Omg, I am already missing a magic winter in Yakutia. Take a look at my favourite Aikhal-based photographer Ruslan Ahmetsaphin’s winter photographs taken in the areas of Aikhail, Mirny and other settlements of Western Yakutia. It is the land primarily famous for diamonds, but it is also the land of amazing cold Siberian nature – enigmatic forest (taiga), icy rivers, crispy snow, glowing stars, and fantastic Aurora Borealis.

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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…

Received a message from an Icelandic friend of mine. He wrote, “Yakutsk was on Icelandic News Channel this evening.” Later, he explained that it was the reportage about an Icelandic mechanic’ work at Yakutsk Airport. A representative of Iceland Air, that leased 5 Boing 737 planes to Yakutia Airlines, said in his interview, “It is -27, people are showing hospitality.” Read the rest of this entry…

The railway is close to Yakutsk. On April 27, 2010, Yakutia-Sakha News Agency reported that the Berkakit – Tommot – Yakutsk railway construction had reached the border of the Khangalassky region. TransStroy-Vostok has already completed 644 km. The 1st train is expected to arrive at Nizhnyj Bestyakh Station (on the opposite bank of the Lena River in front of Yakutsk) in 2013. The construction of the bridge of the Lena River will be started this year.

See more winter photographs taken by Antonina Bochkareva on the bridge over the Amga River (the midst of the Berkakit – Yakutsk railway) in December of 2008. The outdoor temperature was -53C. Read the rest of this entry…

It was almost the right time to say “Hello!” to summer, but winter said, “No!” When everything was melted and the sun was heating, the snowstorm happened in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. April 26, 2010.

A French balloon explorer Jean-Louis Etienne flying via the North Pole from Norway to the Siberian republic of Yakutia. By Francis Latreille

Jean-Louis Ettienne

YAKUTIA/SIBERIA, April 11, 2010 – Yesterday a 63-years-old French balloon adventurer Jean-Louis Etienne has reached Yakutia’s Arctic Circle and finished his 5-days Generaly Arctic Observer flight expedition done from Norway via the North Pole to Siberia.

In Saturday’s morning he reached the Russian Arctic coast in the area of Yakutia’s Ust-Yansky region. He was expected to land in Tiksi, but the weather (winds and fogs) changed his direction. He was blown eastward to the Ust Yansky region. By that moment he had got pretty tired. The weariness and thick fog on the route to Batagai, the Verkhoyansky region, forced him to land soon in the Northern part of the Yakutian region of Ust Yansky, hundreds kilometers north from the villages of Ust Kujga and Deputatsky.

He spent night in the Arctic nowhere, where temperature at night was below -30 degrees Centigrate.

This morning Jean-Louis Etienne and his balloon equipment was picked up by his support team and brought to Yakutsk by a helicopter.

More info + the video. Read the rest of this entry…

Halo in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia. March 26, 2010. Photo by PS. Click the pic to enlarge.

In the picture: The halo above the Japanese Centre on Dzerzhinsky Street in Yakutsk, Yakutia/Siberia, on March 26, 2010. Read the rest of this entry…

Found the slideshow with a lot of my photographs. It’s in the Portuguese language. What it is written is hard for me to translate, I cannot read in Portuguese, but think it’s all about the cold as usual Read the rest of this entry…

Recalling the past winter as scenes of the movie “Silent Hills” Take a look at Alexey Pavlov’s white & black photographs. Yakutsk, January-February, 2010. Yakutia/Siberia. Read the rest of this entry…

The popular Dutch travel show “3 Op Reis” is currently featuring the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It dedicated two TV Show series to our region, one to Yakutsk, another to Verkhoyansk, the coldest town in Yakutia. The TV crew visited Yakutia in early October 2009. Hehe. Remember I recommended them to go to Verkhoyansk.

See a video further. Read the rest of this entry…