The Republic of Sakha is not only the biggest but also the coldest land. "At a wedding," wrote Lansdell in the 19th century, "the favourite dish served up by the bride to her future lord is a boiled horse's head, with horse-flesh sausages." "The question is what you could do if that money was used more wisely.". You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. Finally, I find myself with severe pain all across my body and have to return indoors. Here they are made with reindeer hide, and the women's version features colourful sequined patterning. Nothing else keeps you warm.". "But other countries try to avoid building cities on permafrost," the scientist says. It was here that the lowest ever temperature in an inhabited place was recorded – minus 71.2C. The region is rich in gold and diamonds, which is what lay behind the Soviets' decision to turn Yakutsk into a major regional centre, first using the Gulag labour system, and later with the resettlement of thousands of volunteers seeking adventure, higher salaries and the chance to build socialism on ice. Yakutsk's remoteness is also extraordinary. For Britons, who are wont to label any temperature the wrong side of zero "Siberian", the difference between cold and even colder might seem intangible. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. There is no railway to Yakutsk. We rode a reindeer sleigh to the mountain peaks. Both Moscow and Yakutsk are currently in the midst of cold, snowy winters. "We're flying into tropical heat!". For warm underwear, consider Termo (Sweden). Is Australia A Continent? It is six time zones away from Moscow, and two centuries ago it would have taken more than three months to travel between the two. Lumbering from my hotel room like the Michelin Man, and already breaking into a sweat due to the hotel's industrial heating system, I decide that I'm ready to face everything Yakutsk has to throw at me. The paper was first set up just before the February Revolution of 1917 by political dissidents. In time, Yakutsk was transformed into a real city with hotels, cinemas, an opera house, universities, a pizza delivery service, and even a zoo. In Yakutsk itself, most of the cars are second-hand Japanese imports; apparently, they handle the cold better than Ladas and other traditional Russian vehicles. ", But for many of Siberia's political exiles – includingLenin and Stalin – their time there was little more than an extended reading holiday, albeit a chilly one. It is the smallest of the continents with a land area of 3,310,000 square miles and is … Fur-clad locals scurry through a central square adorned with an icy Christmas tree (left over from the New Year holidays) and a statue of a strident Lenin, with one arm aloft and pointing forward, thoroughly unfazed by the cold. "Yakutsk has the credit of being the coldest place upon the face of the earth," noted Henry Lansdell, a British traveller who stopped off here on his way across Siberia in the late 19th century. "But of course, after the horrors of Stalinism and the Gulag, it all seemed very humane.". Yakutsk is the largest city in the world built on permafrost – soil that remains permanently frozen year round. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. "They have lost whatever warmth they once had," wrote Chekhov about a group of men he encountered in Western Siberia. I collapse on the bed in the hotel room to thaw myself, and it takes half an hour for my body to feel normal again. In the 19th century it was used, like many Siberian towns, as an open prison for political dissidents. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. The native Yakuts, a Turkic tribe with Asiatic features who speak a language full of throaty, mooing vowels, were largely engaged in reindeer herding. I have been outside for 13 minutes. Australia is comprised of mainland Australia, Tasmania, Seram, New Guinea, sometimes Timor, and surrounding islands. Television footage of the ensuing "big freeze" showed groups of people huddled in swathes of blankets gathering round makeshift wood-fired stoves to keep warm. And at minus 45C, even wearing glasses gets tricky: the metal sticks to your cheeks and will tear off chunks of flesh when you decide to remove them. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? "At the time, people thought it was amazingly cruel to keep people in exile like that," says Vladimir Fyodorov, the editor of Gazeta Yakutia, the main regional newspaper. "I saw on the television that in Europe you have these lunatics who say it's not nice to wear fur because they love animals," says Natasha, a Yakutsk resident, who's sporting a coat made of rabbit and a fetching hat of arctic fox, with a fox tail hanging from each side and tied in a knot at the end to look like plaits. None of the buildings is equipped with air conditioning, and the air is filled with midges and mosquitoes in swarms of biblical proportions. ", I get a last blast of Yakutsk air at the airport, where we have to walk to the plane and are then forced to wait for 10 minutes on the tarmac before we are allowed to board. For this reason, every single building in Yakutsk is built on underground stilts, varying in depth depending on the size of the building. I'm fine.". For a small cottage, Shats says, the stilts should be six to eight metres deep, while for buildings such as power stations, they can reach down as far as 25 metres into the earth. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. There is no railway to Yakutsk. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Hi/Low, RealFeel®, precip, radar, & everything you need to be ready for the day, commute, and weekend! Next to succumb are the legs. It is mostly used by truckers bringing supplies to remote villages. Day 7 – Departure from Yakutsk. Now we understand the temperature of space, or the CMBR, to be more precise, but what if you were exposed to space without a spacesuit? The book's authors estimated that emergency fuel deliveries to Siberian towns alone cost about £350m per year, and say it would be more efficient to fly people in to extract the oil, gas, nickel, gold and diamonds in Siberia rather than have fully functioning cities in such conditions. Most of Western Europe has an Oceanic climate, in the Köppen climate classification, featuring cool to warm summers and cool winters with frequent overcast skies. "Temperatures above ground change by the hour," Shats adds, taking me on a tour of the underground research laboratory the institute set up to investigate the frozen soil. Yakutsk: Journey to the coldest city on earth, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. The woolly hat and padded hood are no match for minus 43C either, and my ears begin to sting. If the Soviet Union had worked according to the market (rather than grand ideologies, they say) cities such as Yakutsk would never have appeared. Starting from the feet and working up, I'm wearing: a pair of cotton socks, with a pair of thermal socks over them; a pair of ankle-high Gore-Tex boots; a set of thermal long-johns; a pair of jeans; a thermal undershirt (a present from a worried family member); a long-sleeved T-shirt; a tight-fitting cashmere jumper; a fleece; a padded winter coat with hood; a thin pair of woollen gloves (so that when I take the outer pair off to take photographs I won't expose naked flesh); a pair of gloves made of wool and Thinsulate; a wool scarf; and a woolly football hat. A few hundred miles down the "Road of Bones" is Oimyakon, known as "The Pole of Cold". Within a few minutes, however, the icy weather begins to assert itself forcefully. And after a few shots of vodka, the slices of baby horse don't taste too bad either. VisitYakutia.com. In January, the most freezing month, average "highs" are around minus 40C; today the temperature is hovering around minus 43C, leaving the city engulfed in an oppressive blanket of freezing fog that restricts visibility to 10 metres. The other options are a 1,000-mile boat ride up the Lena river during the few months of the year when it isn't frozen, or the "Road of Bones". Download the PDF file with tour description & rates. His story is very soulful! The burly Siberian sitting next to me whoops with delight and takes another swig from the bottle of whisky he'ss brought on board. It is only fully traversable in winter, when the rivers freeze over (Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman tried, unsuccessfully, to cross it during more temperate months in the motorbike documentary Long Way Round). Workers continue working on building sites up to minus 50C (below this the metal becomes too brittle to work with), and children go to school unless it's below minus 55C (although the kindergarten gets the day off if it hits minus 50C). Current weather in Yakutsk and forecast for today, tomorrow, and next 14 days Day-to-day culinary life was even less appetising: "They make a sort of porridge or bread of the under bark of the spruce, fir and larch, which they cut in small pieces, mixing it with milk or dried fish.". In winter the temperature drops to - 40 - 50 degrees by Celsius. Anyway, it's nice cold we have here because we don't have wind. I ask if standing outside in such temperatures every day caused her any health problems. Now, it takes just six hours in a ropey Tupolev plane, but tickets start at £500 return, a huge sum in a country where the average wage is £250 per month. I look at my watch. Still, local people habitually leave the engines running if they have to stop off for half an hour, and some leave them on all day while at work to stop them conking out and to make driving bearably warm. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! They are fond of boasting that the region contains every element in the periodic table. They don't turn off their engines for the duration of the two-week drive, and usually set out in pairs: breaking down on the little-used road would mean almost certain death. Toledo, OH » ... On Tuesday evening in Yakutsk, Siberia and the temperature dropped to -62° BELOW ZERO. So I decided to come to Yakutsk for myself to find out how people manage to survive, and go about something resembling daily life, in the world's coldest place. Bring your own travel and medical insurance from the company that has the Russian partner. "But down here temperature changes can only be observed over hundreds of thousands of years.". Anton Chekhov, on his journey through Siberia in 1890, painted a grim picture of the life of the prisoners held there. A thoughtful, bearded ethnic Russian, Fyodorov runs the newspaper from offices in central Yakutsk that, like every building in the city, are very well heated. Try visiting Yakutsk – the Russian city where 'a bit nippy' means minus 50C, and a quick dash to the corner shop could end in frostbite. Heating pipes are examined and repaired – if they fail, as they did in Artyk and Markha just before New Year, those stuck without warmth risk death. What can you do about it? She looks confused: "Why would it cause any health problems? The conditions are also a nightmare for building. "The system is staggering in its inefficiency. