Lena River Ice Road
 

OK, so the basic plan is to drive Feb - Mar 2017 from Magadan back to Europe using the main TSH as little as possible. I'm looking here for specific information on winter routes, when the rivers and swamps are frozen and the whole area becomes far more accessible.

I've found very patchy information online about a winter road on the Lena River. My intention is to drive from Yakutsk to either Severobaikalsk on the BAM or Ust-Kut or Bratsk. If possible I'd like to find a way to Lake Baikal, but it's not essential. I doubt there would be many options anyhow.

From the maps I have, I see two formal (supposedly all-weather) road, though I have no idea whether or not they exist. They are

- A road running from Yakutsk along the left bank of the Lena as far as Olyokminsk
- A road running north, looping through Mirny to Lensk on the Lena

Do these roads actually exist?

From either Olyokminsk, or Lensk, I suspect there is a winter road, either on the river surface, or parallel to the river. Does anyone know how far this road goes?

Is it possible at all to go from Olyokminsk or Lensk through Kirensk to Ust Kut?

Is fuel (petrol, not diesel) available in these places?

How about a road cutting south, maybe along the Vitim River to connect to the BAM?

I'd be very interested indeed to get any information on this...

Beyond this I'm hoping to drive from Tomsk to Nizhnevartovsk on the Ob, up to Lyabitnangi / Salekhard to visit Yamal, then try to get to Vorkuta, though I have really no idea if the Lyabitnangi - Vorkuta route is driveable. From Vorkuta it should be straightforward.

Thanks for any info

EO

There is no direct road from Yakutsk to Olekminsk. You would have to take the ice road.

There is however a new road built by mining companies that links Olekminsk to Lensk.

In Winter, I was always told that the Lena river becomes an Ice Road. February / March it should be nice n thick.

There is also a perfectly good gravel highway between Yakutsk and Lensk via Vilyuisk, with loads of towns a fuel stations along the way. That road is called the Vilyuisky Trakt. Dont know what its like in winter, but its great in Summer.

From Lensk take the river south west as an ice road. There is fuel at Peledui and Vitim townships, also at Kirensk further south. If you wanted to cut into towards the BAM, I would ask around Vitim township. You may well be able to drive up the frozen vitim river to Bodaibo, from where there is fuel and a perfectly good road to Taksimo on the BAM.

If the good folk in Vitim township say its too dangerous to go on the vitim river, then keep on the Lena to Kirensk. From Kirensk, there is a road to Magistralny, on the BAM.

See the waypoints file for known fuel stop locations along those routes (including along the Ob between Tomsk and NizhneVartovsk), and would be grateful for you to add more after your winter drive.

Thanks a lot Walter!

The Vilyuysk - Mirny - Lensk Road is marked on my maps. I'm interested in meeting as many natives as possible, hopefully seeing some herders etc; any idea whether the above road would give me more local interaction than driving on the Lena? I'm veering towards using the road until Lensk though I imagine the lena Pillars (south of Yakutsk) would be quite a sight in winter.

To go from Vitim to Bodaybo and onto the BAM and Baikal would be quite a trip, but I would not want to do it if there is no other traffic. I have no experience of driving on frozen rivers, and I imagine there are potentially catastrophic patches of thin ice due to currents or other local phenomena, which would be totally undetectable. It would be a dream to drive across frozen Baikal though. Do you think the western BAM (Taksimo to Ust-Kut) is doable in winter (I guess more so than summer...)?

A friend visiting Khanty Mansiysk right now just confirmed that there is an ice road on the Ob, so this crazy plan is becoming a real possibility. Only the Labitnangi - Vorkuta leg is uncertain now. Just need a big, petrol 4x4 and an Eberspeicher heater :D

Any idea if they sell petrol along the Kolyma Highway in winter? I heard most traffic is diesel trucks, though this would require tank / line heaters I imagine.

Will update if / when I make it!

Cheers

EO

You will not really meet locals on the Lena, there are few villages. There are many Yakut villages along the Vilyuisky Trakt between Yakutsk and Mirny. In fact between Yakutsk and Mirny you will hardly meet a single European Russian ... they will all be Yakuts or the native Evens. (Yakuts are not native to Yakutia - they came from the areas bordering near Mongolia - so Yakuts are not herders, and not really any more native than the Russians. If you want to visit a native Even community (with their reindeer herding culture), it will be easier in the Winter. There is one called Syuldyukar, which you will be able to access from Mirny.

From Mirny, drive north west, and take the turnoff to the village of Svetly. From Svetly you will need to drive north along the frozen river for about 25km till you reach the Even settlement of Syuldyukar. Note that the settlement being a settlement by nature means much less reindeer herding than you would get visiting nomadic Evens out on the tundra, but its a good place to start.

Here is a map of the route there from Mirny.... Mirny being the agglomeration of waypoints in the bottom:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/593/2...ceb9589a_b.jpg


In winter there should be no problem buying diesel. Diesel will be very common. They also sell a lot of additives to stop the diesel thickening up too much in the cold. Thats totally standard in that part of the world. There are no special tank or line heaters ... just anti thickening additives. In Yakutia in winter no one turns the engines off ... the engines often run for 6 months non stop because if the engine is off, the motor oil will thicken quickly in the cold, and you wont get the vehicle started again unless you light a fire under the oil pan.