Lening square, in the center of Yakutsk. Today the temperature is around -40°C and the smoke coming from cars, industries and heating systems, generates a fog that seems to make the air still more freezing.

Trees completely covered by snow and ice. At these low temperatures, persisting for weeks without winds, the ice grows in huge quantity, just everywhere.

Banners covered by ice.

Like shadows in their black coats, these people walk in thick fog at minus forty. Yakutsk has about 240000 inhabitants and, like any other city of the world, there are cars, offices, resturants and entertainments, regardless of the extreme winter conditions and the other challenges given by each season.

Ice over cables and trees.

Still ice everywhere...

Trees deformed by the weight of the ice.

The nice natural history museum in Yakutsk. There are remains from anicent animals (like mammoth) and many archeological findings, coming from ancient populations. There is also a collection of minerals: this region is very reach in diamonds, gold, silver and many other minerals. It is said that any element of the periodic table can be found in Yakutia. Most of these minerals are currently not taken out, because of lack of roads throughout the region and the huge difficulties to build an efficient transporation system (this is mainly due to permafrost, which deforms any road in just few years).

Ancient wooden houses, not build on poles and thence heavily deformed by adjustment of underlaying permafrost.

Here in Yakutsk, the permafrost (a layer of permanently frozen ground) starts at about 3 meters of deepness. This creates lots of challenges in home (especially the tallest buildings) and road building, because the peromafrost tends to adjust over the years. Here I'm 8 meters underground, where the temperature is -8 centigrades year round. I can touch the soil and, where it is frozen, it is hard like concrete. There are also remains of ancient plants lived about 10000 years ago, when this layer was outside.

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 (YOU ARE HERE)

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.

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

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. GO

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