Siberian villages are the coldest places in the world now! Woo hoo!

The only website that gives the full answer to the question, “Which places are the coldest on the planet now?” is Ogimet.com. Check it!

Currently, the world’s coldest place is Oymyakon (also known as Ojmjakon) in East Yakutia, Siberia / Russia). It’s -46.9C now.

Other top coldest places belong to Yakutian (Siberian) villages:

2. Segen-Kyuel’, -46.4 °C
3. Tompo, -44.4 °C
4. Batamaj, -43.7 °C
5. Ust’- Moma, -43.1 °C
6. Curapca, -43.0 °C
7. Verhojansk, -42.9 °C

Do you know what? This winter will be coldest in Yakutia (East Siberia/Yakutia) definitely, as such lowest temperatures are usual for this region.

Vladimir Potapov during his snowmobile expedition in the Arctic zone of Yakutia, Siberia, Russia. Early November 2011.

More about 2011 Arctic Snowmobile Expedition to Laptev Sea in Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.

Reindeer sledding journey in the world's coldest inhabited valley of Oymyakon in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

More about The world’s coldest reindeer sledding in Oymyakon.

Follow the link to see the video tutorial.

The How To Make An Igloo video tutorial was created by Sooli Entertainment & Transa Backpackers AG.

Photographs via Fubiz.net

Check also Douglas Wilkinson’s classic short film “How to build an igloo” (1949) using only snow and a knife.

The documentary is from Yukon Arctic Ultra on Vimeo.

Wow! The Yukon Arctic Ultra Race looks really cool! Hey, I would love to participate in it and try my guts, but not in Canada. In Siberia, definitely! Especially in my lovely Yakutia!

What is the Yukon Arctic Ultra? Read the race info…

Race course:

The Yukon Arctic Ultra follows the Yukon Quest trail, the trail of the world’s toughest Sled Dog Race.

The marathon finishes just off the Takhini River. The 100 mile racers go from Whitehorse to Braeburn. The 300 mile racers keep on going all the way to Pelly Farm. There they will leave the river to turn around and go back to Pelly Crossing on the farm road. The 430 mile athletes do not return to Pelly Crossing. Instead they continue on the Quest trail to Dawson City.

The trail is marked. However, if there is fresh snow or a lot of wind it is difficult to find the trail. If to enhance ability to understand orientation, a GPS is recommended…

Starting time, date and location:

The Yukon Arctic Ultra 2012 will start on Feb. 4th. The time for the start is 10:30 AM.
Start will be done downtown Whitehorse next to the Yukon river…

Disciplines: Mountain bike, xc-skis or foot.

Via Yukon Arctic Ultra

Currently, Canada’s Yukon Arctic Ultra is the world’s coldest & toughest race, but it won’t be as such, if the race would be conducted in Russia’s Siberian region of Yakutia. A good idea to work on since now

Proud to announce that our Cold United group on Flickr is becoming popular! We’ve got 684 members and 8,899 cold winter photographs. Cool! Feel free to join us.

Meanwhile, enjoy Cold United members’ pretty chilly portraits. All pics are clickable.

Flagstaff Eskimo. By Shanks, Flickr.

29 Eric Lon at Stok Kangri, October 2011. By Eric Lon, Flickr.

Snow heart in Yakutia, Siberia. By Egor Fedorov, Flickr.

Two sisters in the fish market in Yakutsk, Yakutia, Siberia. By Bernard Grua, Flickr.

Standing on a frozen lake. By LiamCH, Flickr.

With All Of My Heart. By John M. Kennedy, Flickr.

By Jessica Joy Photography, Flickr.

Indeed, winter has already started. For instance, my city of Yakutsk has -24C right now. Not extremely yet, but it’s good time to shart sharing the cold and its beauty

Yesterday was a turning day in Yakutsk. It looked like the Winter said, “Ok, no more games with mild winter weather. Let’s have the real cold come right now and for a long time.”

The day didn’t promise anything extraordinary. It was pretty regular in the beginning. -3C and light snow. By the end of a work day, something happened. Winds started blowing furiously and snow descended in abundance. It was the Arctic-like blizzard that lasted, unfortunately, not so long.

Cool anyway! People liked it. See more snowstorm photographs and a video.

After one-hour storm:

To see the progress of the winter start in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, check the last post at eYakutia.com.

Children of the Arctic Festival. Photo By Galya Morrell.

It is already a big event and a big tradition. This year The Children of the Arctic International Festival is arranged by Shparo‘s Adventure Club under the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the third time. It started at the Youth Almaz Center in the town of Ruza on Aug. 20th and ended in Korelia on Sep. 02.

More than 100 children from the Arctic regions participated in the festival. They were from 11 Russian ones (Arkhangelskaia Oblast, Vologodaskaia Oblast, Moscow, Murmanskaia Oblast, Nenetzky Autonomous District, Karelia Republic, Komi Republic, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetzky Municipal District, Chukotsky autonomous district, Yamalo-Nenetzky autonomous district as well as from Greenland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden.

The mission remains the same and, probably, won’t be changed ever, as it is the key stone of the mordern Arctic youth. It’s to unite children of the Arctic region to settle the common problems under the slogan “Our Arctic – Our Future.”

The Festival is carried out by the Organizing Committee, including prominent official authorities of Russia such as Dr. Arthur Chilingarov, Special Representative for Arctic and Antarctic Issues to the President Russian Federation, Vasily Zhukov, academician, Rector of the Russian State Social University, Dr. Dmitry Shparo, General Director of the Adventure Club.

