POLE OF COLD

A man loads great chunks of ice onto a truck outside Yakutsk, capital of the Republic of Sakha in the
far northeast of Russia. Ice is one thing that is in no short supply there in winter: the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the northern hemisphere have been registered in Sakha, also known as Yakutia. And yet people can still be found living in even the chilliest parts of the remote region. Deep in the snowy landscape of this land lies the Oymyakon valley, also known as the “Pole of Cold”. The coldest temperature in the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century was registered here in 1933, when thermometers hit a freezing -67.8 degrees Celcius (-90 degrees Fahrenheit). But despite harsh conditions people still live in the heart of the Oymyakon valley in the villages of Tomtor and Oymyakon, equipped with schools, a post office, a bank and even an airport runway.