Life in the COLDEST PLACE on Earth (Record-Breaking Cold!) | Yakutsk, Yakutia

have you ever imagined what the toughest, most  extreme climate on planet Earth looks like? Well, there's a certain region of Northeastern  Russia where conditions for human habitation truly couldn't be any more difficult. The region  of Yakutia is widely known as one of the coldest, most brutal regions on planet Earth, where  mid-winter temperatures regularly fall below minus 60 degrees Celsius, visibility is often less  than 5 meters, and the Sun is completely blocked by an impenetrable layer of fog lasting months  on end.

You would think with conditions like this there's no way a society could function,  and so-called 'normal life' could operate. But there are actually a group of people that  have called this region home for generations, and Have not only survived but thrived. But how  is day-to-day life in the so-called 'pole of cold' different to ours?

What do these hardy people  need to do just to get through the day during the cold dark eerie winter months? Well let's head to  Yakutsk and find out. Oh, and by the way, by pure luck we managed to be there on the coldest day  not just of the year, but the last two decades!

What is the temperature? On my phone it says -55'c but here it is even colder, probably -58'c (-72'f) [Music] So Yakutsk is widely known as the coldest city  on earth, and with a population of 300,000 it's also the largest city to be built on  continuous permafrost. The lowest ever recorded temperature here in Yakutsk was -71 degrees  Celsius and we're here in the middle of January and the current temperature is just below minus  50.

What is just absolutely mind-blowing about this city is that despite temperatures being below -50,  despite it being incredibly incredibly cold, life just seems to go on, by the way about those people  let's meet a few of them this is Arseniy and this is Nikolai both members of The Walrus Club,  a group of guys that ice bath every day even in temperatures like this. But we'll see more of  that later, and this is Maria, Yakutia's first sommelier, yep you heard that right, wine from  yakutia, and this is her husband Maxim with whom we headed out on an adventure to a remote Yakutian  Village. These are just a few of the many locals we met here in Yakutsk, but before we hear more  about these lovely people and their lives.

Let's head back out onto the streets. We've been out for  about 20 minutes, and to be honest I'm pretty warm myself, because we've got very many layers. But  I'm starting to feel how my face is starting to burn because of the cold around these areas.

On that  note we've heard that in temperatures like this it's very dangerous to kiss each other and  if your skin comes into contact with metal, that's it your stuck to it [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] Living here in Yakutsk, pushes the limits of human nature. And  even some of the most basic daily tasks require precautions and forethought  for example turning off your cars You never turn your cars off, right? No, you cant, it will freeze Those cars are stuck there until spring turning your car off in these temperatures  can cause the engine oil to freeze resulting in your car being stuck until spring.

To  avoid this people either leave their cars running or rent expensive heated garages however  people are resourceful up here and by the way for people that can't afford their own heated  garages they have these covers for their cars Apparently there called Natasha,  cool name, my mom's called Natasha This is a Yakut garage It is basically a duvet, that keeps the cold away The prices for a "Natasha" start at $113 USD Our car switches on automatically from time to time. It senses when the engine temperature drops too low Then after warming up, the cover helps to trap the heat for longer Drving in the city, in the famous Yakutsk fog, is an experience in itself with  visibility often under five meters you can't take your eyes off the road for  a second and to stop the windows freezing up whilst you drive the cars here need to be  retrofitted but we'll let Maria explain that Did you notice, our car have two layers of glass? Everyone that uses their cars in winter, insulates them somehow We cover our engines & fans with blankets to stop the cold aor How are you feeling?

I'm all right it's just I can't feel my toes now.  Can't feel your toes? Let's get inside quick this is absolutely brutal, my nose hairs are frozen  my Beard's frozen I feel like my bones inside my body are frozen in these kind of temperatures your electronic  devices are really struggling, our phone has started to go and the camera is playing up,  and it's pretty much dead already.

