Kolyma Mountains

The Kolyma Mountains are a remote mountain range in northeastern Siberia, mainly within Magadan Oblast and the Sakha Republic of Russia. The range is notable for its harsh subarctic climate and extensive mineral deposits, especially gold.

Access is difficult and infrastructure is sparse, so most visits are to river valleys, mountain passes and mining sites reached by long roads or rivers; there are no large tourist facilities. The landscape features rugged ridges, permafrost, tundra and patchy taiga rather than high alpine summits, and travel is seasonal because winters are extremely cold.

The area has long been used by indigenous Tungusic and Yakut peoples, and from the 20th century became a focus for industrial gold mining. During the Soviet period the wider Kolyma region was also the location of Gulag labour camps and extensive forced-mining operations; mining continued and changed under later Soviet and post-Soviet administrations.

The mountains lie inland from the Arctic coast of northeastern Russia, roughly centered near 63°N, 160°E, several hundred kilometres northeast of Yakutsk and east of the city of Magadan. The terrain falls away toward the Kolyma River basin and the Arctic coast.