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I am currently
Explore life in Yakutsk, the coldest city on Earth, with temperatures dropping to -71°C and how locals survive extreme Siberian winters.
Key Takeaways
- Extreme cold in Yakutsk demands unique adaptations in daily life, infrastructure, and transportation.
- Permafrost significantly impacts construction, burial practices, and city planning.
- Despite harsh conditions, around 300,000 people live in Yakutsk and consider the cold a normal part of life.
- Technological and practical challenges arise from the cold, affecting everything from cars to electronics.
- Respectful social customs, like shaking hands bare-handed, persist even in freezing temperatures.
Summary
- Yakutsk, Siberia, is the coldest city on Earth with temperatures reaching as low as -71°C (-96°F).
- Extreme cold causes breath to turn into ice crystals and frostbite can occur within 10 minutes.
- The city experiences a temperature range of over 100°C between winter and summer.
- Cars must be kept running or covered to prevent engine oil from freezing; heated garages are a luxury.
- Locals consider the extreme cold normal and adapt their daily lives accordingly, including customs like shaking hands without gloves.
- Buildings are constructed on pillars to prevent heat transfer that could melt the permafrost and cause structural collapse.
- Pipelines are above ground due to the permanently frozen permafrost layer, complicating infrastructure.
- Digging graves in permafrost requires heating the ground overnight before excavation is possible.
- Electronic devices and batteries fail quickly in extreme cold, posing challenges for filming and daily use.
- Public transport and bus stops are specially insulated to function in the harsh climate.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
in the coldest city
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on Earth, and right now it's minus 52 outside.
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And in these kinds of temperatures, the body can barely survive.
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Every breath you take turns into ice crystals when you blow it out.
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In just 10 minutes you can get frostbite.
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And after only a few hours, this extreme cold can actually kill you.
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The coldest city in the world, Yakutsk, is located in the far northeast of Siberia.
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In Russia.
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And that's exactly why temperatures here can drop to minus 71 degrees.
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It's close to the North Pole, super isolated, and it sits in a cold valley where all the cold air gets trapped.
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Yes.
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Thank you.
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Okay, my entire 21-hour journey from Bangkok to Yakutsk was insanely stressful.
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Since 2022, all flights from Europe to Russia have been blocked, so I had to enter the country through a complete different continent, so I picked Asia. And once you're in Russia, foreign credit card services are completely banned, so I had to bring 3,500 euros in cash.
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Not good?
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No, no, no, no.
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It's so cold.
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From the moment I stepped outside, the hairs inside my nose instantly froze.
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And just breathing hurt like hell.
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Okay, today it's minus 46 and I am stepping outside of the building, let's see how the coldest city on Earth actually works.
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How do people live here, why do people live here?
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And let's see how the cold affects us as humans.
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Around 300,000 people choose to live here, and they have to survive the extreme cold for three months every single year.
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And the rest of the year it will be summer, where the temperature can reach up to 40 degrees.
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And in fact, Yakutsk has recorded a temperature range of over 100 degrees, from around minus 64 degrees in wintertime to 38 degrees in summertime.
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Making it the most extreme climate on Earth.
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And believe me, within just five minutes of being outside, I could see that almost everything was frozen, cars, traffic lights, bicycles, and even people's faces.
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So the people leave their cars on when they just are parking outside a building.
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Like a grocery shop or a hotel.
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As you can see, the gas is still on.
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Also here.
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And let's see if someone's inside.
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There's no one.
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So if you leave your car unattended here without keeping it running, the engine oil can freeze within 20 minutes.
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Making the car impossible to start again until it's properly heated.
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A frozen car.
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If you don't warm your car, your car will freeze.
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You cannot use it until the summer arrives.
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Some people in Yakutsk just park their car outside for the whole winter.
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And use it again in the summer.
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And if you don't want to do that, there are two other options.
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The first option is to use a thick cover.
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Called Natasha.
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And these cost around 400 euros and can be stored in your car.
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Allowing you to wrap the entire vehicle when leaving it overnight.
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And the second option is heated garages.
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This option is mainly for wealthier people as you have to pay rent to keep your car stored during the winter months.
