spongebob said:Sunglasses should do you. Not really a goggles person. You can tape
bits to the side of glasses if you want to keep out more glare.
That's what I thought, until I spent a day in heavy windblown snow and
spindrift and couldn't see anything much for large chunks of the day.
Snow gets back behind the lenses, even with proper side protectors,
faster than it can be cleared. Though sunglasses are generally more
comfortable and accordingly preferable when they're enough, if you go
past their limits you really get to see the difference. I found out the
hard way, I'd suggest learning from my bad experience rather than your own!
Quoted message said:Leave the beer for the pub. Take a walkers flask full of hot orange or
sweet tea.
More useful on the hill, granted. For an alcoholic morale boost a quick
snifter of spirit from a hip flask can be nice, but in the grander
scheme of it alcohol actually cools you down, so like chocolate and its
attendant sugar rush with following insulin over-compensation it's more
about morale than anything else. On the subject of chocolate, below
freezing it gets rather tough and loses some of its appeal (if you can
imagine such a thing!). Marzipan, OTOH, remains malleable and very
nice. Compromise with a Ritter Sport marzipan bar, where not being
solid chocolate you can still bite through it and it's good German plain
chocolate with Actual Cocoa Mass in tangible quantities, so tastes much
better than Cadbury's etc. Or take chocolate in liquid form in a flask.
Green and Blacks and Thorntons both v. good.
Quoted message said:I use overtrousers. If the sun comes out it can get warm. If i can get
away with it they stay in my bag! Don't forget a decent pair of
gloves - its easy to have a miserable day because your fingers are
painfully cold in inadequate gloves.
I usually take gloves, backup gloves and emergency backup super mitts.
For winter a Serious Pair should be available in the bag, either
dachsdein mitts or double layer fleece/pile plus shell mitts. Mitts are
warmer than gloves, thick gloves give damn all dexterity anyway IME so I
don't see why to use them rather than mitts (mitts are cheaper too).
They should have a wrist loop so you don't drop them, don't bother with
clips that attach to a shell jacket, they're no use at all if you want
to take your shell jacket off (which is entirely possible, going up a
steep snow climb in the sun is hot work, but the axe head draws a lot of
heat from your hands without serious mitts/gloves). If they don't have
a wrist loop, sew one on: it's not hard.
A lighter pair of gloves is often all you need but if/when they get
soaked through they can get cold, where a fresh backup light pair is
often better than moving for the Mitts Of Last Resort.
Similarly, I usually have more than one hat available. A balaclava is
very well worth it as it can be used in conjunction with other hats.
Mine is a Craghoppers one in Polartec 100 and the best I've come across
with a long enough neck to keep it covered and a face hole sized so I
can select between having it guard up to my nose, just my chin, or not
cover my face at all. And you can roll it up as a standard hat too.
Mountain caps are very good, even better with a balaclava to fill in the
gaps.
If you'll be sitting in snow a lot over the day then a damp bum is
highly likely, even with overtrousers. Good wicking underwear will mean
the difference between it staying wet, or drying out. I can assure you
the latter is greatly preferable!
Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/
