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Kolyma Highway... When? Kolyma Highway... When?
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  #1  
Old 2 Nov 2009
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Kolyma Highway... When?
I'm keen to drive the Kolyma Highway, but want to know when it's best to do it. I'm in a 4WD.

Ideally, I would like to do it when the rivers are frozen, but when it's not excessively cold, i.e. too cold to operate a normal diesel vehicle. I've heard it's about -20C in March / April, which seems OK to me....

Is it possible to then ship from Magadan to Vladivostok? Or is it excessively expensive?

When is the road absolutely impassable? When does the snow melt? Is it feasible in late sunmmer / autumn when things are starting to freeze up again?

Thanks

Daniel
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Old 3 Nov 2009
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for info ask here in english:
2009 September Kolyma Highway Road Condition Report | AskYakutia.com

Also Colebatch has done a most excellent blog on this road:
Sibirsky Extreme
I know that most european FWD will NOT take the extreme cold of a russian winter eg -40 etc but russian buitl vechiles are better prepared etc
Re Late Autumn/ freezing I would not recommend driving on real off piste roads (real FWD roads unsealed as such, watch on you tube the battle for moscow and watch the roads turn to mud and then freeze and unfreeze etc, the famous rasputitsa or распу́тица
But I have read that the new highway is a all season road and should be OK
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Old 4 Nov 2009
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best time to do it is mid to late August, when its warm and sunny, the birds are chirping and the mosquitoes are feasting on anything that moves.

But if you really want to do when its frozen, try late March / early April. Just make sure you dont break down when its -20 outside.

Shipping Magadan to Vladivostok is the normal route out of there ... if you do a search on here you will find a lot of information about shipping Magadan to Vladivostok. Since people tend to go to Magadan in summer, all the info relates to June - Sept shipping. I dont know if there is shipping in April or whether the port is frozen in.
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Old 4 Nov 2009
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danielspragu
I know that most european FWD will NOT take the extreme cold of a russian winter eg -40 etc but russian buitl vechiles are better prepared etc

Exactly - I don't think I'm compatible either. I mean to go at a time when it is neither impractically cold, or too wet and boggy. I'm alone. I thought there was only one Kolyma Highway, but from the link (thanks) there is talk of a new / old road... Do they mean separate routes, or one part which is newly surfaced and one which is still rough?

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Old 4 Nov 2009
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Kolyma Highway / Road of Bones
There's only one current official Kolyma Highway, but the Kolyma Highway and road of bones gets confused and mixed up. Technically the Kolyma Highway is the federal road from Yakutsk to Magadan.

The Road of Bones was a term given to the roads built by gulag prisoners in the 30s and 40s. Like there is no official Silk Road, there is also no official Road of Bones. This network of roads was built between Khandyga and Magadan (NOT Yakutsk and Magadan). There are a couple of sections where this road splits in two and you have two choices. So all up there are 4 possible 'variants' with the Road of Bones to Magadan.

The official Kolyma Highway takes the northern variation both times the road splits.

If you take the official Kolyma Highway, its a year round road and you can go anytime. Its now a federally funded road undergoing constant improvements and maintenance. There are no swamps. And you dont need to worry about frozen or unfrozen rivers when you can drive over new bridges. Its 2100km and if you are lucky with the weather its 80-100km/h most of the way. Bearing in mind you can go anytime, I would go when it was warm and green and pretty so you can see sections of road like this:

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