Bolshoe Goloustnoe, Siberia: A Tiny Russian Peasant Village on the Coldest Day so Far This Winter

                       Mine is the first room; at this time of year, I'm the only fool here

-26 degrees C =somewhere around -17 degrees F. Even the afternoon sun (shy as it is) shoots ice needles through your body. 80 steps from my cabin to the privy (tiny shack, hole in ground), then 80 steps back. This journey & and any time you step outside requires donning:

the usual underwear

two pairs of thermal leggings

short sleeved silk thermal shirt

long sleeved thermal shirt

waist-length underlayer down jacket

thick mohair sweater

knee-length down coat

long wrap-around wool scarf

heavy wool cowel scarf

Scandinavian wool hat, securely tied under neck

heavy fur-lined wool gloves

2 pair wool socks

knee-high boots

The guide-driver pair for this two days were not as congenial as those in Mongolia. In fact, any words at all emerge with great reluctance. My guide was a skinny, young, nervous fellow, constantly thrashing his hair around such that he looked perpetually alarmed. He just graduated from a Mongolian university with a major in American studies & has no idea what he wants to do with his life. Grudgingly, he took me on long hikes, up a mountain, down alongside a lake, but he said not a word & walked 30 feet ahead of me at all times, with me tagging along like a five-year-old, my windproof pants making loud rubbing noises with every step. I could have slid right off that icy mountain or plunged into the near-frozen lake & he'd have been none the wiser. 

                                     

But I didn't  slide, I didn't  plunge. Instead, in the evening, I frolicked  in their bathing sauna, a wooden room with a huge tank of boiling water heated by rocks that are behind a roaring fire & a gigantic barrel of ice water, which is melted snow. Using a big rubber bucket, you slosh boiling water & ice water into a rubber tub until it's your desired temperature (or bathe yourself with hot & cold separately, if you dare), then pour it over yourself, then over the hot rocks to create an eye-watering steam room. Repeat as desired. This sauna greatly ameliorated dashing up the 80 steps to the privy through the ice-black, breath-freezing night.