Deadliest Roads | Siberia: Lake Baikal | Free Documentary

wow, every spring the frozen mist of

lake

baikal

signals the beginning of a difficult journey for the men of the village of holotnya a trip to the

siberia

n plateau to resupply the reindeer herders dimitri is the only driver willing to undertake the impossible expedition that this year has to deliver 600 kilos of food as soon as possible. The winter has been so hard that the shepherds have been without fresh provisions for six months. Rice sugar. Everything to be able to move forward, otherwise the path will be impossible in a few days. The melting snows will turn the road into a swamp.

There are only 65 kilometers left until the shepherd's camp, but at 65 kilometers it could take several weeks to cover the white hell of Siberia in front of them. He wants a good advance. He is angry along the way. The snow forms a wall. practically impenetrable even for a truck with six-wheel drive the trees could pierce the cabin up there we go in spring the warmer weather transforms Lake Baikal into a death trap from which the trapped car has not been able to get out the water be careful not to get caught Come closer we are stuck here it is very risky when nature forces men to go out another danger lies in the weight there is a huge bear there is a cheating client who is heavy what beast are just the events mountain people who spend the winter in this farm at the end of the world we'll come home when it's summer we'll be home and then we'll see the girls nature doesn't spare them anything and even the toughest can break I've had enough of this Damn, I'll be back tomorrow with a tractor snow and more men.

Leave. Dimitri barely left the village when he faces his first obstacle. I'm not sure how we'll get across the ice. It's like suspended. There is a gap here. between it and the water and the truck could fall through the water it melted the bottom of the ice in winter there was a thick layer of ice that started to melt it looks solid yes the truck should be fine here you have to go fast the fear from dimitri is that the ice bridge could collapse weakened by the melting of the snow it is only 80 centimeters thick it is barely enough to support the weight of a one ton truck the fact that they cross it without difficulty could be due to this television in

siberia

It's better to have a God glued to the TV screen instead of tormenting travelers by playing with the weather.

It looks like a garbage dump, but it is one of the most sacred places in this region. The variety of unlikely objects are offerings to the god Khan. It is a fountain of youth according to legend. Burkhan made this fountain immune to

free

zing to allow travelers to drink from it, stop here to pray, wash and make some vows using some coins and bills. You can drink this water. It is never covered by ice. It is a sacred place after men. It's the machine's turn. to be blessed to banish evil spirits yura fumigate the truck with sacred incense is to make sure everything goes well to make sure we get to where we need to go we pray that we do not break or fall into holes this sacred place is also a kind of post office for a particular type of mail the local hunters leave the animals that are too heavy to carry on their shoulders dimitri and his men will carry them to the village this time it is a bear skin it is heavy what beast they really are the pores delicious the bear was killed several days earlier and the meat has been preserved using traditional methods the hunters put the meat under the ice so it doesn't rot it's like a refrigerator they often feed on the decomposing corpses of other creatures and infect with parasites These could be fatal, but events appear to be impermeable, so they are among the few in the region that eat naked flesh.

There are huge ruts in the road here for days. It's b, until now, Dimitri has rarely gone faster than three kilometers a year. hour and he's worried he'll have to sleep in his van if he doesn't make it to the shelter before dark, even in spring temperatures can easily drop to -20 degrees lower in the valley, frozen Lake Baikal, as big as Belgium, provides plenty of fish to feed most of the region's inhabitants during the winter the ice can be a meter thick and it is safe to cross and many take their vehicles to go fishing but with spring the ice becomes thinner and the

lake

becomes in a death trap.

Local television coverage shows what happened. This car was swallowed by the lake a few hours before suddenly another car approaches and despite the warning shouts the driver heads straight towards the thin ice of the two passengers only one will survive the glacial waters each year the lake claims a dozen of lives Anatoly's best friend was killed here three years ago he is a good guy a very good friend miles from the lake shore he couldn't

free

himself it's dangerous anatoly worked on the railways for 40 years he can't buy enough food due to a lack pension of only 200 euros a month to survive like many others he fishes on the lake even as the ice begins to melt today the local authorities have warned that the ice is too dangerous to go fishing nothing will stop dedicated fishermen like us we have to get out We are forced to take risks even if it is dangerous, we still do it.

