One piece base layers

[santaman2000]

Not to denigrate the the achievements or our soviet brethren, however I would suggest that the true 'military masters of cold weather' were the Finns, and they wore lots of wool, head to toe.

Yes they did. And yes they're expert at cold weather. But the Russians are the only ones who've used said cold weather as a weapon in major wars. The Russian winter defeated both Napoleon and Hitler.

 

[Elgatoloco]

Yes they did. And yes they're expert at cold weather. But the Russians are the only ones who've used said cold weather as a weapon in major wars. The Russian winter defeated both Napoleon and Hitler.

I suggest you to have at look at wikipedia and official figures on how many Russian soldiers died in those conflict because of the weather and starvation too...but yeah, winter helped them win couple of times.

 

[santaman2000]

I suggest you to have at look at wikipedia and official figures on how many Russian soldiers died in those conflict because of the weather and starvation too...but yeah, winter helped them win couple of times.

Thanks. I've read quite a bit on it TBH (it was taught in most phases of PME) but never from Wiki.

 

[sandbender]

Yes they did. And yes they're expert at cold weather. But the Russians are the only ones who've used said cold weather as a weapon in major wars. The Russian winter defeated both Napoleon and Hitler.

It probably kept a few others at bay down through the centuries, as most kings/emperors/warlords probably thought, Russia (or before the Rus the place with all the trees and rolling grasslands) whats there? Nothing we need, whats the weather like, brrr. Ok lets sack Cairo or Vienna instead.

For anyone interested in an in depth but not in any way boring account of the Winter Warfare in the east I'd recommend Antony Beevor's Stalingrad.

 

[santaman2000]

Thanks for the link SB. Looks like a good read.

 

[Uilleachan]

Stalingrad is a great if harrowing read, as is the sequel; Berlin.

The siberian regiments were the winter warfare experts of that era. Bringing the siberians from their far eastern defensive line and deploying them on the russians "western front" (and dismantling and relocating manufacturing effort east of the Urals, out of range of axis bombers) that was a big contributing factor in turning the Axis advance. The average russian squaddie was simply cannon fodder.

 

[treadlightly]

The book is superb but, as has been said, harrowing. No mention of union suits either iirc..

 

[santaman2000]

LOL. TBH the quilted cotton I read about was never said to be a union suit (or not to be either)

 

[The Cumbrian]

I bought a US army one piece polartec powerstretch thermal for a winter climbing trip to Norway. The top half is like a vest, but with a full length front zip, and there is a zipped rainbow seat to attend to calls of nature of the secondary type. This zip matches my Rab Latok overtrousers very well.

The only problem was that it wasn't cold enough to wear it; it had been below -20 C for weeks, bit when I arrived the temperature rose to between -5 and 0. This gave great climbing conditions, but it was too mild for my undies.

 

[underground]

http://www.starlessriver.com/shop/undersuits

http://www.inglesport.com/caving-equipment/caving-clothing/undersuits

good enough for digging in - good enough for pottering around the woods

I was going to say 'I wear one of those every week' but even in the dead of winter change into it outside the cave before i dig, even a little bit of moving about elsewhere gets me boiling, and I'm pretty dehydrated even by the time I've crawled the distance to the dig. It may be great in really cold weather but even winter climbing in Scotland, I've always gone powerstretch tights under salopettes and a baselayer top, change into a dry baselayer at the foot of the pitch and a Buffalo over that... so my advice is limited, to say the least

 

[Salaud]

Maybe something like this???

 

[dave89]

Boys, boys this is how its done

 

[Gray]

I sleep in a onesie during winter camps but that's all

 

[rik_uk3]

How about