[1] [2] The ecoregion encompasses terrain above 800 meters in the Chersky Range and Kolyma Mountains, in a mosaic of territory stretching 2,000 km from the Lena River in the west to the eastern edge of the Kolyma Mountains, and approximately 1,000 km from the Okhotsk Sea in the south to the coastal plain of the Arctic Sea in the north.

Most of the region has a Subarctic climate - very cold (Koppen classification Dfd).

This climate is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers with no month averaging over 22 °C (72 °F), and only one to three months in which the mean temperature rises above 10 °C (50 °F).

[3] Only hardy species can survive year around at altitude in this ecoregion.

[4] There is one significant nationally protected area that reaches into this ecoregion, the Magadan Nature Reserve, on the southern edge of the ecoregion along the sea of Okhotsk.