Hiking in the North Cascades of Washington State
I got a sale catalog from REI the other day and was being tempted by all the cool new technical pants and shirts and thinking how old my hiking pants were and then I found this photo from the summer of 2008 and realized, I still have all the stuff I wore then and it all still works fine and it will work fine next summer and it’s not like it really matters when you’re up by an alpine lake whether you’re wearing this year’s shirt or last. By the way, that’s me, second from the right, fully protected against bugs and sun in my special ventilated shirt and hat, and the guy in the maroon t-shirt is my husband, who doesn’t really notice if what I’m wearing is this year’s or last. He just likes what I’m wearing or he doesn’ t (and wishes there was more space in the closet for his stuff).
By the way, some of the other folks in the picture are with Earth Ministry, an environmental group that works with church congregations to help them reduce the use of resources in their congregations and in their personal lives.
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Technical competitiveness in outerwear and alpine wear can be more intense than the competition found on the runways of Paris. I used to work for an advertising agency that had The North Face as a client. And before that I worked for Nike. I remember going skiing and asking the women I was with…”what fabric is that?” wicking? non-wicking? I once worked on a tagline….Cotton Kills. Now that I’m years away from the business I do occasionally make the biggest hiking faux pas and hike in a cotton t-shirt and cotton socks! Please don’t tell anyone, but they do work.
Oh gosh, how timely is your post! I was just explaining to someone (who commented on my first and only post to this group) that I have just sold my car, and was thinking that one of the changes that will bring to my life is that it will now be harder to get to the MEC (Canadian version of REI) where I just LOVE to get gear for biking and hiking. But the upside to that is that i wont’ be able to buy as much technical gear. And really, as you point out, how much gear does one woman need, especially since, as you point out, it does tend to last for years and years. And do I really need all the latest and greatest?
I, too, have hiked in cotton and been criticized for it.
Lately I’ve been reminding myself that the if the ice-man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ötzi_the_Iceman) can hike in straw and skins, surely I can hike with all the technical gear currently in my closet and drawers…