Original subtitles

(wind whooshing)

(dramatic music)

(engines revving)

In the Arctic Circle,

in the North of Russia,

there are roads which only exist for a few weeks each year.

Conditions in the ice are extreme.

If you take the winter road, you do so at your home peril.

In Siberia,

many roads are made not of tarmac, but of ice and snow.

The winter road linking Salekhard and to Nadym,

is only passable from December to April.

But when spring arrives

on the border between Taiga and Tundra,

temperatures rise from minus 50 to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

It's the beginning of the end for the road of ice.

Yuri Sirbu knows this road like no other.

He's accompanying a heavy haulage back to Salekhard,

his hometown.

In spring,

water flows across the frozen ground

turning the road into an icy peast.

The two drivers need to cross a dangerous section.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

The top is dangerous.

We can slide down and stay at the bottom.

Keep to the bottom, drive slowly in first gear.

Is this part dangerous?

No, you just have to be careful.

Stay on this track over there and just keep going on and on.

(both speaking in foreign language)

Many people try to take the upper part of the road

and slide down.

Sometimes they even overturn and fall to the side.

It's a really tricky part.

You have to be very precise when driving.

Leoni Padalka specializes

in heavy haulage driving.

He has to maneuver the heavily laden lorry across the ice.

(eerie music)

The lorry almost makes it at the little rise,

but the last bits of the slope is too steep

and too slippery.

It's for moments like this that Yuri Sirbu is with him.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

We need to make the rope longer

because I'm on a slope and so is he.

I need to get further up the Hill.

The articulated lorry only makes it

across the hill with the help of the second vehicle.

As long as the makeshift extension, the tow rope holds.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

We need to get the wheels off the ice,

and then you try going in second gear.

(engine revving)

(dramatic music)

(lorry horn hooting)

The drive

from Salekhard to Nadym and back takes five days,

if the weather complies.

It's only during the winter months

that the men can transport urgently needed goods

between the towns.

Right now they need a streak roll in Salekhard.

The drivers reached the city in the evening.

Founded as a Cossack fortress,

Salekhard today lives off

the vast gas fields of this region.

The gas reserves are among the biggest in the world,

and have made the town an affluent community.

Despite the extreme temperatures,

some 40,000 people live here.

On the outskirts of the town,

the company premises of Yamaloftodor,

the regions road building contractor can be found.

Yamaloftodor, is responsible

for building and maintaining the regions few roads.

The company employs Leoni Padalka and Yuri Sibru as drivers.

They are glad it has got a little colder.

At minus 30 degrees their work becomes easier.

Before the temperatures rise again,

and the road sinks into the mud,

they have to drive one last heavy haulage across.

They urgently need an asphalt paver

at the other end of the winter road in Nadym.

Before they can set off,

the 15 ton machine needs to be loaded onto the trailer.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

If the track widths are not the same,

the machine can support topple over.

It's so heavy, it's impossible to load it back up.

In order to make sure the load

doesn't slide off on route,

the men painstakingly secured it on the trailer.

Good preparation

is the very least they can do to get across the ice road.

Yuri Sibru loves the North,

but he also knows it's dangerous.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

You can freeze to death very quickly.

You won't even feel it.

You'll look for an escape,

for you to clasp but every straw to get out

and reach your destination to solve your problem.

That you're very much afraid.

(engine revving)

The convoy will be traveling on this road

without any contact with the outside world for several days.

There is no mobile phone reception.

If you want to take the winter road,

you have to know about the dangers.

Everyone registers at the entrance.

The convoy consists of four vehicles.

The lorry with its heavy load is followed by a bulldozer,

which is supposed to clear the way in case of an emergency.

Then does a lorry with building materials.

At the back is Yuri Sirbu securing the convoy.

Salekhard is situated in the autonomous

Yamalo-Nenets region,

right on the Ob river in the Arctic Circle.

The winter road to Nadym is some 300 kilometers long,

and leads through marshland and across several rivers.

It's the only road which connects Salekhard

with the outside world.

At the other end of the road in Nadym,

Konya Progarov and Yigor Stephaninca,

want to risk the drive across the winter road.

The two share an unusual passion.

They love driving cross country,

away from regular roads.

For the summer,

they're planning on off road trip across Russia.

They want to use the winter road,

to test themselves and their cars

in the most extreme conditions.

(man speaking in foreign language)

Well they told us

not to let any more lorries pass.