I'm not sure that once the sun has warmed the ice, you'll have to be very careful. Anatoly fishes omu, which is common in the lake, there won't be a bite, brother. Now they are biting well we have three or four but in my field there is no work I spend my time on a bicycle fishing all year round in the rivers here and in winter here on the ice unemployment pays only 150 euros a month come on your other question what we need If the communists come back to power they would give everyone a job all my life and I have a pension of 200 euros if you see how good all the politicians around here are.

The governor of Bacteria receives a pension worth eighteen thousand euros per ice. It slowly melts as the sun gradually warms up. In a few days it will no longer be possible to walk here. The men will have to wait for Thor before they can go fishing for Omu in their boats. While they wait, Anatoly and his friends will have to hunt something even more. Dangerous: Siberian Grizzly Bears Dimitri and his truck also fall victim to the warmer weather as the snow softens, the truck gets stuck leaving man and machine facing walls of snow and ice that can be two meters high. the only way is to drive through them, which is exhausting when you are in such deep snow, you need to back up quickly, but if you get stuck even for a second it will take you hours to reach a few kilometers up the mountain.

Dimitri has had enough. If he continues at this pace, he will never reach the shelter before nightfall. There is only one way to avoid the wall of snow and that is to use his truck as a bulldozer. The trades are a problem. They could break the brake pipes and destroy everything. there is under the truck they could even pierce the cabin I have seen it with each kilometer that passes the difficulties increase the road little by little it wears down the men dimitri and his euro co-pilot begin to argue due to stress they do not agree on which route to take, like You can see, they will block us and we will never get through. go right, go right, no, no, left, I'm telling you, it's this way, this time you're not listening, the truck is really stuck.

It is completely blocked and rests on its axle the front of the truck is stuck in the mud to get it out you have to pull it back with a winch here we have a slogan that says "forward for the country and forward for stalin" oh, there is a problem behind another until late at night at 10:30 a.m. fate gives them a fateful blow and even the gods of events seem to have abandoned them the truck has been trapped for the second time and a tree has lodged under the chassis at 11:00 p.m. the winch Now It's no use, now it's minus 10 degrees, the snow has hardened again and the truck is stuck in the mud and ice, damn it, also at midnight the thermometer has dropped to 20 degrees below zero, there's nothing left but the Exhausted team spent the night in the truck everyone who is outside Europe listen dimitri at least the engine works you can turn on the heating I will be back tomorrow with a snow tracker and some more men so keep going dimitri rest a little to get to the shelter yura has a 10 kilometer walk among bears and wolves only God knows if I will make it I may have to sleep outdoors in the forest after five hours at -20 degrees euro I finally arrive at the shelter but no one wants to risk returning in the middle of the night The men will leave at dawn, the reindeer herding village is another 35 kilometers away, and the intimidating prospect of the Bayer Mountains nestling in the spring sun gently awakens nature, an unspoken signal to man and woman. beast that it's time. to return to the forest the bears and humans have spent the last six months in forced hibernation anatoly and ivan have teamed up to go bear hunting two rifles from the 50s are 30 year old russian four wheel drive and are in the business they also have 60 kilos of rotten fish as bait for the big Siberian brown bear we will see who buys the basket if the meat is good it will sell too well we can only wait and above all pray to the good lord the tinkling of the old vehicle says a lot about the road ahead of us, yes, all the parts are crooked, dear, you see my old horse, he is slow but he is irreplaceable.

Bears are protected by law, so hunting permits are rarely issued and only to a carefully selected few who then have the right to shoot. Approximately 10 bears a year andvonne is one of the few people with a permit and has been hunting for over 20 years. I'm the one who basically made this road using this track, so Ivan often doesn't save his old vehicle, which in turn makes him pay dearly, everything else is fine, they'll still have to be able to shift gears and make sure The old clutch can withstand so much abuse, oh shit, the clutch is gone too, now the first obstacle in the bear hunt will soon be better overcome by the friendship of the two men oh I don't understand what happened well we have to turn back no no no definitely no if you go in reverse we will have serious problems while we are in the pothole we should try to keep going i' We will try to free the rear wheels so you can hold on to the ground.

You need some stones down here. What are you doing? Hey, don't touch anything, okay, and we'll try to stop the car from moving backwards, put some snow under the wheel. that will help the bear hunters they got off to a bad start after a few kilometers ivan stops the car he is still upset about the accident in the river and leaves without waiting for anatoli soon the two men go out of sight it is a dangerous thing do it if there is a brown bear wandering around the area it will take them over an hour to find each other but the tension doesn't let up what were you doing crazy? yeah well that's not an answer well what do you want me to say then?

