Surviving in the coldest village on earth
Located in the Oymyakonsky District of the Sakha Republic in eastern Russia, lies a small village with a population of around 700 people called Oymyakon. Due to its average winter temperatures, it is classed as the coldest populated village on earth, and on 6 February 1933, the area reached a record low of −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F).
Exactly when the village was founded seems unknown, but it reached its peak during the Second World War when an airbase was built nearby, and the population rose to almost 2,500, but today the harsh conditions and lack of jobs have chased out all but the hardiest of residents.
Food and water in Oymyakon
The ground is permanently frozen all year round so both farming and water pipes are not possible. Water is either melted straight from snow or cut out of frozen freshwater sources. The ice blocks are stacked up outside houses, taken inside, and melted when needed. Surviving in the coldest village on earth means having to make trips to the nearest lake or river to cut blocks of ice by hand, which is much more efficient than shoveling tons of snow.
Food is not so simple and is either free or much more expensive than average. Fishing and fur trading are the two main economies of the village and provide fresh but limited varieties of meat. Fortunately, everyone here can freeze food for free without having to worry about a power shortage, but the rest has to be brought in which can be quite expensive. Due to its remote nature deliveries can take a long time and often get delayed further during the winter.
How cold does it get in Oymyakon?
The coldest it has ever been here was −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F) in 1933, but the average winter temperature gets as low as −55 °C between December and February, with only 3 months of the year having average daily temperatures above freezing, with July being the hottest month at a scorching high of 15 °C.
Daily life in Oymyakon
Life here depends heavily on the weather and your job. The fur trade can often see people away from their homes for days while they tend to herds of caribou or hunt, but because many animals hibernate and the danger the weather presents, hunting is mostly restricted to the summer months. Fishing is all year round but just becomes harder when it’s colder, though the locals utilize various forms of fishing such as ice drills and automatic fish traps.
The lives of the people here vary depending on their trade, but stocking up on freshwater supplies and firewood is everyone’s problem. If you’re interested in visiting Oymyakon, then you can actually drive there straight from the UK. The journey lasts for almost 8 days of solid driving and is almost 6,300 miles.
