More Tips For Dressing For Winter

Fireplace at twilight

Last week I published a short post on the topic of "Dressing for Winter." A reader has shared some additional tips and tricks, writing:

    First, like you, I favor parka length garments.  I've had a few over the years that extended 3-4" farther down the thigh on the back, while I don't see it as a "must have", I liked this feature.  I do see pocket space as a BFD.  I like a couple of bellows pockets on the chest, pouch and slot pockets at the waist.  I try to carry a spare pair of gloves, a spare cap, and a scarf.  (There's a trick you may know, but as I learned it later in life, I'll mention it anyway.  If you fold a scarf in half, lengthwise, put it around neck and pull loose ends through folded end, it will cinch up very nicely and prevent heat leaking around neck via the chimney effect.) 

    I try to keep a few of the hand-warmers in my pockets.  I have sev'l "saves" on children who were on verge of hypothermia using these.  Kids go hypothermic pretty quickly and many parents are ill prepared (I bailed out one family two successive winters while XC skiing.) I'd carry them for this reason alone, but they've many uses.

    W/ rgd to your suggestion of keeping a light weight jacket to allow you to moderate/ adjust body temp, let me suggest a fleece vest for this purpose.  Especially one that reverses from Blaze Orange to a camo pattern.  The utility of such a garment is greater than many other garments, signaling, warming, hiding...  I also like to keep a reversible cap in my coat.

He also adds:

The little hand warmers have a number of uses.  One thing that works well is to melt water frozen in a Nalgene bottle.  They don't put out enough heat to melt the bottle, but if you duct tape a couple to a frozen Nalgene bottle they will pretty quickly provide you w/ drinkable water.  

 As I looked over my collection of jackets and coats, I noticed that I also had a few that were cut longer on the back than on the front: I assume this is to make it easier to sit while still covering the butt to protect from the cold. I also like more capacious pockets as I tend to stuff items in my pockets when not needed. I keep a Chapstick in my winter coats, as well as storing gloves in the pockets (I don't have a pair for every coat but I'm getting there)--that way I don't have to hunt for gloves when I grab the jacket or coat. I will also stuff keys in an outer pocket when bundled up. And if I'm really bundled up in my heaviest winter coat, a small revolver will go into an outside pocket since there is probably a snowball's chance in Hell that I could get to a weapon on my belt if I needed one.