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For how many years have you been living here?
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84 years.
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84 years.
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All life.
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All life.
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She's living here.
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What?
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How do you feel about the cold every winter?
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It feels normal to me.
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Normal?
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Normal.
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Normal.
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Normal.
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Normal.
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For us, winter is simply winter.
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Summer is just summer.
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Spring is just spring.
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Autumn is just autumn.
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Everything is normal.
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What is the coldest temperature that you've ever experienced in your life of 85?
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Minus 60.
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Minus 60.
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Minus 60.
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Minus 60.
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Uh-huh.
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Here in Yakutsk.
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Yakutsk.
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Yes, and then I'm just outside as well.
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It's normal.
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Normal.
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Normal.
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Normal.
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Uh-huh.
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Well, thank you so much.
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No problem.
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In Yakutsk, you pull out your glove.
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And then.
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It was nice to meet you.
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So in Yakutsk, you never shake hands with gloves on.
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It's a form of respect to each other and shake hands with your bare hands.
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Let's see how many doors I need to go through until I'm inside.
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Let's go.
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This is called an airlock, and it stopped the extreme cold from easily getting inside the building.
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Pretty obvious when you think about it.
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When filming outside, batteries die extremely fast.
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Also my front screen turns black most of the time.
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Making me just gamble what kind of shot I will get.
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How does it feel to wear glasses here in the coldest city on Earth?
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If the frame fits well and is made of plastic, for example.
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Then it doesn't feel cold.
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And it's generally comfortable to wear.
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In temperatures like this, you can't wear metal glasses.
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Because metal conducts heat extremely well, which means it pulls the warmth straight out of your skin.
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And because your skin always has a thin layer of moisture, that moisture can instantly freeze to cold metal.
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What is the coldest temperature you've ever experienced in this city?
Speaker D
Around 2017, as far as I remember.
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As far as he remembers, back in 2017, he witnessed negative 62.
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Holy shit.
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You got a frostbite on your skin.
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I've got frostbite.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Okay, we need to go inside.
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Thank you very much.
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It's really hurting my nose.
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Like it's a.
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We can go enter the warm place.
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It's like a becoming a sensitive sport.
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Yeah, it has become already.
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Yeah.
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We were outside filming for about 20 minutes, and if I had stayed out there for another 30 minutes in minus 47 degrees.
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I could have lost my nose.
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Let me quickly explain how that works.
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There are four different stages of frostbite.
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The first three are still recoverable.
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But once you reach stage four, which can happen very fast at minus 47 degrees if you're not careful.
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You need to get to the hospital right away to amputate the black frozen skin.
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So for the rest of this trip, I need to be extra careful with my nose.
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Pipelines above the ground.
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And it actually has a really interesting reason.
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So there is a layer of permafrost ice up to 1,000 meters.
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That will stay all year around, even when the summer comes.
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And therefore putting pipes underground doesn't make any sense.
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Like imagine you have to dig the entire city with these pipes.
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Down like maybe like a half a meter.
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Right, which is quite hard.
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Because like you cannot dig like 20 centimeters from there.
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Like you saw it yesterday.
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It's like permafrost.
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Permafrost.
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It's like extra.
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Yeah.
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It's permanently frozen.
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Yes, and tomorrow we are going to find out how they actually bury people here.
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In this permafrost ground.
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Look at this.
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What happened here?
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A leak.
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So this is how a leak looks like.
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So as you can see, these are the water pipes.
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They transfer the water.
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And when there is a leak.
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This happens.
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So they use the pillars to not freeze the buildings, right?
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Or how?
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Yeah, and also not let it sink and break.
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Did you know that almost all buildings in Yakutsk are built on pillars?
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Because if they weren't, they could transfer the heat to the ground and that would make the ground melt a little bit.
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And therefore the buildings could collapse because they are used to permafrost ground.
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So they tried to fix it here, as you can see.
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But it didn't go as planned.
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This leak must have been here for like maybe an hour.
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Okay.
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Because the ground is made up of permafrost.
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Permanently frozen ice.
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Digging is actually a bit more difficult than you might think.
