A few years ago, the Moscow-based Independent correspondent Shawn Walker arrived in Yakutsk, the administrative center of Siberia’s Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, in the deep winter. I think it was January. So, he wanted to visit Oymyakon, but he was lack of time adn eventually he didn’t make it to that coldest inhabited village.

Shawn returned to Moscow and wrote and an article with many Yakutsk winter images. He called his piece “Journey to the coldest city in the world.” That was like a bomb in the UK

Since that moment, mass media started to use the phrase “the world’s coldest city” for Yakutsk in their own stories. That’s actually true. Oymyakon, for instance, is not the city, it is a small village, though it has -60C as the average temperature in the late December and January.

Meanwhile, we are taling about Yakutsk City and its winter with -50C and -52C. That’s the temp we’ve got this week. Enjoy photographs.

Read the rest of this entry…

The photographs were taken on the road between Oymyakon and Khandyga in the mountain part of the Kolyma Highway known also as Stalin’s Road of Bones.

When we were driving, the outdoor temperature was as low as -55C. In the beginning of the way, i.e. in the village of Tomtor in the Oymyakon area, we registerd -57.3C. Extremely cold. Not surprised that the Kolyma road is considered by many as the coldest one in the world.

Read the rest of this entry…

Winter starts from Yakutia! This is how a new travel project is called. What’s that? A good question.

Officials, who are responsible for tourism development in Russia’s Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, have been thinking over tricks of attracting tourists to Yakutia. They spent much time on that work. Indeed, it was a hard mission.

Yakutia is located pretty far away and, moreover, it’s huge and impossible to travel across in a short span of time and see all exotic things at once. What to do?

Read the rest of this entry…

A friend of mine, Vyacheslav Ipatiev, who is the founder and CEO of YakutiaTravel LLC, has developed a new unique route for extreme cold hunters.

He gives a chance to embark an adventure journey on reindeer sleds across the Valley of Oymyakon, one of the coldest parts of Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.

10-day sledding in the Siberian extreme cold weather. From the village of Uchugey to the village of Oymyakon. The temp is as low as -55 C or even less. And, yeah, night spending in nomads’ sleeping bags in nomads’ tents. In short, it’s the coolest expedition experience!

Cold hunting trip description is available here.

See more cold adventure pictures… Read the rest of this entry…

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.

Read the rest of this entry…

This is a 5-min video about Yakutia!

Its creators tried to do the impossible… to show all images of the vast diverse region called Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Think, they succeeded, but, frankly, such a hard mission won’t be possible to do ever.

No more words! Watch Yakutia!

This is a trailer of the “7 Days in Foreign Land – Yakutia” travel film done by Joe Macke, an American, and Stepan Burnashev, a Yakutian. Currently, they are working on editing. Wish them luck!

I am so glad that Roman Sofronov (aka. Taramaan) helps me a lot with the eYakutia blog content. Previously, he let me publish his own awesome archive videos. All his posts came and will come under this tag.

In July 2011, Roman participated in a geobotanical scientific expedition to the area of Mus-Khaya Mountain in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia, and he brought a lot of pics. Find some of them further.

Read the rest of this entry…

Dersu (his blog) is great! Last August he and his friend, Sergey Ermak, completed another trekking expedition, but this time to Palatka Mountain, one of the biggest glaciers in East Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.

Dersu’s previous trekkings across Yakutia:

- Kyuellyakh Moustakh River Expedition, Yakutia/Siberia
- The Momsky Range, East Yakutia/Siberia

Palatka Mountain is located in Suntar-Khayata Range in the area of the upper Suntar River. Considered as the third highest point (2797 m) after Pobeda Peak (3147 m) and Mus Khaya Mountain (2959 m).

Read the rest of this entry…

Evgenia Arbugaeva, a Yakutian photographer, keeps stunning us all the time. In September – October, she is exhibiting her pictures from the project “Tiksi In Winter” in Toronto, Canada. Her photo exhibit will be a part of so-called Days of Sakha-Yakutia at Bezpala Brown Gallery.

Days of Sakha-Yakutia at Bezpala Brown Gallery
Sept. 30-Oct. 9; Oct. 15-30, 17 Church St., Toronto; bezpalabrown.com

If you are in Toronto, don’t miss a chance to see her images of the Russian Arctic seaport of Tiksi located in Yakutia in the area of the Lena Delta.

Some of Evgenia’s photographs you might see right now.

Read the rest of this entry…