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.

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Today we had -51C (-59.8F) in a daytime, though in the morning a local meteo station registered -49C (-56.2) that meant school free time for kids of 1st to 8th grade. Anyway it’s bitterly cold.

Below, watch two short videos I made today during the lunch time.

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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.

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Happy New Year, friends!!! Wish you all the best dreams to come true!!!! Thank you for staying with Yakutia the last year. Let’s do it again in 2012

Meanwhile, enjoy the New Year fireworks happened in Yakutsk, Russia.

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Yesterday I just stood a little bit near the New Year tree installed recently on Lenin Square in Yakutsk City, Yakutia, Siberia / Russia, and took my chance to take a picture and make a video.

The photo is above. The video is inside the post. 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?

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This Tuesday Boeing 747-800 arrived in Yakutsk from Seattle for low temperature testing.

As reported, it’s still at Yakutsk Airport. Currently, we have -40 degrees Centigrade.

This morning we had -42C in Yakutsk, Yakutia, Siberia / Russia. At last, real winter arrived.

See today’s photographs of the extreme cold winter… and stay tuned, as the day is not over yet. More pictures are coming.

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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.

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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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