When Siberia shivers, it's time to fix ships in the ice

When the Siberian winter bites and the mighty Lena River freezes, workers at the Yakutsk shipyard brace for a backbreaking but vital task - ‘vymorozka’. Vymorozka, which translates as ‘freezing out’, is the process of cutting away the ice from around a ship’s hull with chainsaws, then pickaxes and hammers, exposing areas needing repair, which are usually below the waterline.