04
cold-weather test
Tagged Under : Bering Sea
The east coast got walloped by a big old snow storm earlier this week (yes, our “big old snow storm” is Wisconsin’s “five measly inches,” but bear with me) so I decided it was a fine opportunity to try out some of my gear for the Bering Sea.
I haven’t lived anywhere cold since Norway in 1997-1998, so I’ve been restocking on the warm stuff. I have one pair of long underwear in each of wool, silk, and some kind of synthetic. (I tested the synthetics during the inauguration and stayed toasty warm.) I’ve stocked up on SmartWool socks from REI – they’re wool, but they’re not that itchy – and cashmere sweaters from the thrift store.
Monday’s test was mainly for my new winter hiking boots. Here they are in the snow:
I walked about 40 minutes to the next town over, stepped in some of those horrible six-inch-deep slushy puddles at a curb, and had perfectly happy feet all day. I way approve of these boots. I’ll wear them for hanging around on deck on the icebreaker.
This picture looks all pristine and lovely and wintry and stuff, which is funny, because it’s on the sidewalk in front of a storage facility. About half a block later I wanted to take a picture of my feet in a slightly more realistic setting, some nice brown snow at the side of the road, when I realized I’d dropped my camera. In the snow. Brilliant, Helen. Luckily, I was the only person who’d walked that way and it was easy to retrace my steps and find it. I wanted to let it dry out before I turned it on again, though, so no more pictures from the walk.
So I don’t have a picture of the other piece of equipment I was trying out on Monday: the face mask. It’s black, neoprene, makes me look like a serial killer. I felt ridiculous putting it on, but holy cow, my nose was happy. You know what, it’s so crazy looking, I’ll just take a picture right now.
Nice, huh?
Lessons from Monday’s walk: Wear the face mask, vanity be damned; aim more carefully when inserting camera into pocket.
Those masks are excellent down to about 20-below-zero windchill (and they may be excellent below that, but it’s my threshold for driving to work, so I don’t know), BUT you may want to test it out in combination with your glasses. I had one that didn’t vent very well out the front, and instead, directed all my hot air into my eyes. It fogged up my glasses, which I couldn’t take off because, y’know, 20 below zero. Dangerous!
My husband has that facemask! (Snowflakes on his nose & eyelashes: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3325/3192662703_50b5cb6cc7.jpg). A wimpy Southern boy, he claims it is A++ in cold weather, would buy again. Also very positive reviews on the SmartWool socks.
i’d never worn wool socks before, but my pair of SmartWool socks kept me (mostly) warm and dry for inauguration. the Reynauds kicked in when we moved about 200 ft in an hour, but the toes warmed right back up once we started booking it home.
Yeah, I had my glasses on with the mask on Monday. They did keep fogging, but eventually I figured I could move them a bit farther out on my nose and avoid it. That might not work so well if I’m, like, dragging equipment around on the ice, though.
Hi, Helen!!!
Is that you? This is Kazuyo from Kumamoto!! Do you remember me? I am wearing Smart Wool socks today, yea!!! It kept me warm all day , though it’s warmer than Washigton here in Kumamoto.
Kazuyo!! It’s so nice to hear from you!!! And you’re wearing SmartWool socks, too. Yay.
I have a similar facemask, which can fog up my (sun)glasses. My workaround is to pooch out my lips a bit, exhale a tad more forcefully, making the breath go horizontally out through the vent-dots, instead of bouncing off the inside of the neoprene and up into my glasses.
Also, that facemask makes you look like a total badass, kind of like SubZero from Mortal Kombat!