Article March 24, 2003 Issue

A journalist reports:

My adventures with reindeer herders in Siberia

Name removed by request

VLADIMIR SLEPTSOV , a native Siberian reindeer herder, just laughed at me when he saw my American parka and snow boots. As a joke, he took one of my boots and pretended to throw it away by tossing it across the white tundra. That was his was of saying I wasn't ready for the Arctic Circle. Even though it was a "warm" April day in his Siberian village called Chokhurdakh, it was 38 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

I was there as a newspaper reporter to write an article about Vladimir and his native Siberian tribe, the Even people.

To prepare me for my stay, Vladimir asked his camp cook, Rosa, to get me a new wardrobe. She took me inside the yurt—that's a really big round tent made of reindeer hides. And she quickly made me an Arctic fashion model.

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