This meteorological weather station is run by two people in shifts of over one year, when, because of the isolation, they will encounter only really few people. There are instruments to check temperature, humidity, winds, snow depth and temperature and precipitations. The data is sent out via morse code.

Instruments to check the temperature and the humidity.

We make a nice experiment, throwing in the air a glass of boiling water. The temperature is -43 today and, in such cold, the hot water explodes into a cloud of vapour and ice crystals.

A beautiful sunset.

An house completely frozen because of breakage of the heating system. There isn't nothing that can be done to revert the situation, but the family will have to wait for the next spring to use their home again.

Top left: a cowshed. The cows know that when they want some water, they have to go outside, walk to the frozen lake in front of the town and drink from a hole in the ice. This is done automatically, without anybody accompanying them.

There are no water pipes in this village, but the water reservoir throughout the winter is ensured by these blocks of ice cutted from the lake in November. Each family has blocks assigned, when they need some water, they just drive here to pickup the ice.

The last colorful sunset. It is now time to say goodbye to this fantastic, amazing and incredible journey in this land, so big and so unknown by the people living outside here.

PICTURES

St. Petersburg

Three days in St Petersburg are really not enough to appreciate the city and to visit the countless museums, so I have to limit my itinerary only to the Arctic and Antarctic museum, the Hermitage, the Church of Our Savior and the Krassin icebreaker, the ship that has saved the members of Umberto Nobile's expeditions to the North Pole.GO

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is the Russia's third biggest city and geographical center, as well as the capital of Siberia. I hike in the city with a temperature going from -10 to -18 deg.centigrades, visiting the Opera theatre (the world's biggest!), the Transiberian railway station and the downtown, where ice sculptors were at work.GO

Yakutsk

Yakutsk is the capital of Yakutia autonomous region and has about 240000 inhabitants. The temperature was frequently around -40 degrees, both C. and F., as the two scales meet at this low value. I hike in the downtown main streets, visiting also the local museum, the dock onto Lena frozen river and the Permafrost institute. GO

From Yakutsk to Tomtor via Ust-nera

A flight of about two hours brings me from Yakutsk to Ust-Nera, a town of approximately 8000 inhabitants, from where the tour continues to Tomtor by car, crossing valleys, mountains and villages having the lowest winter temperatures of the northen hemisphere. This area is also sadly known for gulags and executions during the first half of past century. GO

Tomtor

Tomtor is a small town situated inside the "Pole of the Cold", the world's coldest inhabited place, where the January's average temperature is -50 degrees centigrades. I visit the old gold mine where nice ice sculptures are kept, and an hot spring where most water never freezes. GO

Oymyakon

Oymyakon is a village made of many charming small houses, where about 1200 people live. It is here that the lowest temperature of the northen hemisphere, -71,2°C, was recorded. I went on a frozen river with a fisherman, to see how ice fishing is carried-out, spending a few hours out at -52°C. I've also visited a nearby horse farm. GO

From Oymyakon to Yakutsk via Tyoply Klyuch (YOU ARE HERE)

The distance from Oymyakon to Yakutsk is about 1000km and requires two full days by car, with an overnight in Tyoply Kluch. Again, wonderful frozen mountains, valleys, lakes and river, where everything is white. A visit to a meteo station is also included.

Visit http://www.yakutiatravel.com for tours to Yakutia