Hot bandy fans in 30° frost

[Global]

As widely known, the biggest strongholds of bandy in Russia are Siberia, Far East and the northern regions. Bearing in mind that it can be extremely cold in the winter time (temperatures can go down to -30 degrees and even lower) and that most of the bandy venues in those places are outdoor rinks, going to see a bandy match can really become a serious endurance test for those who are not used to Russian frost. How is it possible to stand almost 2 hours in 30° frost? We can safely say that the warming-up comes from the love to bandy.. and sometimes a reasonable amount of vodka too . What it can be like can be demonstrated with the following fotos (stolen from Yegor Kretsan's blog):

[sjc35]

Playing in -30 can happen often playing in Canada too. Its amazing what some people will do to play.

[vkom]

Of these first three pictures were made in the Far East city of Khabarovsk in Russia at the game SKA-Neftyanik (Khabarovsk) - Kuzbass (Kemerovo).
The author - known in Russian photographer Slava Aikin. He is renowned for being creates a wonderful video about Bandy.
Look at his "slow bandy" about that snow game in Khabarovsk. Enjoy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7psZ5-Ex760

[Global]

Thank you Vkom for this video, really great stuff! And welcome to the board by the way

BTW, you can post YouTube videos as part of your message (by using the YouTube button on the panel), the only drawback being the advert placed on the side. Here's how Slava Aikin's video can look: