As temperatures dip below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, the rivers of Russia's Arctic north freeze solid. While for most it's an excuse to stay indoors, winter is when the trucking business truly comes to life.
Truck drivers ferrying supplies to the farthest, coldest reaches of Russia hop into their vehicles and drive over those frozen arteries. The work is dangerous — especially as the ice eventually melts and thins — and lonely.
Photographer Amos Chapple of Radio Free Europe recently joined one young truck driver on a 12-day journey to deliver groceries to Russia's Arctic north. See what it's like to do one of the most dangerous jobs in Russia.
Ruslan Dorochenkov, 28, loves cursing, heavy metal music, his kids, and his religion. For eight years, he's risked his life on Siberia's ice highway.
On this particular journey, he was tasked with delivering groceries from Yakutsk to the Arctic town of Belaya Gora. This type of gig typically pays about $600.
Dorochenkov drives the Kolyma Highway from Yakutsk to Ust-Nera, where he switches to the ice. The drive from Yakutsk to Belaya Gora takes five days, if things go smoothly.
The trip begins in a warehouse outside Yakutsk, where pasta, cooking oil, soft drinks, and pounds of chocolate croissants are loaded into the truck. It weighs 12 tons.
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