Talkback: Monday Tip - Winter Pack Essentials - Starting out?

Nigel Healy

09/11/2011 at 04:23

pack about 1000Cals in food, 3 big energy bars will do, because its hard to keep warm when hungry, matters more in winter as its colder.

Zuma

09/11/2011 at 09:56

A good gloves/mitten system. thin gloves from windresistant and quickdrying fabric for handling stuff. Second some insulated gloves with a synthetic filling like primaloft they should fit over the thin gloves. third a set of waterproof and windbloc over mittens something like goretex pro or somthing similar. With these three hand protectors you'll keep your hands warm in all kind of winterconditions i.e extreme cold or extreme wet or aextreme windchill or all three combined.

callum dalgleish

11/11/2011 at 14:28

All of above I agree. Would only add an extra fleece, the amount of times mine has either become wet thru snow/sweat etc., and so handy when you have had to stop, say someone else in the party injured, either they can use it or you can to keep warm standing around.

Zuma

11/11/2011 at 18:46

Not an extra fleece but a downjacket for the breaks and evening when cooking

Nigel Healy

11/11/2011 at 19:47

sorry but a newbie would read Callum and Zuma points and appear contradictory. If a fleece has become so wet from snow/sweat why expose a down jacket to the same conditions, the down will end up with less insulation than the fleece surely. Adding the down over a wet garment will make the down wet and putting it on in conditions which would wet a fleece will wet the down.

Callum is using examples on the hill which is more of the thread's thrust, and Zuma using example of when voluntary stopping and can control the moisture exposure. Both valid but I think the context is more on-the-hill survival?

Accepting obviously that high-loft down is warmer for weight/volume in the pack than anything else.

Zuma

12/11/2011 at 11:25

everything you put over a wet fleece becomes wet as well.... So why putting an extra fleece over a wet fleece? the wetness keeps your body potentially cold. It's far better to take off wet clothes and put on a dry downjacket. If it's raining use your hardshell over your downjacket to protect it from the rain. the extra fleece has no real good use in the winter IMHO. A dwon jacket is much more important and can even be a life saver.

Gneiss Boots

12/11/2011 at 14:31

Well I think you are both sort of agreeing with each other and the spirit of this article which is to ensure people are carrying extra equipment to be ready for the demands of winter - and this includes spare warm layers. The best reminder / guide for this is still the Heather Morning video I think, here on the BBC

Matt C

12/11/2011 at 16:08

Gneiss Boots wrote (see)

... The best reminder / guide for this is still the Heather Morning video I think, here on the BBC

Plenty of decent advice in that film, except... (perhaps I blinked and missed it, but I did check twice) - she didn't seem to mention torch (and batteries) and a whistle!!

Anyway, overall solid, relevant advice - unlike (imo) her suggestion today that we should all be digesting a 31-page booklet of SAR helicopter protocols!

Edited: 12/11/2011 at 16:09

topout

30/01/2012 at 10:11

I've slept in a AMK emergency bivvy. They work well. Good bit of kit always in your bag.

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Talkback: Monday Tip - Winter Pack Essentials

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