Winter clothing

[Viking]

Do any of you have any good tips for winter clothing especially the outer layer. I want it to be in natural fabric.
So far all I have found is old swedish army clothes like wool pants, or the winter overall to use as outer layer. Norröna also seem to have good clothes but can´t find any shop around here that sells them.

 

[george]

Viking

I'm a big fan of Fjallraven kit - you shouldn't have a problem finding it over your way.


www.fjallraven.com

George

 

[Viking]

Fjällräven is very easy to find, but I dont like their clothes...

 

[Gary]

Johan I like Ventile - especially jackets. For trousers I usually wear army lightwieghts (british army) or craghoppers with Ullsforte underwear. Its if its cold like your neck of the woods - over here I find ventile and a woolly t usually do the trick with a woollly hat to keep the bald spot snug.

 

[Viking]

Ventile sounds great but it´s not available over here. Mostly Gore tex and gore tex and open fires don´t mix =)
Ullfrotte is great all year, have a ullfrotte jacket (army issue) that I have been using for years it´s unbeatable. So the underwear is never a problem.
I´ll have to do a trip England an check ventile out :-D

 

[ditchfield]

I agree, go with Ventile. I use the same set up as Gary- Ventile jacket and lightweights. Infact, the jacket was Gary's before it was mine :-D. Cheers

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

if i had the money i'd have "ventile" :-( but my set up is this:

"kit i use for uk winter conditions"

Buffalo special six (style) jacket with hood.
a neck buff (head over)
windstopper gloves
poly propylyne longjohns and t shirt.
TNF micro fleece(windproof).
rohan trousers
wicking liner socks
wicking winter walking socks
and i also use US army poly pro longjohns(under pants) in colder conditions.

i also have a full set of goretex and boots

 

[Martyn]

Well it looks like we're set for blizzards and arctic conditions for the next week or so. So should get chance to try all this gear out.

 

[AntarcticFire]

I'm looking forward to next week's cold! I bought a Montane Extreme Smock and unless the weather is freezing it's too warm to wear!

I wore it over New Years in the Brecon Beacons and you don't need to wear anything underneath it.... it's that warm. :-D

 

[TAHAWK]

if i had the money i'd have "ventile" :-( but my set up is this:

Over here west of the Big Pond, "ventile" is a trademark for 100% cotton fabric and therefore deemed "NO" for Winter (Winter here being snow and often below freezing to WAY below freezing). Is your "ventile" 100% cotton?

 

[bigjackbrass]

Tahawk, Ventile is a cotton fabric, originally developed for RAF immersion suits. It has such a tight weave that dyes have trouble penetrating it, which gives old Ventile a lovely weathered look and gives you some idea of how rain resistant it is.

In very cold AND very wet conditions I would possibly think twice about using it, but in mild and wet or cold and dry weather it's the first choice for me (or at least a close call between it and a Buffalo pile/Pertex shirt). Arctic and Antarctic explorers and survey teams wear it and it is a common fabric for winter gear.

Don't be too quick to dismiss cotton, if it's the right sort of cotton used in the right circumstances. The standard message in America is "cotton kills," but that is too simplistic. I wore a Swedish army cotton smock in Lapland last month and it was entirely the right choice for the sub-zero temperatures. Indeed, at those temperatures many modern laminates have trouble coping. Even in a typically wet British winter I trust my Ventile smock, worn with an appropriate combination of non-cotton layers underneath. In fact, I don't bother with the likes of Gore-tex any more because either Ventile or Buffalo is far more comfortable and appropriate for 90% of my outdoor activities.

 

[bigjackbrass]

Ventile sounds great but it´s not available over here. I´ll have to do a trip England an check ventile out :-D

You should, but there is more to look at than Ventile!

When I was looking around for a good weatherproof cotton smock a couple of years ago I found a very interesting Swedish one, but the company never got back to me about postage costs so I went with Snowsled instead. However, it, or one of their other products, might be of interest to you:

http://www.klattermusen.se/eng/products/njal.shtml

 

[Stuart]

if i had the money i'd have "ventile" :-( but my set up is this:

Over here west of the Big Pond, "ventile" is a trademark for 100% cotton fabric and therefore deemed "NO" for Winter (Winter here being snow and often below freezing to WAY below freezing). Is your "ventile" 100% cotton?

Ventile is 100% cotton but is an idea fabric for very very cold weather for example ventile clothing is used by:

The British antarctic survey
German Polar Research Programme
Uk mountain Rescue Council
The Spanish Antarctic Programme
British Everest Medical Expedition
Chinese Antarctic Research Programme
Belgian Antarctic Research organisation
The Cambridge Artic Shelf Programme
The Brazilian Antrtictic Programe
The royal Geographical socity
The newzealand Antarctic Programme
The Danish Polar center
The Roof of the americas expedition
The Scott Polar research institute
Japanese Institute of polar research
Pakistan Antarctic programme
International transAntartic expedition
Korean Antarctic Research operation
SAS unsupported north pole expedition
South african antarctic programme
The british womans north pole relay
Mount forel expedition
Northern Group E. Greenland expedition
Transpolar drift expedition
Icelandic 500 expedition
British winter everest expedition
Baffin island expedition
The mountaineering club of south africa antarctic expedition
the mountain rescue Svalbard expedition
Sir Ranulph Fiennes Antartic expeditions

and of course the RAF as immursion suits for pilots ditching in ice cold sea water for whom it was designed
to name but a few!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tony]

:yikes: I worry about you Stuart ):

 

[Stuart]

Strangly the american antarctic survey dont seem to use ventile

I hope they dont use gortex, that would be very silly Gortex doesnt work at very low temperatures

 

[faca]

Stuart I notice you have good contacts .
Enjoy

 

[TAHAWK]

I wore a Swedish army cotton smock in Lapland last month and it was entirely the right choice for the sub-zero temperatures. Indeed, at those temperatures many modern laminates have trouble coping. Even in a typically wet British winter I trust my Ventile smock, worn with an appropriate combination of non-cotton layers underneath. In fact, I don't bother with the likes of Gore-tex any more because either Ventile or Buffalo is far more comfortable and appropriate for 90% of my outdoor activities.

I gave up on Gore-tex and the like in Winter. It does not ventilate well enough and tends to get condensation on its inner surface. Instead, I use a Woolrich "Mountain Parka" of "water repellant" nylon. Now that I think about it, back when I was young and could afford nothing but military surplus, I used an M-65 Field jacket and now that I check, it was (and is)100% cotton. I doubt that it is nearly up to "Ventile" in quality.