When you look up Verkhoyansk Sakha Republic Russia 678530 on a map, you're looking at a tiny dot in the middle of a vast, frozen nowhere. Honestly, it’s one of those places that shouldn’t really exist. It’s located about 3,000 miles east of Moscow, sitting on the Yana River, and for most of the year, it is a deep freezer. People talk about the "Pole of Cold" all the time, but usually, they’re thinking of Oymyakon. There’s actually a pretty fierce rivalry between the two.
Verkhoyansk has a population of around 1,300 people. They live in a place where the mercury regularly hits $-60°C$ ($-76°F$) in the winter. But here is the kicker: in 2020, it hit $38°C$ ($100.4°F$). That is a $105$-degree Celsius swing. It’s the widest temperature range ever recorded on the planet. One day you’re worrying about your eyelashes freezing together, and the next (well, a few months later), you’re dealing with a literal Arctic heatwave.
The Reality of Living at the Pole of Cold
Life in Verkhoyansk isn't some romantic Jack London novel. It’s a lot of wood-chopping and keeping the car engine running for six months straight. If you turn it off, the oil turns into a solid block of gunk and the tires flatten into squares. You’ve basically got to stay moving or stay inside.
Most homes are heated by central coal plants or wood-burning stoves. There is no indoor plumbing for many residents because pipes just explode in that kind of cold. You go to the bathroom in an outhouse, which, at $-50°C$, is an experience you won't forget.
✨ Don't miss: Omaha to Las Vegas: How to Pull Off the Trip Without Overpaying or Losing Your Mind
- The Diet: Lots of frozen fish (stroganina), reindeer meat, and horse fat. You need the calories.
- The School Rules: Kids still go to school until it hits $-55°C$. If it's $-54°C$, grab your backpack and get moving.
- The Darkness: In December, the sun barely peeks over the horizon. It’s a blue, twilight world for weeks.
Why Verkhoyansk is Actually Harder to Reach Than Oymyakon
If you want to visit, you can't just rent a Corolla and drive there. There are no permanent roads. You have two choices: fly into the Batagay airport (about 70km away) or wait until winter.
Wait until winter? Yeah.
When the rivers freeze solid, they become "zimniks" or winter roads. Truckers drive on the ice of the Yana River to bring in fuel and food. It’s a grueling, multi-day trek from Yakutsk. In the summer, the ground turns into a swampy mess of melted permafrost, making land travel nearly impossible. You’re basically stranded unless you’ve got a boat or a helicopter.
🔗 Read more: North Shore Shrimp Trucks: Why Some Are Worth the Hour Drive and Others Aren't
The 678530 Zip Code and the Exile History
The town was founded in 1638. Originally, it was a Cossack fort. But for a long time, the Russian Empire and the Soviets used it for something else: exile.
If you were a political dissident, they sent you here. The logic was simple. You didn’t need a high-security prison with walls and dogs. The geography was the prison. Where are you going to run? It’s hundreds of miles of taiga and tundra in every direction. If the cold doesn't get you, the bears will.
Today, the descendants of those exiles and the indigenous Yakut people make up the town. They are incredibly hardy. They hunt, they fish, and lately, they hunt for mammoth tusks. As the permafrost melts due to those record-breaking summers, ancient tusks are popping out of the riverbanks. It’s a weird, modern-day gold rush in the coldest place on earth.
💡 You might also like: Minneapolis Institute of Art: What Most People Get Wrong
The Great Cold Debate
Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon have been arguing about who is the "real" Pole of Cold for a century.
Verkhoyansk claims a record of $-67.8°C$ from 1885.
Oymyakon claims they hit $-67.7°C$ in 1933.
It’s a 0.1-degree difference that drives local politics. Verkhoyansk has a monument with a mammoth head to mark their status. Oymyakon has more tourists because it’s slightly easier to reach by road. Honestly, once you’re past $-60°C$, the distinction is purely academic. Everything hurts anyway.
What You Need to Know Before You Go
If you're crazy enough to actually want to visit Verkhoyansk Sakha Republic Russia 678530, don't just wing it.
- Gear up: You need "Arctic grade" everything. We’re talking reindeer skin boots (unty) and multiple layers of real wool and down. Synthetic stuff often fails when it gets this cold.
- Cash is King: Don't expect your digital wallet or credit card to work in a town of 1,300 people in the middle of Siberia.
- Language: Learn some basic Russian or Yakut. Very few people speak English here.
- The Batagay Sinkhole: While you're in the area, you have to see the Batagaika crater. It’s a massive "megaslump" that’s growing as the permafrost thaws. It looks like a giant gash in the earth and it's terrifyingly cool.
The climate is changing fast here. Those $100$-degree Fahrenheit days are becoming more frequent, which is worrying for the people whose entire infrastructure is built on "permanently" frozen ground. When that ground turns to mud, houses start to lean and roads disappear.
Next Steps for the Aspiring Traveler:
If you're serious about seeing the North, start by flying into Yakutsk. It's the world's coldest city and serves as the gateway to the entire region. From there, you can coordinate with local guides who have the specialized "Ural" trucks or 4x4s needed to survive the journey to Verkhoyansk. Check the flight schedules for Polar Airlines to Batagay, but be prepared for delays—weather is the only boss in the Sakha Republic.