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Living alone in the wild Siberian forest
- donsupreme 4y agosomebody get that man a proper glass window please
- woleium 4y agoWhy doesn't he at least use two layers of cellophane? air is a great insulator. one on the inside and one on the outside and he would definitely be much warmer
- enw 4y agoThe channel owner responded: > We didn't know that he doesn't have proper windows, we were shocked as well. It was our first time meeting him and he doesn't have any mobile connection. It's very difficult to reach his place, it took us 3 hours by car and 1 hour by snowmobile (which got broken while we were filming). Thank you for your concern, we will replace his windows soon.
- dumbaccount123 4y agoEvery senior software engineers dream
- mr90210 4y agoLol, NO!
- moomoo11 4y agountil they hit engineering manager and then its a big house in the suburbs lol
- lagrange77 4y agoIt was really my dream for a long time. But taking account the current geopolitical transitions, it may continue to be merely a dream for a some time.
- RivieraKid 4y agoWhat do you mean?
- playingalong 4y agoA war started by Russia and general lack of safety going there? (Forget the legal aspects)
- itsyaboi 4y agoMiddle of Siberia is about 5 thousand miles from Ukraine, if that is what you mean. Sort of like refusing to live in New York because of all the Brazilian cartel violence.
- seabrookmx 4y agoExcept the Brazilian cartel violence doesn't stop US airlines from getting parts..
- playingalong 4y agoJust to clarify... I'd rather be afraid of Russian govt and it's forces in Syberia than of Ukrainian attack.
- ohyoutravel 4y agoIt strikes me how his entire day is filled and spend providing for his basic needs. If he doesn’t get up in the morning he will freeze to death for lack of heat during the winter. The ice from the lake versus snow seems weird to me. Can anyone comment on “freezing lake removing impurities and being safer than snow”? He does need a better window though, I’m happy to provide this via go fund me or something. He would definitely make a bunch of money documenting his life and posting to YouTube, enabling him to get proper insulation. Regardless, this is great if this is the life he desires. I feel horrible for those poor dogs though. They seem to be underfed and if he suffers any issues they will freeze to death or starve. I hate that.
- vbezhenar 4y agoSnowflake forms on small dirt particle. Snow is inherently dirt. Never use snow for drink water. Just try to melt some snow and you'll see for yourself. Ice is different. Using ice is definitely proper approach if you don't have better sources of water.
- fruit2020 4y agoWhy would snow be dirt? It falls from the sky
- qup 4y agoIt needs dirt to start forming the snowflake crystal. I can't imagine it being a problem ingesting it, though.
- 867-5309 4y agoperhaps the base layer of snow will be dirty from having contact with the ground, but any snow on top of that will be safe to drink so long as the pH is close to neutral
- watwut 4y agoAfaik, snow is NOT safe to drink in the long term, because it does not contain minerals. It will demineralize you which is why mountain climbers don't drink snow.
- mr90210 4y agoThis video came up on my YT feed.
- virgulino 4y agoThis is a great youtube channel, I've been watching for some time now. Good insight into the lives of the Yakut people. The video is about a hermit. More interesting to me is the normal village Yakut. Kiun has made many videos about that, like how amazingly adapted their houses are: https://youtu.be/xZotuV1qkvA https://youtu.be/xZotuV1qkvA
- triyambakam 4y agoI've watched a number of videos from Kiun and actually their houses don't seem very well adapted. What am I missing?
- virgulino 4y agoIn this video I found it particularly interesting that they still use moss to caulk, and I was surprised at the huge amount of moss placed between the logs as they stack them. I bet there is a lot of knowledge just in selecting the right moss. The Russian stove to me is a true engineering marvel! I've read a few books on simple Western fireplaces, and there's a lot of engineering and a lot of guesswork involved in these pathetically simple contraptions. The Russian stove looks like the Space Shuttle in comparison! The fact that they are wearing t-shirts inside these houses in winter is proof of how deceptively efficient these houses are, heated only by the wood they have to carry themselves - another proof of efficiency. There is also the fact that these houses must withstand extreme temperature variations every year, staggering -90oF to +90oF, with all the material stresses, different rates of expansion and contraction, and humidity that this implies. To be comfortable to live in. For many decades. With do-it-yourself repair capability. And 100% reliability, because this is truly mission critical - death is possible if the heating or shelter fails. I see these features as unique and therefore I think these houses are very well adapted. I think there is a lot of specific knowledge hidden inside these deceptively simple houses. Since I haven't found much written in English, I like these videos because I can spy on them and maybe extract the little secrets, like the moss, or the many layers until you reach the core of the house. Another important part for me is how they use the house. That's why I particularly like Kiun's videos. There are also https://www.youtube.com/@LifeinYakutia/videos https://www.youtube.com/@LifeinYakutia/videos . I always mix the two in my head. Cheers!