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And that's the exact reason why I am going to film the process of digging a grave.
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In permafrost.
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What you first have to do is heat the ground with hot coals.
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You then leave it overnight and only after that can you dig about 40 to 50 centimeters into it.
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Even this is difficult, bro.
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Look, it was burning all night, and this is all that came out.
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I still here.
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So you see, all night it was burning and that's how deep it you can dig now.
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Later in the evening, we are going to check out deep graves.
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That the grave workers have been working on for over four days.
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While I was going back to my hotel to have a rest.
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I used public transport.
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And funny enough, there is a warm bus stop where you can just chill in 22 degrees.
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And when I looked at the bus, there was like a weird isolation thing in front.
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And that actually prevents the bus from freezing inside.
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So the bus keeps working.
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Do you earn more money because it's really cold what you're doing?
Speaker E
There's no such thing as that.
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It's either fast or slow.
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Either you dig a hole for three days, or you do it quickly.
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Same amount of money.
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I have noticed in the city that people don't mind the cold too much.
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They don't get paid extra.
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They just walk outside.
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They don't care.
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A finished grave like this is 175 centimeters tall.
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And when I touched the border of the grave, it just felt like a rock.
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And it's also weird to think that these workers need to prepare like 100 graves a week.
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And it takes five to seven days of melting the ground to actually finish a grave.
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Do you earn more money because it's really cold what you're doing?
Speaker E
There's no such thing as that.
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It's either fast or slow.
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Either you dig a hole for three days, or you do it quickly.
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Same amount of money.
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I have noticed in the city that people don't mind the cold too much.
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They don't get paid extra.
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They just walk outside.
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They don't care.
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A finished grave like this is 175 centimeters tall.
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And when I touched the border of the grave, it just felt like a rock.
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And it's also weird to think that these workers need to prepare like 100 graves a week.
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And it takes five to seven days of melting the ground to actually finish a grave.
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Look at this face.
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Well, it's different, right? Morning, evening, there's a difference.
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Yeah, this looks unbelievable.
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His face is just covered in ice.
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It's just totally frozen.
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It's actually not that bad.
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Well, not from the look at it.
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You give him a look so panicked.
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And after looking at this.
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I am never doing that myself.
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While I was inside in the warm cabin.
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Changing my clothes, suddenly this guy came out.
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And this is actually the guy who took an ice bath with me.
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And he actually switched from clothes outside.
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In minus 48 degrees.
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For how many years have you been doing this?
Speaker E
About 35.
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35.
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35.
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35 years.
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As a child, in eighth grade, I often suffered from throat infections.
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So this guy had a chronic disease in his lungs.
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And when he took daily ice baths, it healed.
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And that's the exact reason why he is doing it for 35 years.
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Has there any accident occurred in your 35 years of taking ice baths?
Speaker E
No.
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Just nothing.
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What is the main benefit here?
Speaker E
Immunity.
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Most of the time, your immune system is kind of asleep.
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But in the cold, it suddenly switches on.
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Your body has to survive.
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There's one more thing.
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People who work outside and deal with the cold.
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Brown fat starts to develop.
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Children are born with brown fat.
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And that's why a baby's chance of survival is so high.
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But over time, that disappears.
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And that's when people start getting sick more often.
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But when you start doing things like this, such as cold exposure training.
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That brown fat becomes active again.
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I was taking some shots outside, and while I was talking.
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You could see the frostbite slowly growing on my nose.
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What is this?
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Oh.
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Well, this is where my trip eventually comes to an end.
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With one last frostbite on my nose.
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And it made me realize once again that people actually live.
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People who have simply made everyday life work.
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On every corner of the city, you see creative solutions to fight the cold.
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Heated bus stops, pipelines above the ground, insulation cover for cars, and so on.
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And to be completely honest, traveling to Russia with the strict regulations.
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Seemed more intense than the cold itself.
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Because where I expected tension, I found kindness, helpfulness, and humanity from the local people.
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And in the end, I truly enjoyed my four days here in the coldest city in the world.
Topics:YakutskSiberiacoldest cityextreme coldpermafrostfrostbitewinter survivalRussiainfrastructureclimate extremes
