Mountain Equipment Lifesaver

[Chris Soucy]

Alas, my 20 year old Mountain Equipment Annapurna jacket, life saver extraordinaire whenever hypothermia was not only a likelyhood but practically a job description, survivor of the Himalayas, the Karakorums, the Hindu Kush, the Alps (European and NZ) and many, many long hours shooting in bone chilling conditions here in NZ, has finally suffered a terminal wardrobe malfunction and shuffled of this mortal coil, to take it's place in that great wardrobe in the sky.

Woe is me.

What to do?

Replace it with one of these, obviously:

Mountain Equipment - Clothing

Nipped into town yesterday, dived into R&R Sport and hey presto, love at first sight.

$500 later I'm the proud new owner of one serious piece of life saving gear.

My original was good, this one is awesome.

Gave it a test drive last night, 0 degrees C and a wind chill to freeze dry a horse, just like wearing a duvet and electric blanket. Bliss.

This has to be one of the best cold weather jackets of all time, especially for video, where you're not generating a great deal of body heat, just waiting for that right shot.

Can't see that they're available in the States/ Canada, tho' you've probably got some serious stuff as well.

If you're into this outdoor stuff where the weather is, er, inclement, shall we say, I can seriously reccomend one of these as standard equipment.


CS

[Alan Craven]

I bought my original ME Annapurna in 1970 for £25. I sold it 25 hard years later for £50!

I hope your new one is as good for you.

[Andy Wilkinson]

That jacket looks ideal for one of our great British summers :-)

(alas, the BBQ summer we were promised this year has still failed to materialise....I'm still dreaming of a repeat of the glororious 1976er ....but until it turns up maybe I should get one of those!)

[Chris Soucy]

Alan:

I think this one will actually outlive me, as it happens, the bloody things just refuse to die.

The sales guy at R&R was totally gobsmacked when I homed in on this jacket, seems in all the time they have had them on sale, they hadn't sold one!

Seems the young'ens go for the "looks good at the bar" type stuff, then take it "off piste" and get totally sideswiped and die in vast numbers (serves 'em bloody well right).

I gather this jacket was standard issue for the TV crews working for ITV and a few other non BeeB systems, not suprised, makes sense.

Andy:

I bought mine in Billericay (I think), at a shop, probably now long gone, specialising in camping and climbing gear, in preperation for my great "Around the World by Land" soujourn of '89.

As for the summer of '76, I was living in a flat in Kensington (Central London), on a garden square, had just been made redundant (the company moved to "who cares", I wasn't gonna work there) and I had 6 glorious weeks in the sun rebuilding a recently rescued (by me) Citroen 2CV, from the ground up.

Scored two great jobs afterwards and had a heck of a time deciding - went with the cache in the end. Good move. Spent 8 good years at Sotheby's looking after their computer systems as a result.


CS

[Robert Rogoz]

Down sucks imo. As soon as it gets wet it's worthless. Besides filming I also alpine climb for the past 29 years, including the coldest areas like Alaska and Canadian Rockies in winter. The best insulation is provided by Primaloft. The company I use is Wild Things, LLC . I used their one piece insulated suite and belay jacket. Don't forget about your legs and feet. Standing around snow you'll lose a lot more heat through your lower body. One piece is way warmer then pants/jacket combo, also saving weight.

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

For the coldest of winter conditions I use the North Face Arctic Baltoro Himalayas Expedition jacket that has top-grade duck down-fill and waterproof outer shell. Here is a link to a review of the jacket:

The North Face Arctic Baltoro Jacket reviews and information - Trailspace.com

I have worn the jacket in extreme low temperatures in remote worldwide locations and without a doubt it is the warmest jacket I've ever owned. It has a waterproof outer shell and good in rain or very heavy snow falls. For prolonged expeditions the normal (non arctic) North Face Baltero jacket has a slightly longer cut and heavier outer shell material.

For extreme rain and wet conditions in milder weather or rainforests etc., I much prefer to use one of my top quality EMS or North Face mountain Gore-tex jackets.

[Chris Soucy]

Been taking a bit of R&R up in Central, so thought I'd give one of the ski fields a go for a bit of local colour.

Had the new jacket (of course) and Treble Cone turned on a blinder for it, blue skies, sun and -10 C (14F).

Took my all singing/ all dancinf in/out thermometer with me (doesn't everybody?) just to see how the jacket performed.

It was an "off" day (no shooting) so I'm doing my lounge lizard stuff in the pavillion.

Went out to have a smoke, G&T in hand, whacked on the jacket and the remote sensor for the I/O Thermo placed somewhere between the bottom of my breastbone and navel.

Outside my inner layers: Thermals, T shirt, thin jumper/ pullover but inside the jacket inner wall.

Outside I go - oh, the pavillion is supposedly heated to 20 degrees C (68F).

Sat, smoked, drank and watched the figures (and the skiers).

Bottom line, in the space of 10 minutes, the temp of my body core surround went from 10 degrees C (50F) to [and this is utterly amazing] 30 degrees C (86 F).

This is at rest, nothing else but static body temp expended.

That's a whopping 40 degrees C (104 F) difference between the outside and inner core, doing squat.

Sure would hate to actually be climbing in this thing, you'd be fried in very short order.

For videography - magic!

Actually warmer outside in the freezing elements than inside, now that's a way to go.

I lurv this jacket.


CS