Snugpak Ebony

[Tommyboy]

Dear all

I am heading to the Russian arctic circle this February and I am looking for advice on a good thermal layer. I have had a scout about on the internet and found the Snugpak Ebony jacket - synthetic filled and detachable hood. This seems to fit the bill and supposedly is still warm to around -15 degrees. I think the weather in Murmansk should be between -30 and -10 so with the other gear I will have I hopefully ought to be comfortable!

I have searched through the forums for any advice on this jacket, but please could anyone who has either visited the Arctic circle in Feb or owns one of these jackets just give me an idea of whether this jacket sounds suitable or not?

many thanks all and Happy New Year!

Tom

 

[Shewie]

Would you be able to buy something over there ? Maybe get some advice from the locals and look at skins and firs perhaps.

Never been anywhere that cold so can`t help much I`m afraid.

Some of our Nordic members should have some good advice though.

Have a good trip anyway

 

[Squidders]

I'm assuming the climate will be similar to arctic finand so that's what i'm basing my thoughts on... that's to say it was a dry cold and was between -16C and -32C.

I took - from the feet up, the following clothing and was very comfortable.

Sorel Caribou boots (1 size too big) plus an extra set of liners
Thin woolpower liner socks x 3 for a week used in rotation
thick woolpower insulating socks.

Icebreaker 280 (I think) trousers
The North Face Stone Cargo Ski/Snowboarding Pants - chosen because they had zipped vents on the inner thigh that made long walks less clammy... I held these up with braces.

Icebreaker 280 (I think) top
Fleece with full length zip
Shell (in fancy hyvent) with zip out fleece jacket and fixed hood

Thick woolen gloves with deer skin palm
canvas mitten outers

Woolen Beanie hat

A couple of things I found very useful were firstly, that all the outer layers vented, on my inner thighs and under my arms... this really helped keep me dry. A fixed hood was great when chopping trees down... falling snow down the neck would have been no fun. A second pair of boot liners allowed me to dry a set while a set were in use.

For the week I was there, I was comfortably cold and had a great time.

I am a fairly warm person and don't really feel the cold... if I felt the cold more, I would have added another fleece in the middle and a second hat.

Ski and snowboard clothing was about the best for being very active in very cold conditions, all the other clothing types seemed to be for people just standing around doing nothing in the cold.

I hope this helps.

 

[discoveringtheforest]

I took one of the Snugpak snumper jumpers to the Himalayas last feb and I have to say it was excellent,great for layering.Snugpak are a top crowd!

Good luck mate thou sounds great,take pix - post her

Safe trip

 

[Jambo]

I'm a big fan of Snugpak and have a Snugpak Elite jacket myself but in temperatures like that I think I'g go for natural down.

A friend of mine just got back from Christmas in Sweden, his girlfriend has relatives up in the north near Finland. Where they were up north it was at it's lowest at around -24ºc, though the lowest temp he went out in was around -18ºc.

He got a The North Face 'Polar' jacket and said it worked brilliantly. If anything he said for anything more than walking around in it was sometimes too warm. Here's the link;

http://www2.thenorthface.com/opencms/opencms/tnf/gear.jsp?site=EU&model=AAKF&language=en

 

[Tommyboy]

Great thanks very much indeed for the help and advice people! My girlfriend is going down the snowboard gear route so I might follow, but I will have a look about. I had sort of baulked at the cost of the North Face gear but I agree, down beats synthetic so I might just have to bite the proverbial bullet!

Photos as soon as I can manage!!!

Thanks again for all help and advice.

Tom

 

[Shewie]

TKMaxx have loads of skiing clobber in these days, I don`t know what the quality is like or who the manufacturers are because I don`t ski and have never looked closely enough. Might be worth a visit though.

 

[Jambo]

Hope you stay warm whatever you end up with. Good luck and let us know how it goes!