Our special plough service. (Photo: Martin Hertel)Monday, 28th of April 2014

During our time in Siberia we experienced a wide range of winter weather, from bright and sunny with extreme cold temperatures around -30°C to cloudy, stormy weather with wind speeds up to 15 m/s and moderate temperature conditions around zero.

 

I was often asked how the extreme cold temperatures feel, but to be honest I cannot give a simple answer to this because the temperature itself is just one of the factors influencing the working conditions in the field.

 

Probably the most important factor is the wind, which makes it very uncomfortable outside even if the temperatures are not too low. Still, proper clothing is important and one should wear a lot of layers to have a proper isolation system - with the right equipment it is no problem to withstand extreme weather, so thanks to AWI again for supporting our expedition with all the warm clothes you could think about.

Not just the weather, but also the whole infrastructure system on the site is different compared to the conditions we had in the summer.

 

Got stuck? Olaf Kolle, Fanny Kittler and Nikita Zimov (from left to right) try to shuffle the car out of the deep snow. (Photo: Martin Hertel)Last year boardwalks, which connect the towers to the central area, made out of halved pallets were installed at our site to minimize the impact of walking on the tundra ecosystem. These boardwalks were completely covered by deep snow now, and it was possible to go to the towers directly by snowmobile. With this snowmobile it is possible to transport heavy equipment (and scientists) to the tower easily and fast.

On the other hand, the trip from the station to the site is much more complicated. During the summer we used to go by boat, which takes about 30 min in each direction, and was quite convenient since our site is directly connected to the station by a system of river channels.

 

Now, it is possible to go by car because the river is frozen deeply (up to 2m of ice). However, there is no direct road but a solid snow path we used every day, and over time this track it became more "concrete". To keep up the quality of this 'road', our Russian partners prepared the track by going there with a truck, where a big piece of metal is attached to "plough" the route. During the first half of our stay it was no problem to reach the site, and transport was even faster (and warmer) than by boat.

 

But as soon as the weather shifted to snowing and stormy winds the situation changed completely. The "road" was absent and we got stuck in the deep snow, which has a texture described better as sand. So we had to dig ourselves out of the snow or push the car out of the deep snow quite often, sometimes even several times during one trip. At the end we became quite organized and skilled and are proved for the Siberian winter now.

 

Written by Fanny