Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:31 AM 1/17/2009, PHC wrote: >Neoprene is not ideal, but with breathable areas the Barbour gloves >work pretty well for me. Not in Arctic conditions though! Not that >I've ever tried. -20C is the lowest I've known. I have a pair of leather mittens with a fur lining which are great for hand-warming in cold conditions but which, of course, are not suitable for photography. (I started to say, "only suitable for digital photography but then some wise instinct reminded me that very few of the LUG folks enjoy a sense of humor, so it would be best to desist from such a crack.) The US Army's shell gloves (a thin leather outer with a wool olive-green inner part) are REALLY good cold-weather protection though they are not, of course, water-proof. "-20C" is, for the USians in our midst, is only about -5 degrees Fahrenheit. In January, 1961, I joined the Boy Scouts at the order of my father, a recovering Eagle Scout, and we went camping a week later in central Pennsylvania. It hit forty below, Fahrenheit, in the still air, and I, of course, the fat and clumsy kid, fell into the creek. Wow! I later learned how to camp in such conditions and how to stay really warm in really cold conditions: after all, those Cave guys weren't so dumb! If you want to camp cold, camp when there has been a cold snap and snow, and then the weather warms, and you end up with 32-degree F (0C) freezing rain. You have to be really cautious to ensure comfort in that case! My son lives in Wasilla, Alaska, a bit north of Anchorage. He has been amused by the fixation in the lower 48 with this "cold" weather. They have had several weeks of -20F (roughly, -30C) daily highs. Their weather is now warming up to around zero (-18C), which means they will now have snow again: really cold air cannot hold much moisture, so the temperature has to rise to get snow. Global warming, indeed! Fairbanks had its earliest snowfall in recorded history this year. I keep reminding Ian that Nina Tottenberg or someone else on NPR keeps moaning that those poor Polar Bears are going to have to leave that sauna into which the Arctic Ocean is turning and thus will romp, en masse, to Anchorage to find malls and theaters with air condiioners, along with all that pop-corn to eat. He assures me that this is not happening. And he works on the North Slope. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!