Old Navy Diver Idea

[Bob Loomis]

Dear Fellow Climbers,

 

The other day while working out at the gym I chanced into a conversation with a guy. It turned out he was a Navy diver a decade or two ago, and stationed such that many of his dives were in the north Atlantic--a cold body of water. We got to talking about how he and his colleagues stayed warm in such a cold environment for extended periods of time.

He shared with me an idea which I had not heard of before, but he said really worked. This is for the legs. It is: before putting on the neoprene suit the divers would put on a pair of women's pantyhose. He said the pantyhose did several things. One is it helps to hold a thin layer of air next to the skin, thus increasing warmth. Second it helped offset the clammy feeling associated with neoprene. A nice feature is the low cost, so that if the pantyhose become torn, one is only out a few dollars. Also very little weight and bulk, and of course, flexible. Also this material would tend to breath well, thus not trapping sweat.

I have not tried the idea myself. But my initial reaction is this might be a good way to increase the temperature range of a pair of Scholler pants. He said they did not cut the feet out of the panytyhose as this helped again to keep feet warm with little increase in bulk or weight, thus not having to go up a boot size.

The obvious downside is putting up with all the ribbing and joking from your climbing buddies if you wear these in the field. But sometimes you want a little more warmth but not the bulk and weight of a much heavier pant or pant layers. So just passing on the idea.

 

Cheers,

 

Bob Loomis, Spokane, Washington

[G-spotter]

sickie

 

You go, girl!

[toproper]

it worked for joe namath! he wore pantyhose to help his knees.... and he was a super bowl mvp!!

[Pete_H]

You should check out some of this new fancy stuff they have called capilene.

[112]

I have wore pantyhose underwear both while climbing and diving. I prefer a skin suit for diving and a silk-weight base layer for climbing.

[Phil K]

And.... they sell it at Wal Mart, so you can pick some up next time you're in there tent shopping.

[montypiton]

Actually, I HAVE tried this for winter mountaineering - in the old days before polypropylene (1960s - 70s). In those days, if/when you couldn't get your hands on wool longies it beat hell out of cotton. Lots cheaper than the name-logo stuff for you poor folks... thanks for the heads-up!

Edited November 24, 2009 by montypiton

[Choada_Boy]

Makes a great balaclava as well, especially when you're purchasing liquor or making a bank deposit.

[ScaredSilly]

BITD on Rainier my partner was too poor to buy all that fancy polypro stink wear. So he fashion himself some out of pantyhose. Not just any pantyhose but purple ones. Now that was a climbing and fashion statement. Later he fashioned a G-String out of a bandana that he normally wore on his head.