warm clothing/jacket

Marty,

These are nice and toasty :)


Warm Jackets


Cheers Kev

Martib
You need to visit stores like 'Mountain Designs' or 'Kathmandu' where you find advice on what and which clothing is available.
Things like overnight drying of washed articles and warm clothing made from 'polartec' which is light in weight and easy to pack.
Things like socks that dry quickly are important.

Marty

I don't know whether you will be "treking" or on an organised bus tour or have regular access to laundry facillities, whether you will be backpacking/ if so if you are are you carrying your own gear or do you have porters, or are you travelling with suitcases??????
These all influence what to buy/ take.

What ever you answer to the above, layering will still be the way to go.
That is be prepared to have multiple layers rather than have one massive coat.
As mentioned above stores like Mountain Design and Kathmandu have a lot of on line information. Kathmandu have their regular winter sale on at the moment, they have a catalogue you can downlaod, their "red hot" sale prices probabably just bring their prices down equivalent to most other good camping stores.
Personally I would be taking a merino thermal singlet/under shirt, polar fleece and a lightweight, long rain jacket. You can then layer up with adddional amounts (Shirts, jumpers, cheap flanelette shirts etc). But depends on your budget, how you sare travelling and whether you will ever use any of these items again, as well as the above mentioned factors.

Alle depends what you are doing. IF I am vehicle camping in the desert in winter, good old heavy cotton overalls are probably some of the best clothing you can take. IF I am backpacking then I am after lightweight, synthetics on top of my woolen/ Meriono woolen undergarments.


Mark

Hi Marty,

If you are travelling, the last thing you need is a bulky jacket.

The best advice I can give is to have layers of lighter clothes and ending up with a light, but waterproof outer jacket that can be easily packed away when not required.

We have recently been on a holiday to Canada and Alaska and layered clothing worked for us.

Start out with a tee shirt underneath a long sleeve cotton shirt, then perhaps a sleeveless jacket (I have a sleeveless drizabone) and finally a lightweight but waterproof spray jacket. Perhaps a scarf to wrap around your ne k if really breezy and this should be all you need, unless you are in blizzard conditions.

Finish off wth your favourite hat and you will be good to go anywhere.
We caried a lightweight "backpack" as a day bag and placed our jackets and camera equipment, etc. In it.

No bulky heavy jackets were required.

Id buy it over there. Wont be the overpriced designer garbage from here and will be built for the job

As said above it is better to layer your clothing then trying to get one jacket to do it.

If its really cold we use 2 to 3 layers ...... first layer is a "base layer", the second one is a mid layer and then a light breathable wind and water proof jacket.

To give you an idea we can hours out in the cold (0-5 deg C.) for hours and stay warm with 2 to 3 layers of light weight clothing.

As with most stuff you pay for what you get...... years ago we bought cheap thermals and a thick jacket and got sick an tired of it being heavy, uncomfortable and needing to take off when it got to hot and then put it back on when it got cold..... since going to good thermals and a jacket we can keep them on between 0 deg C. and up to about 20 deg C. with out feeling to cold or to hot.

The base and mid layers are "Icebreaker" brand from NZ (made in China) and the jacket we use are by "The North face"....... price wise the thermals are between $140-$190 and the jacket around $430.... plus don't forget a really good thermal lid for your head.

http://au.icebreaker.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-IB-AU-Site/default/Home-Show

http://www.thenorthface.com/en_US/index.html

With the base and mid layers get pure wool or close to (90% wool + 10% something), wool balances your body temp better, doesn't smell after long use and lasts longer over the cheaper synthetics..... we could not believe the difference between wool and synthetic thermals.

Another thing is by good hiking socks and quality boots.... if buying leather treking/hiking boots allow about 30 hour of wearing to bed in.

The leather boots we wear are about $440 and are made by Zamberlan in Italy, get boots suited for your needs...... there is a difference between hiking, treking and general use boots.

http://www.zamberlanusa.com/

Best thing is go to either Paddy Pallin, Mountain Design or Kathmandu and ask for their help...... don't go to Rays Outdoors, Anaconda or one of the cheap outdoors shops....... be careful with buying online and of Ebay, if they are an authorised reseller then your safe.

If you spend good money you will be comfortable and it will last for many years.

I did a tour of Europe in winter and it was often -6 all day. All I had was a goose down filled jacket and it was fantastic. It crushes down to quite a small packet but fluffs up so you look like the michelin man when wearing it. It weighs less than a kilo by memory. I believe mine is a mountain designs. Not waterproof though. Didn't need it to be waterproof because it was far to cold to rain.

Get onto the torpedo7 website and have a squiz.

Grab the men's 'ridgeline' 8 piece pack. Ridgeline is a kiwi hunting brand. for $70 odd. Mid layers done.

