It can claim the record of the coldest place in the world. For the bravest it’s available as a winter tourist destination
CHILLING TOURISM: sleeping in the world COLDEST CITY
# Average temperature in winter: -55 degrees
Everyone has a personal list of adventures to undertake in life, and almost certainly a great many on this list have scored a trip to the ends of the earth. Ojmjakon now embodies one of these, due to its extreme climatic conditions.
The wonderful peculiarity is that, despite the temperature in winter is around -55 ° C, with peaks even lower, the village is inhabited by a community of about 800 people, who have their home in Ojmjakon, making it the coldest inhabited place in the world.
More specifically we are in Jacuzia and Ojmjakon means “water that doesn’t frost” for the presence in the place of a running watercourse, the Indigirka river, which allows the small community to live by fishing.
# A temperature range of approx. 80°C
According to some local reports, some time ago the lowest temperature ever recorded in Ojmjakon was 67 degrees below zero. An interpolation of data calculated by a supercomputer, however, established that in the winter of 1926 the thermometer was -71.2°C frozen.
In summer, the village enjoys a pleasant interlude, with peaks that can reach 22°C.
It is evident that, in these conditions, agriculture is impossible, therefore the main sustenance of the community are breeding and fishing, consequently the nourishment is based on proteins and animal oils fundamental to give the right contribution to resit this cold.
The life of the inhabitants takes place thanks to very slow movements, made with great care in the only 3 hours of natural light that winter provides, breeding reindeer and horses.
Most of the time in winter is spent retreating to the coal-heated houses, with small excursions to the local emporium, the only store that provides the locals with ingredients for their groceries and homemade recipes.
In winter, water is obtained by melting the blocks of ice that nature provides in great quantities, because the domestic systems are, of course, frozen and unusable.
People from Ojmjakon who own a car, travel by car always taking care not to turn off the engine before returning home, just to avoid freezing.
# A journey to Siberia
Bizarre as it may seem, Ojmjakon and its extreme climate conditions are the destination of some brave travelers, who manage to push their desire for adventure to the most extreme boundaries.
In Ojmjakon there are no tourist facilities, but it is the community itself to be receptive in this sense: some citizens make available a room or some spaces to host brave strangers who measure themselves by going on a holyday in Siberia.
It so happens that Ojmjakon (alternatively Oymyakon) becomes the protagonist of photos posted on Instagram, showing the snowy landscape, farm animals and the smiling faces of locals or tourists with frozen eyelashes.
Waking up in December, in one of any city with continental weather and complaining about the cold doesn’t seem to make much sense anymore, does it?
Contine reading: Most beautiful NATURAL SPA in the world is a “cotton castle”
LAURA LIONTI