- kweks 4y agoA few years ago, got an Ural motorbike and set off across a frozen lake Baikal to find the cabin of Sylvain Tesson, a French author that spent a full winter in the cabin. http://travel.ninjito.com/images/2018-03-15-Siberia/qx-baikal-22.jpg http://travel.ninjito.com/images/2018-03-15-Siberia/qx-baika... Inspired by the sheer beauty, I went back next year, found another abandoned fisherman's cabin and spent 2 weeks .. existing. What is definitely true is that your days are very quickly filled with important tasks: skate 5km every other day to get water, trek across the forest to get wood, cut wood, maintain your fire, etc. Completely astounding experience to be so isolated and independent in nature. http://travel.ninjito.com/2019-02-30-Baikal http://travel.ninjito.com/2019-02-30-Baikal
- anonymousDan 4y agoHow did you manage with bears? My brother went to Lake Baikal recently and did a bit of hiking but the locals thought he was nuts and warned him where he was headed was teeming with bears
- CGamesPlay 4y agoDealing with bears is a pretty normal activity in USA national parks. You bring bear spray and attach a bell to your backpack, and you don't stand in between a momma bear and a baby bear. I also remember seeing an informational sign somewhere near Baikal that said there are about 400 individual bears on the 600km coast of Baikal, and in the winter the are hibernating, and they don't do that on the frozen surface of the lake.
- 8bitsrule 4y agoMaybe his brother wasn't hiking on the frozen surface of the lake. I've learned to listen to the (not-unfriendly) advice of groups of locals anywhere, when it comes to animal behavior at least. Maybe the bears didn't find enough food in the summer.
- bogomipz 4y agoWow, what amazing pictures. I had a few questions if you don't mind: What type of wild life did you encounter? How did you manage to find and rent the cabin? Did you travel solo?
- 1024core 4y agoI started watching this a few days ago, and right in the beginning, you see cigarette butts in the ashtray. If he's living "alone", where the heck is he getting his filter cigarettes from? Plus, most of his day is spent taking care of basic essentials that we, in the civilized world, barely spend a thought on.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- zelphirkalt 4y agoIt is mentioned in the video, that every now and then he needs to take a 5h hike to the next village.
- watwut 4y agoYeah. The batteries, flour and matches have to be bought too. More interesting question is where he has money from - he clearly does not have much, but he has some and they come from somewhere. (Savings? Some kind of minimal pension? He sells hares?)
- gruez 4y ago>Savings? Some kind of minimal pension? He sells hares? or welfare? Having $0 income probably makes you eligible for something.
- epistemer 4y agoI think you just have to suspend your disbelief when watching anything involving the genre of "Person living in the wilderness with no technology youtube channel".
- bananamerica 4y agoHe goes to the village occasionally, they say that.
- fluxem 4y agoI don't know why people find this awe inspiring. For me, inspiring stories are about overcoming adversity, like physical disability and living a full life. This video is about a man, who is keep making poor decisions and living consequences. Why is living 5 hours away from civilization? He could have build a hut an hour away, which would be more convenient (and safer). Why doesn't he installed a proper window, which would keep his house warmer and require less trips for the wood. Why doesn't he have a job, which could pay for food, instead of wasting the whole days gathering for food. This is reminding me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAq-r2dm9Tw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAq-r2dm9Tw
- vbezhenar 4y agoI don't think that it's legal in Russia to just build a hut in the wood and cut trees around. Of course if it's depths of Siberia, nobody will notice, but if it's near big city, it might be different. So this might be one factor why he's away from civilization. He does not want to deal with bureaucrats.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nibbleshifter 4y ago> He does not want to deal with bureaucrats. Highly likely. He lives just far enough out that they can't be fucked dealing with him.
- dopidopHN 4y agoExactly, late in the 1800 , early 1900 it was common for a orthodox sect to just recede further in the Siberian taïga. Some geological team found a familly of those guy and gal in the 80s. They were doing surprisingly well. ( to an extend )
- culebron21 4y agoOh, the Lykov family [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lykov_family https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lykov_family]. The encounter was devastating for the family, because all 4 sons (aged about 20+ I guess) died of pneumonia they caught from the geologists (as they weren't vaccinated and never met any human pathogenes in their entire life). Only their daughter survived and she's still alive there, with a man who came to help her recently. But I doubt that they did well. They complained to the geologists that their metal dishes were wearing out to holes. They still did have some sickles to cut some crops, but I'm sure they'd get out of order within a decade too. Apparently, in such a small number of people it's impossible to produce metal and tools. There's a better example: "Happy People" documentary [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhPIK-oBvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbhPIK-oBvA], about a village of hunters on the Yenissei river, with only river transport to the civilization. It looks very romantic untill the end where you see nunters selling furs cheaper than they hope, and they still depend on tools and fuel.