Filming in these temperatures is extremely difficult  and at one point I had my glove off for filming for slightly too long and lost  all of the feeling in one of my fingers so whilst we head to a coffee shop to warm up  let's show you where we're heading with Maria so we've come to the Museum of  the permafrost and we're gonna go and have a look underground at the  permafrost itself here in Yakutsk . This is the Permafrost Museum the most incredible thing is about this place  when you're walking through it is you realise that on this permafrost that we're looking at now an  entire city is built the entirety of Yakutsk is on the permafrost and it's built on exactly what  we're looking at here it's just incredible and because of this, the city can actually be prone  to ice shifts and one big problem that they had to overcome was the heat that emanates from the  buildings not melting the ice so to counteract that all of the buildings here in yakutsk are  actually built on these stilts, which creates a gap between the warm homes above and the  permafrost below. Obviously those stilts can only hold so much weight, that's why you  won't find a building above 16 floors in Yakutsk And that also means that all the pipe  work across the city is actually above ground I think it's one of the most beautiful  cities I've ever seen in the world and it's not because of the architecture  the nature made it so gorgeous These trees honestly, I just can't get enough  of, they're so gorgeous, I can just stare at them forever.

Probably outside the window,  not standing outside watching them forever We've noticed that everywhere in the Yakutsk, where  it's leading up to the entrances, they've got carpets laid over because it's so slippery  I haven't seen it anywhere else in the world I wanted to do this for so long there are two official languages in the  Republic of Saha, Russian and yakut. The Yakut language, is a turkic language, and you know that  we're both very passionate about languages, and we always try and learn at least few phrases  in every country we go to, which gives me the chance to introduce you to the sponsors of  today's video, Busuu. Previously every time we traveled to a russian-speaking country  after a long gap of time I could feel how my speaking level especially had dropped and  it would always take me weeks to get back up to speed which is why recently I've been using  Busuu to continue learning and refreshing my knowledge on the road so when the time comes to  travel to places like Yakutsk, my language skills are right where I need them to be for me the  best thing about learning with Busuu is their bite-sized lessons their personalized lesson  plans and when you have premium the ability to download the lessons so that you can even use  them on the go without an internet connection with over 120 million users all over the  world Busuu offers courses in 14 languages so to achieve your language learning goals start  learning your favorite language completely free today with Busuu, using the link in the  description below, and back to the video in some crazy stroke of luck, this day,  the day we chose to film, turned out to be the coldest day in the last two  decades.

You would think though in these temperatures nobody would go outside but  this couldn't be further from the truth people here are inspirational to be honest  no matter what Mother Nature throws at them the resilience of the yakut shines through. Women  stand outside at the market all day selling their wares, delivery guys still work, kids go to school,  and some even go ice bathing on the Frozen River Lena. This is Arsentiy and Nikolai, two members of  the Walrus Swimmers Group.

Despite the temperatures this group of incredible people turn up here  almost every day to dive into this icy water What temperature does it show? - It doesn't show anything. The temperature is too low, it stops at -50'C We do push ups to get the blood flowing, it helps to reduce the effect of the cold water .

What is the temperature? On my phone it says -55'c but here it is even colder, probably -58'c (-72'f) And he still goes under water! We've got like four layers on, at least.

He's not coming up, oh my god. The feeling is always fantastic! Getting dressed afterwards is the hardest part because you are already cold and wet I guess you just can't dry off quick enough right?

I haven't even started drying my body yet, the main thing is to save your extremities straight away, as they can get frostbite A girl came recently from Moscow wanting to dive, at -50'c, but she came without 'slippers', this is bad as you can stick to the ice Inspiring, isn't it! One of the guys said that he started doing this in August because he got fed up of getting ill constantly so to boost his immune system, he started doing this At this point, you may be thinking that  Yakutsk is just one big ice City all year round, but actually that's not always the case. Our summers get very hot, it can get to +40'c (+104'f) and despite the very cold snap that  we're experiencing at the moment on average Winters here are getting warmer climate  change is having an effect on Russia's far north faster than most places on Earth and that poses  a massive threat to the very permafrost the city is built on.

Last Summer the above average  Mercury culminated in tragic circumstances One year ago, the summer was insanely hot and forest fires broke out, destroying over 11 million hectares of forest. And last winter was unseasonably warm too. We are definitely noticing a change in the climate.

the warming climate is a problem for all of  humanity and one that's having a particular effect on yakutia right now, even if today,  walking around the city at -60'c it seems a long way off. As passers through, it's easy to  be shocked at temperatures like this, I mean in Britain the country completely shuts down after  an inch of snow. But for people here, this is just everyday life, and the locals love their city,  and its climate.

And for us the main take away from this trip, funnily enough, won't be the freezing  cold but the intense warmth of the yakut people by the way this is the first of a mini series up  here in the world's coldest region this video in many ways left us with more questions than  answers about the Yakut people, their way of life, what they eat up here, and what life's  like in The Villages. And in the next videos we're going to endeavor to answer all of these  questions, and share more of this magical region.