explain, why he was not dressed up. Whatever it might be, I took a photo of him. He was in a casual checked shirt and slippers…

Frankly saying, it’s blogger’s habit to bring a camera along. Pictures may come to my help, when especially I have no wish or time to write… But in this case it is my great pleasure to type a few good lines about people, who love their work and live for it.

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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…