A woman passes by in the village of Tomtor in Oymyakon valley some 700 km from Yakutsk in Russia

A woman passes by in the village of Tomtor in Oymyakon valley some 700 km from Yakutsk in Russia January 28, 2013. The Republic of Sakha (also known as Yakutia) is a vast region of 3.1 million square km in the far northeast of Russia. It is the location of the Oymyakon valley, where a temperature of -67.7 degrees Celsius (-89.9 degrees Fahrenheit) was registered in 1933 – the coldest on record in the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century. Yet despite the harsh climate, people live in the valley, and the area is equipped with schools, a post office, a bank, and even an airport runway (albeit open only in the summer). Picture taken January 30, 2013. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov (RUSSIA)