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. The Lena river, more than 10 miles wide at Yakutsk, is not bridged anywhere for hundreds of miles, so villages on the other side have to be stocked up for the months when the river isn't navigable but the ice hasn't thickened enough for a road to be built across it. But at the edges, where the ice has had a chance to melt, all that's left is powdery sand. But most Yakutsk residents don't plan on going anywhere soon – and don't much want to, either. The study concluded that this was because people didn't go outdoors in winter unless it was absolutely necessary, and if they did, they dressed properly. As I'm about to learn, the inhuman temperatures and the winter fog cover are just part of daily life for its hardy residents. The road, built by Gulag inmates, many of whom died in the process, travels 1,200 miles to Magadan on the Pacific. "So accustomed, however, do the natives become to the cold, that with the thermometer at unheard-of degrees below freezing point, the Yakut women, with bare arms, stand in the open-air markets, chattering and joking as pleasantly as if in genial spring. Permafrost covers 15 per cent of the earth's land mass, and 65 per cent of Russia's, says Mark Shats, a researcher at Yakutsk's Permafrost Institute. Yakutia, the region of which it is the capital, covers more than a million square miles, but it is home to fewer than one million people. In the bunker, where ice crystals have formed on the ceiling in perfect geometric squares, it quickly becomes apparent why it's so difficult to build on permafrost. Being a Yakutian horse doesn't seem like much fun – you are reared in miserably cold temperatures until you're old enough to be slaughtered and turned into "thin slices of baby horse steak" or "slices of raw horse liver with spices". you need to customize a tour itinerary according to your dream plan; you wish to order a transport, accommodation and guide service only; you wish to customize entertainment activities; you wish to self-drive vehicles with our instructors. As long as you're dressed right, I think, this isn't too bad. In such a climate, ethics count for little. "Of course it's cold, but you get used to it," says Nina, a Yakut woman who spends eight hours every day standing at her stall in the fish market. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? Now he lives in Tuva’s capital, Kyzyl, plays ethnic Tuvan music, raises five kids with his Tuvan wife and speaks Russian… with a Tuvan accent. Permafrost, perennially frozen ground, a naturally occurring material with a temperature colder than 0 °C (32 °F) continuously for two or more years. Other delicacies include marinated reindeer meat and semi-frozen slices of raw river fish – a sort of Yakutian sushi. If a building is erected in these conditions, the warmth that emanates from the building melts the ice and destroys the stability of the foundations. Even today, telling my Moscow friends that I was heading to Yakutsk brought stares of incredulity, as though I'd told them I was going to the Moon. Take along warm Arctic-type outfits from brands such as The North Face, Canada Goose and similiar. "But cold itself doesn't play a huge part in our traditions. In a regionwide pattern, the average annual temperature in Yakutsk has risen more than four degrees, to 18.5 F from 14 F, over several decades, said Mr. Fedorov of the permafrost institute. Right Now. It's extreme, even by Siberian standards. The overworked exhausts add to the fog that clings to the city. As a Russian ground tour operator (our reference number. Until the Russian Revolution of 1917, Yakutsk remained an insignificant provincial outpost. With all the oil wealth that Russia has, they can theoretically make any place liveable," he adds. According to local legend, the god of creation had been flying around the world to distribute riches and natural resources, but when he got to Yakutia he got so cold that his hands went numb and he dropped everything. In these conditions, traditional Yakut food always made use of whatever it could. "If you compare Siberia with Alaska and parts of Northern Canada, where there are also natural resources, you can see it's vastly overpopulated," says Clifford Gaddy of the Brookings Institution. Such a layer of frozen ground is designated exclusively on the basis of temperature. I stride purposefully out of the hotel door and... well... it really isn't that bad. Normally, high temperatures remain in the -30s F (34 below zero to 39 below zero C) from the middle of December through the beginning of February. But there's still a level of endurance that is hard to comprehend. Shaun Walker enjoys amini-break in deepest Siberia, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Known as the Pole of Cold, Oymyakon has an average January temperature of minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius). 7-Day Yakutsk – Oymyakon Private Tour Price for Winter 2020-2021. The latter is exquisitely tasty and makes for a good zakuska – a snack to nibble on after downing a shot of vodka. According to forecasts, the cold temperatures are expected to last until the end of January and may even drop as low as -60℃. The small oblong of my face that is naked to the elements definitely registers the cold air, but on the whole, it feels fine; pleasant, even. 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