Life's a Little Different When You Live in the World's Coldest Village

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WIRED has a really cool feature up on their site right now about Amos Chappie, a photographer from New Zealand who traveled 10,000 miles to the remote Siberian village of Oymyakon in order to snap photos of the planet’s coldest residents.

“I shoot travel photos aimed at the news sections of papers and need a headline to hang a story on,” the New Zealander said. “‘The coldest place on Earth’ is pretty irresistible.”

According to WIRED’s Jenna Garrett, the temperature in Oymyakon reached a balmy -90ºF/-67ºC in February 1933, earning it the title of Earth’s coldest place. When Chappie arrived last weekend, the 500 Oymyakon residents were enjoying a relative scorcher: -24ºF/-31ºC. Chappie learned how the villagers have managed to adapt to living in a frozen exclave over 550 miles (885 km) from the nearest major city:

“Such a temperature is so cold that people here regularly consume frozen meat, keep their cars running 24/7 and must warm the ground with a bonfire for several days before burying their dead… Crops don’t grow in the frozen ground, so people have a largely carnivorous diet—reindeer meat, raw flesh shaved from frozen fish, and ice cubes of horse blood with macaroni are a few local delicacies.”

You can view Chappie’s photos and learn more about this chilly end of the Earth by checking out the link to Wired below. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments.