These pictures were taken on Lake Baikal in winter 2015. I visited Siberia on route to Japan while taking the Trans-Sib railway from Moscow to Ulan-Bataar in Mongolia. I made a stop in Irkutsk, spend some time with lovely couchsurfers who lived in the area and ended up going hiking with them, before I found the time to head on to the lake by bike.
Luckily for me there was little to no wind, which made the temperatures of -15 to -25°c at day more bearable, unfortunately for you this means that the ice on the lake was covered in a thin layer of snow. About a hand width of snow is not problem for the tires, but the photos would have been much more interesting on blank ice.
Most of the pictures were taken near Slyudyanka in the south-western area of the lake, called Kultuk bay. The freezing temperatures take a toll on any battery and my camera was only good for a few hours; not the mention the skin of my hands, when I took the gloves of to take pictures. This means I headed out on the ice, set up the tripod, posed for silly pictures, tried finding interesting corners to lean my bike on, take more pictures, and once the camera was done for, I continued riding properly and doing some distance.
Click on the pictures for full-size.
