In the early years, at both the Alberta and Manitoba schools, the technology for winter clothing was basically heavy to be warm. As time went on the clothing styles and materials changed. It has been interesting going through the pictures through the years that show how this gear changed.
Send in your memory of the winter gear worn in your “era”. To submit a story click on the title and scroll to the bottom. Double click on the pictures to see a larger version.
April 8, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Getting dressed for a snowshoe run, I felt like a knight getting ready for battle, or an astronaut getting ready to step out on the moon. Two — or three — pairs of socks, mocasins, liners, long johns, jeans, long john top, shirt, sweater, parka, mitts, inner and outer, scarf, toque.
Selkirk you really needed all this stuff on at least half the runs of the year. Alberta not so much.
Cold days weren’t universal. One trick was to wear your parka like a cloak, hood on your head, and streaming behind. Didn’t always stay, and it interfered with proper arm motion. We found was that you could tie a spare lampwick around the hood of your parka and convert the parka into a pony tail. It stayed on better, and didn’t catch on brush.
April 9, 2013 at 1:57 am
Dressing on dogruns was always a trick. Usually on the trailbreaking part, you were either lead, which was very heavy work indeed, or someone on a broken trail catching your breath. Either too hot or too cold, and always in a sweat becuase the dogs were slavering at your heels.
Mushing was as bad. On rare occasions you were on the right slope that you could stand on the runners and relax. More often you were either pushing like crazy, or floundering along behind, or wrenching your arms off trying to miss a tree, or stretched out your full length in the trail behind the sled as you caught your foot on some hidden branch.
Most of the time on dogruns, a parka was a nuisance. You were working too hard to actually wear it, so either it was on the sled, possibly miles behind you, or in a pack on your back, making your back sweat.
But at night, it came into its own.
Around the fire, draped on your shoulders as a cape, keeping your back warm while the fire warmed those bits its radiance could reach. Ah. Blessings on the parka then.
April 9, 2013 at 1:50 pm
I was in Peavey Mart the other day looking at their selection of mittens. Yes, they still had mitts, but none with removeable liners. Skish mittens aren’t available.
If you need removeable liners in your mitts however MEC has nylon outers and fleece inners. These actually are better mitts — unless you are working around a fire.