Welcome to Oimyakon, the coldest village of Oymyakonsky district of Yakutia, the most severe place on Earth, which is often called the "Pole of Cold".
Are not you surprised yet? And how do you like that students go to school at -50 ° C? And the school is closed only if the temperature falls below -52 ° C.
This is not just a complex type of climate. Then, with the inhalation of frost air, only the lungs freeze.
So, if you are cold at a temperature of -20 ° C and you are constantly crying that this year is a severe winter, it will not be superfluous to get to know this miracle village and learn how its inhabitants live.
Here live about 500 people. All year round these people live in a fierce cold. It is interesting that the village was originally founded as a prison. It was here that during the Stalinist repressions the prisoners were exiled.
There is no mobile communication in the village, and most cars and trucks are simply useless. In school, parents carry children on sleds. In Oimyakon in winter, people work as stokers in the boiler room, in stores, at the electrical substation.
By local standards, summer is when the temperature rises above zero, which becomes a signal for the transition to a light form of clothes like sneakers and sweaters.
Most houses still burn coal and wood for heating. There are few modern conveniences here. A pipe just bursts from a record low temperature. That is why it is not possible to have a toilet in the house.
And the worst thing for the locals is to dig graves. Worst of all, if it needs to be done in winter. Then the grave is dig for about 5 days. In this case, the ground must first be warmed by a fire and put hot coals along the edges. It's disgusting, but earlier residents practiced something like a Tibetan heavenly funeral, leaving the bodies to hang on trees where wild animals ate them, but the government put an end to this practice.
With the onset of spring, residents of Oymyakon feel a terrible lack of vitamins. It's too cold to grow vegetables, fruits or cereals, and with the import of goods is also a problem. The only food is fish, reindeer meat, horse meat and milk. And to drown out vitamin deficiency, the local lean on the onion.
Do you think life here has stopped? Well, I do not. It turns out that many people wishing to plunge into ice water are going to Baptism. Even at -60 ° C. in Oymyakon you can see a woman in stockings, on stilettos and in a short skirt, however, a long coat will be worn on top. By the way, as for clothes, then oymykontsy know that if the window is -50 ° C, on the street you need to go out in full ammunition. So, on the legs wear boots made of deer hide, a mink cap, fox or Arctic fox on the head, and a fur coat and a jacket are also made entirely of natural fur. Everything artificial here stands up and breaks.
What is rare here, is colds. Some residents already do not remember when the last time they had an angina or they had a cold. Paradox: in Oymyakon, the air is very dry - you can easily freeze your nose, cheek, ear and still not catch cold. My favorite holiday is the holiday of the North. On this day, Father Frost from Veliky Ustyug, Santa Claus from Lapland and the Yakut grandfather frost Chishan (the keeper of the cold) come to the pole of the cold.
There are no long-livers in Oymyakon. Severe frosty climate, no matter how pure it is, does not add health. In addition, people at the Pole of Cold look older than their years. By the way, after Oymyakon it is difficult to adapt in cities with a warm climate. The body has not developed immunity to catarrhal diseases, accordingly, can not fight with such ailments. Therefore, the omyakonets in heat at risk of dying from the usual flu. The average life expectancy in Oymyakon is 55 years.