We'll wait until tonight.

The boss wanted to call back then,

he said that maybe

we won't let any more lorries pass from now on.

How's the road?

Is it slippery?

Yes.

Will we get through with the Jeep?

Yes, you will.

Why won't you let any more lorries pass?

It's warm, it's thawing.

How long for?

Until 6 PM.

Alright, thanks.

(wind whooshing)

The two off-road drivers are from Nadym,

and have never made it all the way

to the neighboring town of Salekhard.

Now at the end of the winter,

they have picked the most unpleasant time for their trip.

There is neither accommodation

nor any restaurants along these 300 kilometers.

They have to look after themselves.

(car hooting)

(man speaking via radio call using foreign language)

It's started to thaw,

the snow's getting heavier.

We'll hope for the best.

I heard the weather forecast.

They forecast temperatures above zero.

Best thing would be to drive at night.

It'll probably be colder then.

During the day it will be pretty wet.

We've thought it through,

we're well-prepared.

We double check everything several times

before we embark on a tour like this,

it's the only way.

We value our life and our health very much.

(gentle music)

The road leads across a river.

In just a few weeks time,

barges will be traveling here instead of cars,

but for now the ice holds.

Weather beaten pylons and deformed rail tracks

remind us of Starlin's superpower fantasies,

which were thwarted by the eternal cold of Northern Siberia.

After World War II,

the dictator wanted to build a railway line

along the Arctic Circle.

The secret project was called Stalin's railway,

or the route of death.

More than 100,000 Gulag prisoners,

were exposed to the cold with no protection.

Extreme driver Yigor Stefarinka,

sees the camps for the first time.

(wind whooshing)

(gentle music continues)

Starlings railway was never in operation.

Two weeks after Stalin's death, work stopped.

(lorry engine revving)

At the other end of the winter road,

Yuri Sirbu has veered off the right path.

Even experienced drivers have a hard time

recognizing where the road ends and deep snow begins.

At the course of the day, it becomes warmer again.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

There's no traction between

snow and wheels.

The snow is like soap, the wheels just spin.

Because of the angle,

it would take him hours

to get out of the situation by himself.

The edge of hard press snow,

makes it hard to get the wheels back on solid ground.

(lorry engine revving)

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

You need to understand

that the temperatures of the air, the ground and the snow

are all different,

and that it's all interconnected.

Only then you can come to a conclusion,

and make a decision on which way to take best.

Right now he needs less air in his tires.

Yuri's path takes him back into deep snow.

He wants to make the road wider.

With his Russian Ural trunk

which is specially designed for heavy territory,

he can change the air pressure in the tires

while he's driving.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

With less air,

the tires are like the paws of a bear.

When a bear steps on branches,

you'd think they break, but they don't.

They don't even make a sound.

This also applies to the tires of the Ural.

(engine revving)

Now the vehicle has created the necessary space for itself,

and feels like a fish in water.

You just need to keep calm and be patient.

Don't get hectic

Every year in November,

Yuri forges the road into the deep snow.

Centimeter by centimeter,

day by day,

until he has made a fresh track

across the 300 kilometers from Salekhard to Nadym.

(upbeat dramatic music)

Ivan and Grigory Ataman are on the way home.

There were selling reindeer meat on the market in Salekhard,

and bought some groceries.

The two brothers are Tundra nomads,

and members of the Nenets people.

Ivan and Grigory,

live in a small settlement,

some 130 kilometers outside of Salekhard,

right in the middle of the Tundra.

They need a snowmobile or a sledge to get to their tents.

Snowmobiles are fast but tiring.

After 40 kilometers,

the nomads stopped for a tea break.

This is not just so they can recover.

The Nenets stop in sacred places.

To Grigory Ataman and his people,

a road is not just a road.

(Grigory speaking in foreign language)

We always stop over there

and make an offering.

Sometimes we also throw coins in passing too.

You mustn't destroy any branches around here.

There are no Petro stations

in the Tundra.

Therefore Nenets brothers,

always take a bottle of petrol with them.

They want to reach their little settlement before nightfall.

The last 30 kilometers will lead them through deep snow.

(Grigory speaking in foreign language)

Without this road it took us much longer

to get to the town.

Sometimes as long as two or three days.

Back in those days,

when there was no road,

our sledges would get stuck in hilly territory.

Today it's the road of life for us.

