The World Naked Bike Ride movement was founded in 2004 to both celebrate cycling and the human body in all its innumerable shapes and sizes, and to promote the idea of moving towards a car-free future which will halt the damaging effects of CO2 emissions on the planet and the myriad species of plants and animals which are under threat from the damaging repercussions of climate change.

We’re guessing the naked skiing event in Russia featured here has a similar purpose, although frankly it’s far from clear what exactly this purpose actually is. We suspect it may just be an opportunity for a group of healthy, attractive young Russians to show the world just how healthy and attractive they really are, although far be it for us to jump to such an ignominious conclusion without thoroughly investigating the matter first.

A quick copy and paste into an online translation service, then, reveals that what we are witnessing is in fact an heroic attempt to break the world record for the largest swimwear parade on skis, taking place in the Sheregesh winter sports resort in none other infamously chilly, desolate and vast landscape than Siberia. For those of you who flunked geography at school, Siberia encompasses a huge chunk of Northern Asia, and its terrain spans coniferous forests, tundra, and mountain ranges including the Ural, Altai and Verkhoyansk. So a little off the beaten track perhaps, but a wonderful place to visit if you happen to be passing.

Anyway, this lot look as if they’re having a whale of a time, so the video is well worth a watch, if only to catch a glimpse of all those bright pink and yellow bikinis.