January 28th
Yakutsk
-45 degrees Celsius

Yesterday I went into downtown Yakutsk with Yuri to do some interviews with the local women and in their fashionable dress in this extreme cold. It was the coldest day since I arrived, -45 Celsius, and I hadn´t put on enough thick trousers or good gloves. After 15 minutes I was shivering and cold. I suddenly realized, this is certainly no game or joke, this will be very serious business.

We are all ready to leave tomorrow, the 29th of January, heading for Oymyakon. The 4 reindeer herders are waiting for us. I haven´t packed yet, there still some tech problems I haven´t figured out. I am really, really bad on tech, thanks to Tom in San Francisco for you patience and help as well as Evans and Daniel in New York for the encouragement and patience.

Most of our time goes to assembling all the gear we need, both for personal reasons and for the group. Whilst we were checking gear at Egor´s place yesterday (where we store everything), I checked my local outfit and to my surprise, even though it looks bulky, it is lighter! Especially the boots!

The reindeer skin boots where lighter, more comfortable and made life so much easier walking than the heavy Baffin Boots. We will see what works best!  My local kit consists of a hat, mittens, trousers, jacket and boots made of reindeer skins from Andrushkino near the Kolyma River.

On the trip, I will definitely try the old local way of sleeping outside in just the reindeer clothes and nothing else! But not tomorrow evening as Egor wants! I definitely need to adapt better first or it will have serious consequences! At least I am fat, 22 kg over my normal weight. That will definitely be to my advantage!

I´d like to share these 2 kit lists with you, first for the whole group and my personal one.

We are 8 people with 16 sleds (8 sleds for people, 8 sleds for equipment) and it is based on 40 days of food.

The group kit list:

Flour 25 kg
Tea 3 kg
Sugar 25 kg
Pasta 25 kg
Rice 25 kg
Cooking oil10 litres
Milk sweet20 cans
Spam 40 cans
Biffar 10 kg
Salt 5 kg
Buck wheat 25 kg
Cookies 5 kg
Candy
Fresh Fish 25 kg
Fresh Cow meat 25 kg
Coffee 5 burkar
Butter 20
Loaves of bread 40
Fast boiling macaroni 100 bags
Petrol 80 litres
Petrol generator (Honda)
Medicine Emergency (medicine)
Cigarettes for reindeer herders 200 packets
Tent 2
Wood stoves2
1 axe
eating utensils, teapots, cooking ware for the group
rope
skins to sit on whilst travelling
skins to cover the kit
2 spades
1 chain saw
thin lead cable for reparations
5 jerry cans to carry 120 litres of petrol
3 thermos flasks

My personal kit list:

Base kit:

1 full reindeer skin kit made in Lower Kolyma (hat, gloves, boots, jacket, trousers)
1 good knife
1 cup (kåsa)
1 Thermos Stanley
1 Leatherman
1 Thermarest
1 Ridge Rest
2 Sleepingbags
1 Inner sack of fleece
1 Headlamp
1 Facemask
1 Fur hat
1 Cap hat
2 Pairs of wool underwear with wind protection
1 Down jacket
1 pair of Baffin boots
1 pair of ski boots
1 pair of down socks
1 pair of bibs
1 pair of randonné pants
1 3 layer Goretex jacket
1 down vest
1 Fleece jacket
1 pair of skigloves
1 pair of fleecegloves, windstopper
1 pair of downmittens
2 pairs of trousers
2 pairs of shirts
2 thick long johns
2 thin long johns
2 thick shirts
2 thin shirts
2 T-shirt from Termo
3 pairs of double socks
3 pairs of other thick socks
1 Giant Duffelbag
1 Compression bag for the down sleeping bags
1 Ski glasses
1 Julbo sunglasses
1 pair of Gaiters
Skis:

1 Spare part kit for the bindings (kables, and more)
1 pair of skis
1 pair of ski poles
2 pairs of short skins
2 pairs of long skins
Mixed ski wax (W)

Technical equipment:

1 Canon XF 105
2 Canon CA-930 Compact Power Adapter
8 BP-975 Lithium Ion Battery
1 Canon XA10
1 Panasonic Lumix G 3
1 Panasonic recharger
1 BP-Lithium Ion Battery
3 B-819 Lithium Ion Battery
2 GoPro Hero
2 GoPro Battery Pack
8 GoPro Hero Rechargeable Batteries
1 Go Pro Chest Mount Harness
1 GoPro Head Strap Mount
1 GoPro Wall Charger
1 Gitzo GT2540LLVL tripod/Head kit
24 8GB San Disk Compact Flash Memory cards
10 16 GB San Disk SDHC Memory Card
8 LaCie 1TB Rugged Mini portable hard drive
1 Sennheiser ew 112-p G3 Microphone
1 HP Expedition Notebook
1 Iridium 9555 Satellite phone
1 SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger
1 HET Pelican Case 1400
2 Pelican 1564 Waterproof Case with dividers
1 PortaBrace Polar Mitten (POL-MHM100)
2 Pelican Dessiccant Silica Gel
4 Pelican 0945 Memory Card Case
1 heating Pad for Harddrives
2 Transcend USB 3.0 Memory Card Reader
Cleaning kit
Instruction handbook video camera.

Medicine kit:

1 tin with tiger balsam (R)
1 First aid kit
1 Nail scissors (R)
1 Tweezers
10 sun sticks for the nose and sensitive places
1 tube Helosan
Alvedon (R)
Antibiotics (R)
Anti-inflammatory medicine (R)
Antiseptic crèmes and powder (R)
Antiseptic means (R)
Blood stoppers (R)
Diarrhea cure
Elastic bandages (R)
Foot powder (R)
Cannulas (R)
Surgeon tape
Knee protection
Compresses (R)
Leukastrips (R)
Leukoplast (R)
Immodium
Losec
Novalucol, 2 pills per day
Penicillin (R)
Plasters (R)
Chafe tape
Painkillers (R)
High sunprotection
Sterile dressings (R)
Wound cleaners (R)
Safety pins
Talcum (R)
Petrolatum
Zincsalve
Eyedrops
Eyesalve
Eardrops

Additional kit:

1 GPS Silva
1 Binoculars
1 Compass
Maps
4 Rolls of duck tape
2 Rolls of Electric tape
1 Tube Epoxy glue
A couple of locks
Sewing needles, thread (Expeditionset)
Repairs kit for ThermaRest

Other items:

Insurances
Passports with visas and all permissions
1 Moneybelt
Money (rubles and dollars)
3 Toothbrushes
Notebooks
A couple of pens
A couple of toilet paper rolls
Photocopies of important documents
2 Towels, middle-sized
Credit card
Shampoo
Toothpaste
Soap (R)
Books
Explorer Clubs Flag #179