Yuri Sirbu and his convoy of colleagues,

make sure the road will remain passable.

On each trip,

they chain pipes,

which will be welded together to their lorries.

These makeshift four ton rollers,

level and compact the snow which would otherwise break up,

blow away, and become impassable within a few days.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

To make a good road

you need to build it above the Tundra.

We want the winter road to be similar to a normal road.

Normal roads have a firm base.

Here we have a base of snow.

We keep driving across new snow so it increases in height.

Once the road is above the level of the Tundra,

you needn't worry about blizzards and wind anymore.

(gentle dramatic music)

The best time

for driving on a winter road is at nighttime.

With their headlights,

the drivers can make out bumps

sooner than in the diffused daylight.

The convoy is making good progress,

but then Yuri and his colleagues

encounter lorry which has had an accident.

The driver has been stuck since lunchtime.

No one has been able to help him.

His attempts to free himself,

have only dunk him deeper into the snow.

(man speaking in foreign language)

I miscalculated and veered off the road.

There was a blizzard and I couldn't see anything.

And I overturned and slid off the road.

Yuri wants to pull the lorry out

with a rope.

The wheel loader also pushes it from behind.

The lorry is not moving at all.

Try to start the engine.

(engine revving)

It's complicated.

If we could start it,

the power of the engine would help us.

Right now it's like a dead weight.

Without the engine running, it's practically immovable.

Due to the cold temperatures,

the vehicles are never switched off on the winter road.

Not even on longer breaks.

The drivers know once the engine cools off,

there is nothing they can do without outside help.

(engine revving)

Everyone out of the way.

(engine revving)

The rescue mission

has delayed the convoy considerably.

On the winter road punctuality is a luxury.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

Nowadays it's each to their own.

The North doesn't forgive these mistakes.

On your own you won't get far in the Tundra

in this kind of frost.

I don't know how strong a man has to be here

to get by without help.

Sooner or later,

everyone needs the help of a friend or a colleague.

10 kilometers further on,

there's another accident.

Yuri is not surprised.

The black ice here has been the downfall of many a driver.

This lorry has been stuck for three days now.

Several attempts to help him have failed.

The heavy load has pulled the lorry

deeper and deeper down the slope.

Try second gear.

Yuri quickly realizes that

they can't help him either,

but the lorry blocks their way.

He needs to stay where he is, damn it.

We'll carefully go past him

so we won't squash him if we slide.

We've cleared it all .

We give up, uncouple.

The convoy carefully drives

past the unfortunate vehicle.

After a few meters,

the wheel loader starts to slide.

I told him,

"You need to drive at the bottom,

at the very bottom so you won't slide."

And he replies, "Very well,"

only to proceed to drive a different route.

(lorry hooting) (engine revving)

The convoy has been on the road

for 14 hours.

Despite their exhaustion,

the drivers make use of the favorable nighttime conditions.

They continue to find their way

through the cold and snow until dawn.

(gentle dramatic music)

(wind whooshing)

Very few creatures come survive

the hostile environment of the Arctic circle.

Extreme differences in temperature,

blizzards,

permafrost soil.

The Nenets people

have come to terms with the adversities of nature.

The brothers Ivan and Grigory Ataman,

reach their little settlement of three tents

on the previous evening.

Together they take a breakfast of tea,

and raw frozen reindeer meat.

Some 40,000 Nenets live in the region of Yamalo-Nenets,

named after them.

In their language, nenets, means man.

Some of them have preserved the old culture.

They live as nomads of the Tundra,

with their tents they move from place to place.

The Nenets practice straight division of labor.

The women are responsible for the tents,

the food and the children.

The men take care of the reindeer and the hunting.

Reindeer are the Nenets treasure.

Many nomad families have thousands of the animals

at their disposal.

Tents and clothing are made from reindeer hides.

(dog barking)

Nothing else keeps you as warm.

(snowmobile engine revving)

The dogs are restless.

They can feel that they will be hunting today.

Spring is coming,

and soon Grigory, Ivan and their friend,

will start heading for the summer meadows up North

with their herds.

This means the herd,

which has been living independently of its owners,

needs to be rounded up again.

(dramatic music)

Grigory is the owner of 3,000 reindeer.

They are able to withstand colder temperatures

than any other farm animal.

First, the men want to coach some individual animals.

The animals can smell trouble.

