Clothing

With the winter still fresh in my mind and some cold wet sesions still a vivid memory I thought I might share some rambling opinions on keeping warm and dry. Firstly let me explain where my experience comes from. After leaving colege I joined the army and one of several postings saw me working and training in Norway during the winter, my next posting took me to Bosnia over winter too, how lucky is that!!!! On leaving the forces I was drawn into the world of comercial diver. So as you can see I've made a living from being cold and wet and feel reasonably well placed to talk about it.
Lets start off with some basics.

1. Clothing works by trapping air within its fibres and allowing our body heat to warm it up. Different clothing has different jobs, a base layer traps a small amount of air very close to the skin, thermal layers (often made from fleece) trap more air within them, windproof out garments prevent our warm air being displaced by wind and finally waterproofs do exactly as they describe and keep the rain out.

2. Affects from the elements depend on three factors COLD, WET and WIND. Any two of these conditions can really cause us trouble, therefore if we can excluded them from our person then we stay warm and dry.

Whilst traing for winter in Norway the main rule for clothing was to dress loosly and in layers, in this way we trap lots of air to be warmed and the layer system means we can add or remove layers as conditions dictate. The army has even adopted the system accross the board with what they call their 'onion skin' design in their '95 kit. The other thing to remember is to avoid tight boots.
Clothing can be bought from lots of outlets depending on your budget.
Army surplus shops have everything you will ever need and cheap too.
Tackle shops and mail oder companies sell a good selection of clothing.
Walking and climbing outlets sell some excelent though pricey gear.
And finally, diving shops do a great range in thermal under suits.

Just put all this into perspective let me give you an idea what I'd be dressed up in on the worst possible day. First on is a long sleeved vest, on top of that is a T shirt (extra layer around torso without adding bulk to arms), a jumper (ussually fleece), fleece jacket, army issue windproof artic smock and finally if nescesary a set of army issue waterproofs. If its really cold a pair of Ron Hill running bottoms can go under my combat trousers. This selection is topped off with a good fleece hat, gloves of your choice and boots to suit the ground.
The beauty of this system is that layers can be removed to match temperature and weather conditions or inside a bivvy or behind a brolly etc.
If you decide to go the army surplus route for waterproofs there are three main choices; goretex, waterproofs with a black coating inside and then those with a thicker clear coating inside. Incidently, that is the order in which I would choose them too.

Most of my gear is army surplus because is very good and well priced. Better clothing is available from walking and climbing shops but the prices start to rise very steeply. I would recomend steering clear of thick undersuits for all but the worst weather but if you decide you want one try one the many diving shops for a different angle (mine is an Arctic 2 piece from Fourth Element and its brilliant but far from cheap) Northern Diver would be a good place to start.

So there it is my ramblings almost complete! Dress in several thin loose layers instead of one thick one and keep your head and hands covered whenever possible. Try to avoid overheating while carrying all your gear to your peg too. Finally my favourite piece of clothing is an arabic type of scarf called a Shamagh, warm and versatile. If anyone has any queries or comments then please post them in the comments section. Roll on summer!
Stay warm and dry!