And you know what? There was our friend Galya Morrell, co-leader of Uummannaq Music Project.

Galya Morrell’s photographies of the Children of the Arctic Festival.

Here is what Galya writes:

Does anyone remember the book “Children of the Arctic”? A story of Marie Ahnighito, Admiral Peary’s daughter, who was born in Greenland and became known world wide as the Snow Baby? Now, a 100 years from then we are about to offer you another story of the “Children of the Arctic” – a gathering of 100+ Arctic teens from 18 Arctic regions, from Chukotka and Yakutia all the way to Greenland. It’s happening now in Russia, between Ruza, Northern Karelia and Moscow.

After two days of rain, the skies cleared up over Ruza where “Our Arctic – Our Future” science conference is taking place. Leaving distractions of cultural confusion and jet lag behind, Arctic children are ready to discuss “stuff”. They are talking about climate change, smart usage of mineral resources, endangered animals, a need to keep ancestors’ spirits alive and a need keep sanity in the difficult times of a societal change. And what is a better way to do so than travelling down a Karelian river on a raft and living in accordance with nature?

We’ve built a virtual North Pole on the grass and held the loud drum-singing “party” inside the Kremlin. We hope our voices were heard by those who are in charge of designing the new policies affecting the future of the Arctic Region. We are also confident that our “cold party” comprised of agile, cool-headed, resourceful and peace-loving young citizens of the Arctic, is capable of finding the right path on the thinning ice. These teenagers who over two weeks became a tightly knit community of their own already know how to live and survive at the top of the world.

Resource: Galya’s Flickr.

More Children of the Arctic info at Shparo’s Website.

Another interesting news came from Galya:

“Our young Arctic explorers, who already know how to live and survive in the harshest climate on Earth, are now united for life. The new Polar Commune is being born! These people know how to travel on thin ice and from now they will travel as a group. Let’s wish them luck on their way!”

Just wonder what she meant. As she broke the above news about a new Polar Commune under the title “ColdUntied in Action.”

A Russian boat RUS in Clyde River, Nunavut. Photo by CBC.ca

Adventure enthusiasts from the Russian city of Ivanovo were reported to be the first sailers, who have crossed the Polar Circle on an air-inflated trimaran. It happened on Aug. 5th, 2011. Last Satuday, their boat called “Rus” have already made it to the Clyde River in Nunavut, Canada.

When Canadians saw their strange-looking 7.6-metre trimaran, they called it as a homemade boat “made out of bamboo, rope and duct tape.”

Here is what CBC.ca wrote:

“Absolutely fascinating. I’ve never seen the likes of it in my life,” said Constable Rolland Lavoie, who’s with the RCMP in Clyde River. “I would expect that a trip of this sort to be on a huge cruise boat, something huge, but this is something out of Gilligan’s Island, for crying out loud. Very Interesting.”

Ok. Who are these Russian sailers?

They are 6 travellers from Russia’s Western city of Ivanovo (mostly known as the city of Russian brides). Their mission is to study the geography and people of the North during their around-the-world Trans-Arctic historical-geographical sailing expedition “The Path of Orion.”

Their way to the Canadian Nunavut was a long journey. They started expedition in the early May from the city of Ples on the Volga River. They reached St Petersburg by the river waterway, then crossed Baltic and Norwegian seas, made it through the Northern Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland. Finally, arrived in Nunavut, Canada.

Now they are travelling through Canada’s Northwest Passage and expect to arrive in Cambridge Bay around Sept. 5. After that their route goes to Alaska and Chukotka, back to Russia.

The Path of Orion Expedition is dedicated to the 140th Ivanovo City Anniversary.

Brave Russians!

Follow them on the Path of Orion expedition wesbite.

I’ve heard about the Adventure Race 80dg Ecological Sailing Regatta before, but I didn’t expect that the Finish yacht “Lena”, one of regatta participants, will continue traversing along the Russian Arctic heading to… guess where… right… to the Lena Delta and Tiksi. In other words, Finish sailers will reach my area called the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Moreover, they plan to go upstream and make it to Yakutsk, where I live! Cool!

Meanwhile, enjoy photographs of Franz Josef Land Archipelago, Russian Arctic, brought by RusArc’s Petr I yacht crew.

By the way, before you proceed watching Arctic photographs, here is a short description of AR 80dg.

The 2011 International Ecological Sailing Regatta “Adventure Race 80 dg” (“AR 80dg”) is officially completed. It was organized by the Russian company “RUSARC ltd” (http://en.rusarc.ru/) and lasted from July 03 till August 09 within the Russian Federation.

The race consisted of two parts. The 1st one was Arkhangelsk – St Petersburg (through inner river waterways), the 2nd went on the Arctic route St Petersburg – Franz-Josef Land (with paying visit to the old meteo station “Tikhaya Bay”) – Murmansk.

In the first lap, there were sailing boats from Russia, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, England. In the second, two only. They are the Russian yacht “Petr I” and the Finish Lena.

So now we expect to see the Finish guys in Yakutia (Russia). I will try to follow the Finish yacht, though I didn’t found their official website with sailing updates. Meanwhile, you might wish to learn more about my land at AskYakutia.com and eYakutia.com.

Photographs from RUSARC ltd’s Expedition Blog that is done in Russian and English languages.

Explore (www.rgs.org/explore) is the annual expedition and fieldwork planning seminar held each November at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

To mark the launch of Explore 2011, some of the great explorers give you inspiration. Find out from the experts why exploration still matters and how you can get started…

Shared on the GeographyOutdoors YouTube channel. The video was edited by Winnie Chang.