Last months I was pretty much busy with the arrangement of travels, expeditions and tours across the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), but, praise god, I’ve never forgot to take my camera along.

So, here is some picks of winter travel photographies. In the following set you can see Russia’s Siberian city of Yakutsk, street photographs, the ice road across the Lena River, trucks stuck in the ice, the man cutting ice cubes for drinking water, fogs, city monuments, the Christmas / New Year tree, kids, etc.

Lenin Square in the above photo.

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As you noted, I am a big, big fan of the Lena River in Yakutia, Siberia / Russia, and I do really appreciate your attention and reading my blog. So, I have prepared free desktop wallpapers for you as my thank to you.

Choose any image from the listed ones and download it. Have a good day!

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Lena Pillars on the Lena River in Republic Sakha-Yakutia, Russia. Photo by Ajar Varlamov.

Great news arrived yesterday from UNESCO HQ in Paris. Yakutia’s Lena Pillars Nature Park was officially announced on Monday morning by The World Heritage Committee to be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It was the last site to be inscribed during this year’s session.

What is Lena Pillars Nature Park?

Lena Pillars Nature Park is marked by spectacular rock pillars that reach a height of approximately 100 metres along the banks of the Lena River in the central part of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). They were produced by the region’s extreme continental climate with an annual temperature range of almost 100 degrees Centigrade (from -60°C in winter to +40°C in summer). The pillars form rocky buttresses isolated from each other by deep and steep gullies developed by frost shattering directed along intervening joints. Penetration of water from the surface has facilitated cryogenic processes (freeze-thaw action), which have widened gullies between pillars leading to their isolation. Fluvial processes are also critical to the pillars. The site also contains a wealth of Cambrian fossil remains of numerous species, some of them unique.

Via UNESCO

Lena Pillars Photograps You Might Have Missed

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Icebreak on the Lena River. Ice is floating fast on May 16th, 2012.

Location: Pokrovsk town, Central Yakutia, Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Siberia / Russia.

This is the biggest nature event in May. The end of the cold season, the start of the warm days!

See how ice is floating on the Lene River via the live webcam.

The above video was shared by ykt user REPKA.

That’s what we are going to have in a month! Thanks to the Yakutsk-based talented cameraman Arian Ivanov, we can see how ice was floating on the Lena River on May 18-19, 2011.

A pretty amazing nature event! We enjoy it every spring from high banks of the Lena River in my area called the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia’s North-East Siberia & Far East.

The video was done on Tabaga Cape, a few km south off Yakutsk, Russia.

Hooray! Summer is at hand. Meanwhile, we’ve got awesome spring. See more post related to Spring in Yakutia and the Lena River.

This morning I went out for a regular dog walk. With Ogonyok, 1-yo Yakutian laika (learn more about this dog breed), we headed to the anabranch of the Lena River located just in front of the block I live in.

In summer, it is visited mostly by city people striving for swimming. In winter, it becomes a sort of Mecca for ice fishermen. This day was not exception. On the ice, we spotted a dozen of men sitting with rods and bending over holes.

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A railway station in Nizhnyj Bestyakh in front of Yakutsk on the opposite bank of the Lena River. Photo by Dmitry Medvedev.

Yep, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Yakutsk. He arrived right from Hawaii this night.

The purpose of his official visit is to discuss the issues related to housing and communal services and participate in the opening of the last constructed branch line of the railway Berkakit — Tommot — Yakutsk in the settlement of Nizhnyj Bestyakh. This place is located in front of Yakutsk on the opposite bank of the Lena River.

Amazing! The half of the day I had been waiting from local journalists for any photographs of the event, especially of the Nizhnyj Bestyakh event. But… it appeared to be Dmitry Medvedev, who took a picture and uploaded it on his Twitter account @MedvedevRussia.

President Medvedev said that the railway must come to Yakutsk via the bridge over the Lena River, not through the tunnel.

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Here is the story. Alexey Pavlov is the famous photographer in Yakutia. Yakutsk-based TAYA Model Agency has many beautiful young women. LenaTourFlot LLC has a pretty old, but stylish Soviet passenger ship that tends to make journeys between Yakutsk and the Arctic settlement of Tiksi. Yakutia has the awesome magic Lena River.

So what do you think Alexey did? He travelled with TAYA models on the Mechanic Koulibin ship to the Lena Pillars, one of major geological monuments on the Lena River, and brought a bunch of great photographs. Take a look and enjoy!

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When I see awesome photographs of my lovely Yakutia, I have a strong feeling to not say anything, apart from one sentence, «Enjoy Yakutia! Pictures explain everything!»

In this post, I would love to say something similiar, «This is the Lena River! Enjoy its beauty!» and that’s it. But it might sound unfair to you and Dina Khandy, who took these photographs during her 2-week river cruise on the Michael Svetlov ship from Yakutsk to the Arctic settlement of Tiksi in the Lena Delta.

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Here we go! Lena Pillars! The famous geological monument on the Lena River (Yakutia / Russia) was the third spot visited by Ilya Kovyakin, a friend of mine from Magadan, his family and Ajar Varlamov on their 3-day journey along one of the world’s biggest river.

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