Tag Archives: iym expedition

When the temperature drops below -50°C, the world turns into something else. It doesn’t just freeze; it visually transforms. Everything gets wrapped up head to toe in hoarfrost and grows a thick layer of fluffy white crystals. It’s kind of like the inside of a freezer, only way more intense. Trees, road signs, poles and the wires on the poles are all coated in white hoarfrost:

This year that kind of a deep-deepest freeze in the Russian Far East only took place in December and January, while February turned out to be unseasonably warm. In fact, I’d say it was hot for February in Yakutia. If the thermometer shows -20°C at that time of year – yes, that’s hot! The thermometer only crept lower than -40°C a couple of times early in the morning, but it’d almost immediately warm up to -30°C or even higher. It got to the point where, for most of the trip, I wasn’t even wearing thermal ski pants – just jeans. I had some thermal leggings on underneath the jeans – but that was it. And I only wore my fur-lined boots once (when we spent the night in our cars on the ice of the Kolyma River to enjoy the northern lights and a total lunar eclipse).

At such higher-than-usual temperatures, all the white beauty melts away quickly, and the world turns gray and boring again. But at least a few times we got lucky and drove right into “proper” bleached scenery:

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…*But were afraid to ask

Being somehow drawn to the deep-frozen (sometimes down to -60°C!) North in winter, obsessed with brutal Siberian winter roads, having to put up with equally brutal overnight stays, and thousands of kilometers of rough roads tracks… – let’s be honest, it’s a mental anomaly. Most people would only venture into such a world against their will. Suggest a winter trip to Oymyakon instead of, say, the Maldives, and any normal person would twirl their index finger around one of their temples and roll their eyes. At the other extreme – there are some folks who can’t get enough of such extremely frigid locations like the Arctic or Antarctic. I’m not quite that far gone, but every couple of years I do try and tackle a new winter driving route. I simply mad for it!…

Up north in the winter, it’s a completely surreal world of whiteness!

The scenery in places is simply stunning:

You zone out watching these views roll by, driving as if hypnotized – for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers…

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We’re all different. Some folks have a pedigree dog and a whole houseful of kids and grandkids. Others keep two or three cats – each with its own personality. Some even keep exotic tropical cockroaches and snakes. Some get hooked on online games; others prefer the real world. Some head to the beach in summer for the sun and sea; others make for the mountains – the higher the better. We’re all different – me included. For me – here’s how: my face is usually tanned from trips to the tropics, yet I’ve also developed a serious fondness of Siberian winters and frosty landscapes – those of the meditative-contemplative kind…

For Siberian frosts (especially those in Yakutia) really do invite contemplation – particularly when you’re driving long distances through the wilderness. Like this season…

Not that we got a proper cold snap this year, while the bleached winter scenery really does depend on the uniquely Siberian deep frosts. But I’ll save that topic for another post; for now…

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Privyet folks!

With a few thousand kilometers behind us, things were getting somewhat rough and ready – despite the gorgeous bleached-white scenery…

At times, for five (5!) days straight we didn’t have any internet at all. Or a shower with soap and shampoo. Or a warm WC. Nothing at all! And when such comforts of civilization did finally show up, a line quickly formed to get at them!

Anyway, on with my notes from the winter roads…

Another “1111” sign for my collection ->

But where is it?…

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People sometimes ask me: “Eugene, why are you so drawn to the North? What is it about deep-frozen Siberian cities likes Yakutsk, or just-as-cold Far-Eastern ones like Magadan, and the treacherous winter roads that connect them?

It’s like this. In the Arctic and near-Arctic it’s always winter – even when it’s summer. But the “real” winter – December to February – is just so much colder. Still, there are no gnats, mosquitoes, or other bloodsuckers, and that, to me, more than makes up for the cold. (And anyway – a Russian afraid of the cold? That would be like… a burger patty being afraid of buns.) Curiously, southern/central Yakutia (the Sakha Republic) is well away from (well south of) the Arctic, but in winter it can get much colder there. If you don’t believe me, look at the temperature data by region. For example, compare the climate of Tiksi (on the north coast of Russia – inside the Arctic Circle) with that of Yakutsk. Who knew?! So yes, the climate is a harsh one, and not to many folks’ taste. Not to mine in and of itself, but there’s something else – besides the lack of hungry insects – that makes up for the intense (-60°C and below!) cold in winter: central Yakutia – for example along the Kolyma highway – only gets prettier. It becomes a deep-frozen, absolutely white, winter-wonderland scene that’s simply unique. I’ve enthused and raptured about it plenty before (see my MYM (2021) and MYB (2022) expedition series of posts). Unfortunately (!), this year the winter was extremely warm, with average temperatures around just (!) -20/-30°C (which is very unusual for late winter), so the views, alas, weren’t so magical.

Nevertheless, extremely cold or no, when you head out early in the morning for another day’s drive, you’re immediately overcome by some kind of special northern hypnosis. And sunrises only intensify the feeling:

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I don’t think I mentioned what route we’re taking this year on our road-trip, so here it is: Irkutsk > Yakutsk > Magadan (not necessarily the route shown on the map at that link; that’s just to give you an idea of the where and the how long?!!).

The expedition is going well, but I soon realized I’ve no energy in the evenings for full travel reports. After all, I’m behind the wheel for most of each long day. Accordingly, I won’t be writing often along the way – just occasionally when something “stop the presses” happens. Like it did, 700km east of Yakutsk, for example…

We were on the Old Kolyma Highway (Stariy Kolumskiy Highway), hoping to drive from Tomtor to where the mostly abandoned old road meets the “New” Kolyma Highway (the R-504), here:

Driving on old, mostly abandoned roads in the middle of nowhere is only for the… brave at the best of times; in the middle of winter in Siberia – only for the crazy; in the middle of an especially snowy winter in Siberia – only for… (what comes after crazy?!). But, the crazy crazies that we are, we still went for it!…

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Longtime inhabitants of this cozy corner of the internet will remember that if ever one of my posts begins with a photo of the Magadan restaurant in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO), it’s done for a reason, and also means that that and upcoming posts sure won’t be boring…

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