(wind whooshing)

(engine revving)

With their snowmobiles Grigory and his brother,

round up the animals and herd them towards the others,

who are waiting with their lassos.

They tried to catch the male lead animals.

Reindeer hooves are very broad,

and they can move fast in deep snow.

As soon as they caught the first reindeer,

they tather them to the wooden slays.

They need to get used to that task as working animals again.

The rest of the herd follows them voluntarily.

Soon it will be impossible

to drive around on the snowmobiles.

Then we won't be able to go into town.

Once it thaws,

everything gets waterlogged.

The road becomes impassable.

Now we take those reindeer to the herd.

Then we catch the younger ones and train them up too.

The first slay is ready to go.

Soon the Nenets will ride

hundreds of kilometers up North on them,

always following the cold into the vast Tundra.

The drivers use the roof of Yuri's Ural as a refrigerator.

The convoy has driven until the morning.

Before they can carry on,

they need to put a good meal on the table.

The delicacy of the North is called muksum.

A fish whose home is the Ob river.

Yuri cuts up the raw fish,

as Nenets tradition dictates, into small strips.

It's freshly frozen.

The fish is for internal use with salt and pepper.

Vodka is desirable too.

Without Vodka it's not perfect, but you can eat it anyway.

The night was cold.

The wheel valves are frozen.

We let the air out of the tires

so the car can cope better with the winter road.

So it won't get damaged.

If there's less air in the tires, it's easier to drive,

and you've got a better grip between the snow and wheel.

Halfway between Nadym and Salekhard,

there is a station.

Yuri and the others want to reach the station today.

(dramatic music)

(lorry hooting)

Many drivers make use of the last days

when the road is still passable.

Soon it will be closed.

For the next eight months,

transports will have to take place by plane or ship.

The road disappears as it were.

The only reminders are the wrecks of the unlucky lorries.

An oncoming driver tells Yuri

about conditions on the rest of the way.

They say the roads in Nadym is bad,

will out convoy make it?

It will probably get through though,

if not use the ropes,

you can get through on the tracks.

Have you been getting through okay?

Yeah.

The road is like soap it's turned warm.

I'll string up and carry on now.

Have a good trip.

In the North of Siberia,

the permafrost soil is hundreds of meters deep.

On top,

there are vast swamplands

which the winter road leads through.

Parts of them thaw

when temperatures reach 15 degrees below zero.

In some areas,

even experienced drivers like Yuri,

find it hard to make out

whether the road is still passable at all.

(gentle dramatic music)

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

It's still okay at the moment,

but sometimes the water comes up to my feet in the cabin.

In some places the mortar is up

to one and a half meters deep.

The difficult bit is that you don't know what's underneath.

In the spring there's water coming

from above and from below so,

the ice is no longer solid, and it breaks.

It can cave in anytime, really anytime.

The convoy has reached

the little station halfway between Salekhard and Nadym.

Many people take a brief break there

before they tackle the second part of their trip.

A reserve fund of petrol helps those drivers

who underestimated the high petrol consumption

on the winter road.

Yuri's ural uses more than 50 liters per hundred kilometers.

Vasili Volkov guards the station and the petrol.

He's a hermit of the winter road.

For eight months each year,

he's completely alone.

For the other four months,

when the winter road is in use,

his hut is a popular meeting place for truckers.

One of the drivers tells of his accident

just short of the station.

This morning his lorry overturned.

He was carrying a load of Petrol.

Fellow drivers freed him from the broken vehicle ,

and brought him here.

(cat meows)

(man snoring)

(man speaking in foreign language)

My first thought was, damn this is it.

I thought I was dead.

And this was the end.

Then I wondered, is this what heaven looks like?

Everything was upside down.

You see nothing.

There's snow everywhere.

Are you still alive or not?

You just don't know.

No one knows.

In the old days they forced us to drive.

Now we do it of our own free will.

Yes. Now we do it of our own free will.

(wind whooshing)

(dramatic music)

Temperatures rise

to five degrees below zero.

Blizzards are increasingly likely.

The wind picks up.

Within a few hours the road is covered in loose snow.

The road markings on either side disappear.

Off road drivers Konya and Yigor,

find it more and more difficult

to drive their cars across the blown away road.

(dramatic music continues)

The front axle of Konya's vehicle has hit deep snow.

He won't be able to get out again by himself.

Yigor has to help him.

The wind has become very strong.