We are here to hunt and pick up women. Well, then I made a mistake. I missed the trail because I was looking for signs of the bear on the ground. There will be a laughing stock if we return empty-handed after a two-hour walk. Ivan arrives at what he calls his bears' playground to get the animals used to coming here, leaves food and toys like this can Ivan uses the technique to kill at least one bear a year in this place we will put the fish in this can the bear is somewhere nearby, not far away, wandering there to yvonne's right he has fur and a fresh footprint apparently after having eaten here the bear is stretching over there so we shouldn't scare him the smell of rotten fish will attract him that's for sure if she wants this if it's too much you'll fall asleep it's almost nightfall and the two hunters will return the next morning to ambush the bear they plan to sleep in Ivan's hunting cabin on the way something to them It draws attention, it is a grouse as big as a big pheasant.

He dreamed of catching one and using the skin to make a sleeping bag. On the day of the hunt, along the way, the bear arrived, but only a few splinters hit the bear in the eye and he growled. It approaches the man just for a moment - shirt for the rest of my life and the bear leaves after all, I almost forgot about this bird. The next morning, the two men returned to see if the bears were attracted to the smell of the decomposing fish as they approached the bait. Yvonne sees a footprint that she doesn't like the look of.

They might have caught something. We go every year. hunters lose some of their dogs in the forest abandoned to their fate dogs quickly revert to instinct when hunting in packs that often attack smaller bears uh it's impossible to get rid of all of them it's just the hunters who shoot them, perched high up in a tree, scared like the prey the dogs were looking for, look what's in the tree, it's a sable, I won't kill it, it will reproduce. and that will make the fur hunters happy. At this time of year the sables begin to malt, so their fur is of little use.

In the winter they return empty-handed, but a week later they will have better luck:They will kill a brown bear weighing 400 kilos more than Euro, two meters tall, and the rescuers head towards Dimitri in his trapped vehicle. Euro risked his life crossing the forest on foot and all in vain. When Dimitri arrives, he has already managed to free the truck. The weather is wonderful the snow has melted and so has the ice that had trapped the wheels the town is 35 kilometers away and the road still has many unpleasant surprises we have to get out of here with a shovel, otherwise it will be very hard work later the trees will be too far away to reach with a winch there okay, now we can leave why does dimitri insist on crossing the river at its widest point he will cross it at full speed he is crazy it is risky there is a gap underneath a hole I'm not sure he will reach up to here it can drop to almost 60 in the winter and at those temperatures the truck and snow tractors will break down and in seconds the temperature will drop 10 degrees to -20. look 10 centimeters what do we do we will cut some branches and put them under the wheels dimitri and his team are trapped on the slope of the mountain and things are looking bad little by little and we will reach the top well so far we have only traveled 50 meters there is still a long way to go once it took us three days three long days the truck was stuck and we had to winch It took us three days to climb the slope, so after two days of fighting the elements, they finally summoned the town.

We did it. I never thought we'd get here. My nerves were gone. I didn't think we would do it. It's a good job, we pay tribute to the god Burkhan. A dozen men live in this camp at the ends of the earth during the winter. They are isolated far from civilization. They haven't seen new faces for six months. Flour, rice and sugar are stored. in a barn out of reach of the bears, two shepherds watch over them a generator produces electricity but to save fuel it only turns on a few hours a day turns on the emergency radio and also the television there is a picture but there is no sound other than the noise that it seems to come from outer space its not cool but it helps pass the time i just read good books novels about life alexei has never traveled beyond lake

baikal

so books are his only means of escaping all his life he has spent in the forests with the reindeer.

I could never have one. Alexa regularly brings supplies to the two herders who care for the herd's 700 reindeer. Events raise her reindeer on the high plateaus of Siberia, where the animals' basic diet is found. The werewolf is abundant in both winter and summer. After 20 kilometers, Alexa catches up with the two shepherds. They are alert because they know there is a bear somewhere nearby and it has already killed one of her reindeer. There's a little dead reindeer down there. The crows are there. eating it now there is also a bear there from the forest he keeps coming and going he is huge and he is intelligent probably an adult you bring yes, I have brought some milk flour or sugar or salt yes, that is how important the small cabin is and the two benches double as beds it is a wonderful place they have another three months before they are relieved for summer when winter returns they will also return to this middle of nowhere and that is how it has been with events since time immemorial you