Then have a look at a Mckinley soft shell jacket - about $80.00

I'll second the merino gear. Mine's 150 grade mountain designs pants ($50 odd on sale).

A soft shell is waterproof for a while, but will get wet eventually. What it does do is breath 1000x (exageration) better than a goretex raincoat, so you can wear a softshell everywhere and be comfortable and not look like a goose in a raincoat. You can carry lightweight 100% waterproof gear like the rainbird stuff for if you really need it - it folds up really small.

As also mentioned, don't skimp on boots and make sure they are worn in.

I suppose it depends on how cold it is and how warm you want to be and how much luggage you want.

For light travel, extras such as a thermal singlet, maybe a possum merino jumper and lightweight windproof jacket would be good comfy minimal backpack type of gear

For something a bit more outdoorish ?? consider a 1st layer next to the skin. I have found the wool T shirts and singlets are the only ones where you don't smell after a day. I have tried several and now only buy the Australian made wool or wool mix ($15 to $30) from Ebay. If it doesn't say made in Australia don't bother as the quality isn't the same. They keep you warm without that hot muggy feel and seem to last for years. Some of the better polyester t shirts have an antibacterial coating that works to some extent. I however find them a bit muggy.

Fleece jackets are a warm addition to travel clothing and the Kathmandu, North Face, Patagonia etc are all good jackets and have the colours, brand name and style attached to them. I have found Gondwana to be as good or better for half the price and will wear well for several seasons. If you are not into Brand names, the American Military Polartec is the best out there. Search ECWCS polartec under ebay. Make sure they are made in the USA by Military Surplus Contractors and for $60 delivered you will have the best high tech warm jacket anywhere (Colour is normally black).

Polartec has reasonable windproofing but a light windproof cover jacket over the polartec, is well worth the extra cost. I have no particular brand preference here, however if you doing hiking and camping something that covers the hips is a bonus.

If weight may be an issue ? possum/wool jumpers jackets, jackets, beanies, gloves and socks from New Zealand are LIGHTWEIGHT, expensive but VERY warm and comfortable and on a cold night worth every dollar and then some.

As a cold feet person I have tried most socks available including merino, mohair, cashmere, silk and all the blends. Bridgedale and Heat Sealers from the UK are better than most of the field but I have found possum.merino hiking socks to be the warmest most comfortable sock you can buy anywhere . Expect to pay $30 a pair for these. Lastly an umbrella (buy one over there)can be an absolute godsend.

A good quality gortex water/wind proof outer shell then a number of eco-fleeces that you can add or remove to suite the tempreture.
Also thermal undies offer good warmth for their wieght and size to carry in really cold areas
As others have mentioned good outdoors shops like Mountain Design etc will be able to supply your needs. Look out for the end of season sales as they ofen have good stuff half price.

Yep! Layers.
I travelled mid-winter through Rajasthan and Nepal,
Found the Rajasthan desert very cold in fact freezing. Wore long sieve skivvy, wool jumper and on top a thick Polar Fleece. Warm but not good in the wind, and bulky to pack. IF YOU ARE HICKING OR BICYCLING IGNOR MY COMMENTS AND GET ADVICE FROM AN AGENCY THAT ARRANGES SUCH TOURS.
I don’t travel anymore but walk the dogs and now have a Kathmandu Goose down, hip length Jacket. Very Very warm and crunches up smallish for packing. Quite expensive but well worth it.
If you have not been to India before, just accept what you see and don’t think too much about the people aspects of the way of our world. After all you alone cannot change it.
You will see amazing architecture and incredible carving and scenery of utmost splendour.

thanks for all your great advice ill go though it all properly tonight
cheers marty

Hi martib,

Further to the above replies, thermal wear (particularly merino wool) is a great option for layering as it requires less washing and has a great warmth to weight ratio. Wearing thermals as a base layer means that you can afford to wear lighter weight clothing on top (great for travelling when packing space is limited). We've been researching affordable, Australian-made merino thermal wear here at the ExplorOz Shop, so keep an eye on our upcoming newsletters for further info.

Hey martib. Im assuming that when you say Northern India you probably dont mean any further north than Delhi, but I could be wrong. As much as I am a gear and clothing freak when I am in Aus, NZ etc, all the many times I have been to India I have just purchased clothing locally, be it summer clothing for the warmer months or heavier clothing for the winter months if I am heading north. It is way cheaper to buy off the shelf or get stuff made there.
In saying that, I think that the quality, especially for the cold weather gear, is no where near comparable to the big brands here. Buy it cheap there, get rid of it when you leave, Easy. I think too many people on here are trying to complicate things for you too much by giving you too many options when its not neccessary.