It blows snow onto the road so

we can expect more snowdrifts.

We'll have to keep pulling the other one out

a few more times.

(car engines revving)

The jot of the start

pulls off part of the rope holder,

but at least Konya's car has come unstuck.

I drove quite a deep track into here.

It's only 30 meters

to the other side of the snowbank.

They could make it if they drive faster.

The men start wondering

if they will make it back home this winter.

If they have to leave their vehicles behind,

they'll never see them again.

The convoy drivers

also find it hard to keep control over what's going on.

The snow is wet and slippery.

The lorry carrying the asphalt machine,

won't make it up the hills on its own.

When attempting to tow it,

the wheel loader also starts to slide.

Once they've dug it out, they start a second attempt

in getting the articulated lorry across the hill.

They need to cross several hills in a row.

Again, the wheels start spinning after a few minutes.

35 tunnels rotating on the spot.

We need more speed.

If we go faster we can pull the lorry up the hill.

The rope needs to remain at full stretch.

If it stops at the bottom of the Hill,

you can't pull it up, it stuck.

You can only do it together.

I'll use fourth gear,

it'll be faster that way.

If I go in second gear, I'll get stuck.

You're simply too slow.

There are several hundred weights

of bottom ash in the lorry.

It's a survival aid for winter road drivers.

Bucket by bucket,

the drivers put down a trail in the snow,

so that the wheels can grip at the next attempt.

The team carefully rolls back to the bottom of the hill.

Then both drivers will go at full speed simultaneously.

Again, the lorry grinds to a halt,

but right at that moment,

the bulldozers wheels catch hold in the snow.

(engines revving)

In the Nenets settlement,

the problems of the winter road go unnoticed.

The Tundra nomads

have been living in the Arctic for thousands of years.

Like every year,

they quietly prepare for spring.

Some of the slays need mending.

Once every two weeks,

Ivan and Grigory slaughter a reindeer for their own use.

They need all hands on deck for that.

(dog barking)

They have to be quick,

or the meat will freeze under the knife,

and the men won't be able to skin the animal.

Reindeer meat, reindeer blood and fat,

are basic foodstuffs as well as a source of income.

Ivan and Grigory take the snowmobiles into town

for the last time this year.

There, they sell reindeer meat and frozen fish.

They use the proceeds to buy supplies for the coming months.

There's another one who got stuck,

the poor guy slid.

Shall we try it from the top?

Off roaders Kolya and Yigor,

are standing in front of a slope

which is completely frozen over.

Some lorries have slid off and blocked away.

May I offer you my hand, sir?

This hill is particularly treacherous

if you leave the track.

Do you wanna drive along here?

Yes.

In the last days

when the winter road is still open,

no vehicle makes it through without problems.

The icy peast becomes a slide for man and machine.

(dramatic music)

Konya and Yigor don't want to wait several days

for the road to become free again.

They look for an alternative route around the blocked area.

Do you see how much water there is?

We could sink here.

I can't imagine how we would get around that bit

with the two trees over there, no idea.

To the right.

To the right.

Centimeter by centimeter,

Yigor advances on the thin ice.

Kolya, secures the car on the side.

At that moment,

an oncoming vehicle blocks their way.

What now?

Why do you drive along here

without checking the area first?

The way in front is blocked,

but they can't go back either.

There are very few options left,

to avoid having to leave the car behind until next year.

The men want to try using a cable winch

and ease the car down the slope sideways.

(car engine revving)

We've managed the tricky icy bit,

I'm happy.

I don't wanna sleep anymore.

I'm not hungry or thirsty anymore,

at last we can keep going.

(gentle music)

For the near future,

a modern railways is planned between Salekhard and Nadym

along the old Starling railway.

Will there ever be a paved road

that makes traveling between the two towns easier?

No one knows.

Yuri and his colleagues have made it.

The convoy reaches the control station.

From there it's just a few more kilometers into town.

You're from here, right?

You have one car?

Three.

Good luck.

Yuri can't imagine a life

without that road and the snow.

(Yuri speaking in foreign language)

This road is like a treat for me.

The winter road would always remain the winter road.

If you work here with good people

you won't ever feel fatigued.

Of course you'll get tired,

but you're always in a good mood.

It's fun.

You do a job which you sometimes doubted you can succeed at.

You wonder how you've achieved this much.

But it's a fact,

we've made it without much ado.

(dramatic music)