Valodja didn´t fear the cold at all. He even drove his snowmobile without any face cover when temperatures went below 50 minus.
Alexei had lived almost 2 years without meeting any people when we turned up. he wasn´t in a good mood. Our Russian was crap he said and we hadn´t brought any books.
One of the smartest we met was Ivan, but he wasn´t a good trapper and was hungry all the time When we turned up he gave us all food he had and suffered for days of hunger after that.
Sasha barely survived, but needed a lot of sobel to get the money needed to send his son to university.
This is what the driver of the snowmobile we used to get out to a reindeer camp on the tundra.
i met this extra ordinary lady, around 90 in age at that time, who had sensed me and my partner coming in the back of her head. One of the most fantastic people i have ever met.
Pavel had no family. All his family had been executed by the Soviets, even though he did what they told him to do, not to get his family killed. He trapped zeks who ran away from the Gulag camps. One of the best humans I have met. He just wandered the river hoping somebody would take him in.
Misja had left the overpopulated Ukraine to find a new life in the coldest inhabited place on earth.He had a nasty toothache when we met him. Pus was pouring out below his eyes.
Ivan had taken a job with no pay, just to survive in a hunters log cabin, but missed his daughter all the time. Great friend. Very intellectual, but too lazy he said to do anything with hislife
Misja was a great trapper who lived with his wife in a balygan and had lots of humor.
One small village located in the Kolyma mouth has kept their kazak traditions for hundreds of years, in an area dominated by native locals.
Kolja was a really good trapper, even though temperatures were below minus 60 and was in a great mood, even if he had a bit too much vodka.
Valodja had lived with Sasja for 20 years far from any kind of civilisation and didn´t really know how to talk.
Sasjas father were a German POW and his mother Russian. They were killed the same day Sasja was born.
Igor and Sergey Novikov, the two toughest lorry drivers on earth. They only drive when the ice is thick enough on the Kolyma, never turns the motor off, pull bad teeth with pliers, drink enormous amounts of vodka to kill the pain, shoot bears...amazing personalities!
The Siberian hares are the biggest I have seen and their meat is out of this world. The trapper here knew exactly what he was doing. Not to destroy the meat, he had shot it in the ear.
Two young teenagers living in the coldest inhabited place on earth. They had no parents, just drifted around, hoping to survive.