Huge bikini snow show as Russians mark the end of the skiing season

In all 1,498 skiers and snowboarders took part in the extravaganza at the top resort in Kemerovo region, all skiing in swimwear. 

More people took part last year, some 1,800, but it was not an official record attempt, unlike this year's undress to impress spectacle. 

Stanislav Konenko, editor-in-chief of the Russian Book of Records, confirmed the achievement. 

'Today's bikini ride had 1,498 skiers and snow boarders - this is 387 more than in 2014, so we have officially registered the new record for Russia,' he said. 

Skiers and snowboarders came from all around Siberia - for example  Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk and Kemerovo - as well as  Moscow and St Petersburg.

Foreign guests were from the US, India, China, Italy, Germany and France. The snow queen - winner of the Miss Sheregesh contest -was Kristina Kosinova, a 21 year old student from Novosibirsk, winner of a $10,000 prize. 

The oldest person to compete in his swimwear was 73 yea old Eduard Nefedev, while the 'most daring traveller' on a 9,496 km trip from New York City was  Joel Ketola. 

Sheregesh, in Kemerovo region, is Siberia's most developed downhill skiing resort, located in the Gornaia Shoria region of the Altai mountain range.

Originally constructed as a mining settlement, in Stalinist times there was a local Gulag nearby. 

Its 12,000 inmates built the local railway line.