Tag Archives: zimnik

Overall, the main items on the wish list for our winter Irkutsk-Yakutsk-Magadan-Yakutsk road-trip had either been checked off (the Indigirka Tube, the naleds and volcanoes of the Moma Valley, the Natalka gold deposit), or only unsuccessfully attempted because of an abnormal amount of snow (the Old Kolyma Highway). Incidentally, we canceled our attempt to get to Jack London Lake for the same reason (too much snow).

But with another couple of days still left, we decided to drive back and forth along the Arktika winter road, and it’s probably worth telling you about it – because it’s an especially beautiful winter road, particularly where it crosses mountain ranges:

The next sizable settlement on the Arktika winter road after Sasyr is Zyryanka. Let me tell you a little about the place…

Read on…

The great Siberian rivers are the Ob, the Yenisei, and the Lena. Not far behind them are the Yana, the Indigirka, and the Kolyma. These aren’t quite as long and wide, but they’re no less beautiful, contemplative, magnificent, and in places downright astonishing. So it’s in their direction we headed…

Time for some fun – but not like last time. This time around it was a cut-down version, atop and along the frozen Indigirka only: Ust-Nera > Khonuu > Sasyr, and back.

Out onto the ice we go at the start of the winter road, @ “zero kilometers” ->

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One morning – not too early, but still dark out – we piled into our vehicles and rolled out of Ust-Kut toward the ice road, heading for the town of Mirny (here)…

The weather was treating us well – a balmy -22°C for this time of year. We sure didn’t expect that!

Read on…

…*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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Intro

Luck was on our side when heading back south on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition: we’d narrowly missed being stranded for several days in Tiksi, and were way ahead of schedule. And it was this latter spot of luck that permitted us to spend plenty of time examining and enjoying a very special feature of the North – which I’ll be writing a lot about and showing a great many photos of in this here mega-long post. And as the title to the post indicates – the special feature is… the Indigirka Tube ->

So, what is the Indigirka Tube?…

Read on …

After Verkhoyansk and then the Batagaika crater, we continued on our way on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition southward…

Next up was probably the trickiest – and certainly the most tedious – segment of the expedition. You’ll probably be able to guess the reasons by now: yep – bumpy road, and later on – bad weather…

Read on…

In the previous post, I left you with us leaving Tiksi earlier than planned. We left earlier to avoid the coming storm, which could have seen us stranded in Tiksi for more than a week. Now, Tiksi is a wonderful place, but staying there for a week+ sure wasn’t in our plans. We all agreed: “Let’s get the hell out of here!” And that’s just what we did – on the winter road back the way we came…

We left at 4pm – just in time for the sunset:

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Hi folks!

I left you last time with our leaving Nayba on the final stretch toward Tiksi (in case you’re new here – on our Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk expedition). There were just ~three kilometers of land-based winter road out of Nayba – then it snaked back onto the frozen-over Laptev Sea, with us heading northwest ->

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Last week, I left you with us in a schotel in Khayyr. Today…

…Things were getting decidedly more polar – no vegetation whatsoever, and flat white expanses all around as far as the eye could see – much like up around the North Pole! ->

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I left you yesterday with our arriving – on our (March 2024) Yakutsk-Tiksi-Yakutsk road-trip – in the village of Ust-Kuyga before lunch. We didn’t stop there, as we wanted to keep up the pace and crack on – all the way to Khayyr. And the pace was indeed kept up, for the road became a winter (ice) road upon the smooth surface of the frozen-over Yana river. And smooth = fast!…

Read on…