A man leaves his van idling as he walks into Oymyakon's only shop. The shop's paper waste is burnt in a 40 gallon drum at right.

Alexander Platonov, 52, a retired teacher, dressed for a quick dash to the outdoor toilet at his home in Oymyakon.

The soviet era sign reading "Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold" in the centre of Oymyakon.

A drunk local in Oymyakon. He warned Chapple should stay off the streets at night because after dark "these streets belong to me."

A man walks away from Oymyakon's general store.

A digger piles coal ash on a heap near the Oymyakon heating plant.

Overview of Oymyakon at dusk. The town's heating plant is at left. While taking this photo Chapple's thumb nearly froze solid.

An Uazik van in the tundra outside of Oymyakon. The soviet-era vans are widely favored in Siberia for their ability to stand up to the cold. They are often equipped with industrial-sized heating fans in the passenger compartment. They are known as "loaves" for their distinctive shape.

Petrol station midway between Oymyakon and Yakutsk. Extremely remote petrol stations such as this one are open 24 hours and staffed by men who have two-week on two-week off shifts.

A toilet on the tundra, midway between Oymyakon and Yakutsk. Inside are two wooden slats above a pit. A sharp spire of frozen excrement rose almost to ground level within the pit.

In the city of Yakutsk, a woman walks over a frost-coated bridge.

A woman holds up an arctic hare for sale along with stacks of frozen fish in a market in the centre of Yakutsk.

No-nonsense guard dog in the suburbs of Yakutsk.

Warm draughts of air escaping this house freeze into puffs of ice which form, fall and reform throughout winter in Yakutsk.

Frost-crusted statues in a Yakutsk park commemorating WWII.

Ice-crusted traffic light in Yakutsk. The freezing fog which settles on the city in January coats everything in a sugar-like frost.

A local woman enters Yakutsk's Preobrazhensky Cathedral on Christmas Day (January 7th in Russia) in a swirl of freezing mist.

Summer shoes waiting out the winter in a shed in the suburbs of Yakutsk.