The 5100km winter-road loop.

Today’s portion of Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition took us from Topolínoye on the winter road to the Kolyma Highway, and along the latter for a short stretch until our next overnight stay – in the village of Tyoply Klyuch (Warm Springs). The road was smooth and wide, the views – exceptional:

You can see in the photos that there was quite a bit of fresh snow on the road. Fresh snow on the road raises the danger level on most any road, but for roads in Yakutia – the danger level is through the roof safety barriers. Like the proof of any pudding is in the eating, the proof of the danger of snowy Yakutian roads was in our witnessing so many trucks after snowfall that had slid off the road throughout the expedition. Accordingly, today we took it real steady…

Snowy Yakutian roads: dangerous. Snowy Yakutian roads with signs pointing out extra-high danger – OMG: time to activate the manual gearbox – just in case…

Btw – last time we were here we didn’t get such clear views of the awesome scenery to both the left and right of the road: I guess they cleared trees to each side when widening the road ->

Controlling our vehicles became somewhat tricky around here: the wheels started slipping and skidding. No major bother – but we had to keep firm control of the steering wheels to keep us on the (literal) straight and narrow…

All the same, “oh this is marvelous” – Petrovich.

Here’s the first victim we saw of the recent snowfall:

But that was nothing. A while later we came across a truck pile-up on (and off) the road. An iced-over ford in combination with a significant gradient saw the trucks lose control ->

Some of you, dear readers, may ask here why they don’t put good winter tires on. The answer to that is a sad one: the economic situation in these remote parts is a struggling one, and winter tires are both expensive and tend to have short lives (one unforeseen incident and a new set is needed, and this happens a lot). So the trucks are fitted with cheap tires, and critical slippage on a winter/ice road (who knew?!) is the common result.

Of course – you have to feel sorry for the drivers of the trucks. However!…

Why do they insist on blocking the road? Why don’t they all pull over and form a single line? We spent ages squeezing past them all – sometimes to within a few centimeters of the trucks. It’s as if they don’t give a damn about other – smaller – vehicles like ours. Grrr.

“I’ll abandon it here!”

Onward!…

Thank goodness this stretch had been cleared. We wouldn’t have been able to continue if it hadn’t ->

This spot in January 2021 gave us some fantastic views (alas, not in March 2024) ->

Meanwhile, we’ve almost completed the Yakutsk–Tiksi–Kolyma-Highway big loop, with just 25km to go till we hit Kolyma…

Ah – I recognize this spot. Yes – how could I forget it? It’s where three years earlier we had ourselves a road accident. And I must have been in a hurry or something when writing up my report later for I didn’t mention it in said report. Well I’ve a bit more time now, so here goes…

One of our drivers – an experienced one at that – in the Renault Duster flipped his vehicle onto its side at a fork in the road. He probably realized too late which of the two roads he needed to take and turned the steering wheel a touch to swiftly, and – given the iciest of road conditions (below -50°C!!) – over the Duster spun. ->

Done & Dusted )

Fortunately – no harm came to either the driver (+ passengers) or the car. We flipped her back over and off we popped. It was a close shave though: getting stranded on any road is unpleasant; at -50°C in the middle of nowhere – o0f-eek!…

This year, I’m glad to report – zero incidents…

In 350 meters – our loop was completed! ->

The turn for Yakutsk featured one more reminder (not that we needed one by now) of how any junction in Yakutia represents a very serious hazard for vehicles:

The day’s stats. Main points: 5+ hours, just 215km, and a practically European -5°C! ->

Our digs for the night? The museum in the village of Tyoply Klyuch (here)! Well, I’ve done overnight stays in all kinds of places, but a night at the museum – this was a first!

The rest of the pics from our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition are here.