- triyambakam 4y agoSeems like he's emotionally wounded and less so truly enjoys being alone. He looks older than most people I know his age. I have seen in other Yakut videos that the families harvest wood for the whole year all at once, so it's strange he does it every day. His diet seems really poor. I have dreamed about living in the woods, but not like that.
- l5870uoo9y 4y agomy long distance psycho analysis hutch was that this is a sort of an escapism after his entire family died and that he wasn't able to process it (and that the broken window he frustratedly poke is a symbol of that). however without consultation you can really say a thing
- irthomasthomas 4y agoThis popped up in my YouTube feed yesterday. It must have pleased the algorithm. All could I think, at the end, when they gave him all those gifts is "buy this man a god dang window!" Having to chop trees and gather wood 3 times a day just because his cellophane window and no one thought to fix that for him?
- ckolkey 4y agoFunny - it also popped up for me yesterday.
- mandeepj 4y agoit popped for me as well, but about 4 days ago
- dopidopHN 4y agoSame. I did look for a book about a familly found deep in Siberia in the 80s.
- grugagag 4y agoSame here. Watched it and did not regret it. Something moving about that man in such harsh climate find solace living there with his dogs while we discuss latest react or python library.
- pawelduda 4y agoIdk about solace, he needs to maintain log stash among other things 24/7
- grugagag 4y agoYes, solace is just a way to put it. I hope the docu visitors helped him with a proper insulation for that celophane window which is one of the reasons the log stash isn’t sufficient for a whole day. In the end he chose to be so far away from any other people so there must be some kind of consolation for living in such isolation and harsh conditions.
- kepler1 4y agoI got this video served up to me randomly as well. I was amused by the random Youtube commenters all along the lines of "what a beautiful simple life this man leads", etc. etc. And I couldn't help but shake my head at the naïveté / shallow internet lauding that this is some idyllic rustic life. This guy is actively choosing to live in harsh, most unforgiving conditions that require all his daily energy, hours from any kind of help. And he's going to die there as well unless something changes, and probably without anyone knowing. As others have said, maybe he wants this because of some unresolved emotional problems. All I see is someone who is making his own life purposely hard. Perhaps there is a little to be admired here -- the unusual nature of it, and the perseverance. But this life isn't something to be desired by anyone, and I don't join in the reflexive cooing over how awesome it is once you get over the unusualness.
- yetanotherloser 4y agoWhy is it a bad thing for him to die where he has chosen to live and die? (assuming he actually has, which is really not something I'd bet too hard on, on the strength of one video). Why do you suggest it's a bad thing if nobody knows when he has died there?
- throwaway675309 4y agoThere's a weird contingent of people, specifically in IT fields who have these bizarre rose tinted transcendentalist glasses about living "naturally". Natural is one in four women dying during childbirth, natural is contracting rabies from a wild animal and slowly going psychotically insane, natural is not being able to get all the vitamins your body needs and being constantly malnourished.
- john___matrix 4y agoThis must be the ultimate HN reader video fodder, popped up in my feed the other day too. Interesting watching people like this who just decide they want to be away from everything.
- csk111165 4y agoIt was in my youtube recommendation yesterday. :)
- dukeofdoom 4y agopost nuclear apocalypse living will look like this. 3000+ recorded wars in history, seems like time is approaching
- sgt101 4y agoVery odd - he's hauling wood from out of the forest when there's standing dead wood in the shots near the house... also why doesn't he have a wood pile from summer? Surely the wood is frozen hard so super hard to chop and split? I thought you had to chop and split it in the spring? What if there's a storm and you can't go into the forest - you'll freeze without a woodpile. Also - wooden shutters? What's the point of cellophane when it's dark outside? Just make a shutter and mount it in the evening? Surely that would help? Also the attic of the cabin is open at both ends, just making a rough screen would mean that there was no airflow and make that space more insulating.
- progre 4y agoFrozen wood is actually easier to cut and split, at least the kinds that I've come across (mostly spruce and birch).
- mikestew 4y agoIndiana ain't Siberia, but we only split wood in the winter when I was growing up. It's common enough that there's a saying, "cutting your own wood warms you twice". Gawd, I can't imagine swinging a sledge when it's 35C and 80% humidity.
- dave333 4y agoIf he chops down all the trees around the cabin then the wind will be much worse.
- systems_glitch 4y agoBack home isn't quite like up there, but you don't burn the stuff around the house since you may need it when you can't get out in the woods.
- gruez 4y agoWhy not pre-chop the entire winter's wood before winter arrives?
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- jeffbee 4y agoGreat documentary on a similar subject: Happy People. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_People:_A_Year_in_the_Taiga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_People:_A_Year_in_the_Ta...
- pier25 4y agoI wonder how he gets money to buy stuff from the village like food, cigarettes, etc.
- swader999 4y agoYouTube bucks. He's probably making more bank than half of us are and good luck finding him to collect tax on all that.
- lazyweb 4y agoThere is a show called Alone [1] in which 10 participants compete for 500.000 dollars by trying to survive the northern canadian arctic winter as long as possible, up to three or four months. Virtually all footage is filmed by the participants themselves. It's quite engrossing. [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4803766/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4803766/
- unsupp0rted 4y agoI got really into it for a while but decided it was too fake. There was one fellow in an early season who thrived so well that after setting up camp the first day and establishing his food and water sources for the season, out of boredom he started building tables and shelves. Eventually he would have assembled a fusion reactor from tree bark but he tapped out after 21 days? The show said he missed his wife. I saw on Reddit someone mention the guy was never planning to be on the show more than 21 days and reluctantly got talked into appearing in the first place. The wife excuse was just something the producers made up. That ruined the magic for me. The guy was days away from raising a wolf army and conquering Victoria, BC with hand-made trebuchets. He had no reason to tap out.
- seabrookmx 4y agoSadly, there's likely too few Wolves left on the island to form an army. I highly recommend island of the sea wolf (Netflix documentary) if you haven't seen it!
- lucb1e 4y agoThat page seems to have everything from episode lists to random trivia, but the most important thing, how you can even watch this thing in the first place, seems to be missing. Where might this be watched?
- gigel82 4y agoIn the US Netflix has all but the last season.
- userulluipeste 4y agoThat is not "living", that is just getting lucky on surviving/subsisting. There are so many things that even a medium school grader would know to improve on first occasion, like (even with that cellophane) on windows setting the sheet(s) up at least in more than one layer for improved insulation, so that the loss of heat may not be that severe, or like separating the entrance to the main living space by some sort of hall that would prevent unintentional airing, or like assuring close by supplies for the winter season, so that those multiple trips per day for anything become as short and of as little importance as possible, and many others. This was just painful to watch.
- potatototoo99 4y agoI am sure he has though of those things, but the documentary didn't show or opportunity did not arise.
- watwut 4y agoThe documentary is not introducing him as an engineer with great education. He is a dude who lost family as young and at some point decided to live alone in forrest (I guess he has some pension due to amount of stuff he clearly bought). There are many fundamental decisions he could have done differently ... but that sort of person won't decide to live like this in the first place. Living in the forrest does not have to imply great wisdom in everything. Sometimes it is just poverty and being a social issue.
- skzv 4y agoI love this channel, awesome to see it here. Going to order a pair of Yakutian Beaded Hand-Made Mittens from Kiun's site[0] for one of my friends! [0] https://www.kiunb.com/shop https://www.kiunb.com/shop
- foofoo55 4y agoAnd here's Dick Proenneke's way of doing it, pre-Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYJKd0rkKss [edit: originally stated he was an Army engineer, but turns out he had various hands-on jobs, one being a Navy carpenter during the second World War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke]
- rerdavies 4y agoI much prefer Dick Proenneke's dream of living in the wilderness. And I'm sure Dick Proenneke, if he were doing it today, would have a bank of solar panels and satellite Internet.
- dankle 4y agoBut why????
- culebron21 4y agoI must point that this -71 C is the record low, that happened once in a whole century of observations, and no living human in Yakutia sees this in their entire lifetime. In my homecity, Novosibirsk in South Siberia, the record low is around -50 or a bit lower, and it hasn't happened in my lifetime. So Youtubers writing these titles "Yakutia -70 C" are just trying to impress you with numbers, as if -30s, that people endure there daily for 3 months, were a joke and beach season. In my home city in south-west Siberia temperature thresholds are these: normal tempratures in winter 0..-25 C, from -25 to -30 C schools shut down depending on wind speed. -30 C and below is extreme that lasts just several days in a year. -40 C happens not every year and only at night, and I only saw -45..47 C once in my whole lifetime -- in 2001, when such extreme cold lasted a week. And no, life there (South Siberia) isn't a toil, houses are heated well, outdoors positive temperatures come in March, and in June-August day temperatures are above +20 C. I guess the respective temperatures for Yakutia would be -45 to start shutting down schools, -50 is very cold and people prefer staying home, and -60 is a very rare occasion, not happening every year.
- vram22 4y agoThe story evoked a memory of the movie Dersu Uzala by Akira Kurosawa. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_(1975_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_(1975_film) I had read about the film several years ago. Not seen it. The part that stayed with me the most was when Dersu expresses his surprise to Arsenyev that people in cities actually have to pay for water.