How To Stay Warm Backpacking
Stay warm or die. That's what it comes down to at the extremes. More people die in the wilderness of exposure than from any other cause. Staying warm, of course, also means more comfort, and for backpackers, it can mean going even lighter, without more risk.Staying warm in the wilderness is about proper gear and good skills. Proper gear means clothing and equipment suited to the enviroment you're in.
This is a subject in itself, worth studying if you spend much time backpacking. With better materials and designs, the newest clothing and equipment saves lives. It is skills, however, that make the biggest difference.How To Stay Warm - Tips and Skills- Set up camp in the right places. Hilltops are windy and cold, and cold air also fills valleys at night. Level ground somewhere in between, out of the wind, is best.- Wear clothes to bed.
Shake and fluff them up to make them insulate better. Some recommend against sleeping in clothes, but I've tried it both ways many times, and it's always warmer with clothes on.- Wear a hat. This may be equal to a pound of insulation in your sleeping bag. A lot of heat is lost through an uncovered head.- Go to bed dry. Stay up until your clothes have dried, or change into dry clothes.
On a warm, dry night, however, you can put damp clothes on your sleeping bag to dry them with body heat. You may need warm, dry clothes the next night (Thinking ahead is a great wilderness skill).- Breath into your sleeping bag. Only do this in a dry climate, or if you're sure it's your last night out. You'll get damp, but you should dry quickly from hiking in the morning.- Take a water-bottle full of hot water to bed with you. This is easier and safer than heating rocks and placing them around you.- Make a pine-needle mattress.
Dead leaves and dry grass work too. Scatter the leaves in the morning, so they won't smother the plants underneath. I've slept warmly below freezing, with no sleeping bag, in a pile of dry grass collected from a frozen swamp.- You can breath into your sleeping bag if you're really cold. You should only do this in a dry climate, or if you're sure it's your last night out. You'll get damp, but you should dry quickly from hiking in the morning.- Fill a water bottle with hot water, and take it to bed with you.
This is easier and safer than heating rocks and placing them around you.- Adjust your clothing as you hike. Remove and add clothes as necessary to stay warm without sweating. Sweat can cause you to lose heat rapidly when you stop.- Stay dry. On a cold day, wet and hot can become hypothermia soon after you stop moving those muscles. On a hot day, however, wear wet clothing to dry it out in preparation for a possibly cold night.- Conserve your energy.
It's tough for your body to keep itself warm with no energy reserves. You may also need that energy to gather firewood or hike to the car to escape a blizzard. Finally, you'll make better decisions if you aren't tired, and you'll remember how to stay warm.This is a sampling of wilderness skills and knowledge. There are many more things to learn about how to stay warm. In fact, I've left out one of the most important, because it deserves its own artcle: how to start a fire in any conditions..
Steve Gillman is a long-time advocate of lightweight backpacking. His tips, photos and stories can be found at The Ultralight Backpacking Site: http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.comGot A Closet Full of Trendy Clothes? Watch Out!
You just bought a pair of Ugg boots to go with your hip hugger jeans and trucker cap. And that's not all. You scour the fashion magazines for the latest trends, then go running out to fill your closet. Trendy is good, right? Uh, not so fast. Keeping abreast of the trends in fashion is essential to not looking outdated, but having a closet full of trendy clothes can quickly turn into a big waste of time and money, unless you're Paris Hilton.
Maybe Paris can afford to buy and discard clothes like candy, but the average woman needs a wardrobe with some staying power.All the fashion experts agree that you should build your wardrobe around classic pieces like: blazers, tailored suits, neutral bottoms and tops. Classic clothing lasts for years and is very versatile. On the other hand, trends come and go. Those Ugg boots you just bought along with the trucker caps are already pass? (according to fashionistas in the know). You can either give them away to Good Will or keep wearing them...
Got A Closet Full of Trendy Clothes? Watch Out!
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Pre-pixelated Clothes for Reality TV Shows Go from Internet Joke to Overnight Hit
New York, NY (ContentDesk) April 11, 2006 -- On reality TV shows, recognizable logos and artwork on clothing are pixelated in post-production to avoid trademark violations. Blogger David Friedman of the website Ironic Sans (www.ironicsans.com) realized that this extra step could be avoided with some advanced planning, and decided to make clothes with the artwork already pixelated."The pixelation process seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for something that could have been avoided with a little pre-planning," he writes on the site. "So I'd like to introduce my new line of pre-pixelated clothing for Reality TV shows."Friedman signed up with on-demand custom clothing retailer CafePress so that people could actually buy shirts with his designs."I thought it was a funny idea," he says, "but I didn't actually think people would buy them. I just thought setting up a CafePress shop made it even funnier....
Pre-pixelated Clothes for Reality TV Shows Go from Internet Joke to Overnight Hit
Clothes > Pre-pixelated Clothes for Reality TV Shows Go from Internet Joke to Overnight Hit
Mam?moda Introduces Hybrid Maternity-Nursing Clothes as Part of New Line
Mam?moda, a specialty apparel company for pregnant and nursing mothers, today announced it has introduced maternity clothes, including hybrids for pregnancy and breastfeeding. With the new line, available through specialty stores in the U.S. and abroad as well as through its Internet store at www.mamamoda.com, Mam?moda now offers women a broad range of nursing and maternity wear.The hybrid garments, called Primissima?, give mothers the convenience and value of one wardrobe suitable for pregnancy, the breastfeeding stage and beyond. The clothes' shapes and fabrics are designed to accommodate the mother's body changes, as her belly expands during pregnancy and gradually returns to its pre-pregnancy shape after birth.At this time, the Primissima? line mostly features black and grey tones and is comprised of six styles, of which three are suitable for work and other formal occasions, and three are more casual. Just like Mam?moda's...
Mam?moda Introduces Hybrid Maternity-Nursing Clothes as Part of New Line
Clothes > Mam?moda Introduces Hybrid Maternity-Nursing Clothes as Part of New Line
New Disposable Underarm Sweat Pads Promise to Relieve Excessive Sweat
(ContentDesk via ContentDesk Direct) April 4, 2006 -- VNS Innovations, the makers of the popular Sweatex brand underarm sweat pads announced today that they plan to enter into US market. After receiving a tremendous response from countries like India, VNS Innovations plan to launch the product to the resident Asian and American public. The product is a great boon to Asian Indian crowd said Lakshmi Papineni, founder of VNS Innovations. People, who wear tight clothes by their culture or by choice, will really benefit from our product. We designed it such way that is extremely convenient to wear it and not bother about annoying underarm sweat marks that spoils the clothes. added Lakshmi. For decades, people from tropical countries dealt with ugly and annoying sweat marks under the arms when they wear expensive ethnic clothes like sarees. They had no choice.
Deodorants worked superficially but still left the clothes in bad shape. With...
New Disposable Underarm Sweat Pads Promise to Relieve Excessive Sweat
Clothes > New Disposable Underarm Sweat Pads Promise to Relieve Excessive Sweat
Plus Size Maternity Clothes - Keep Baby And Mom Comfortable
So you're having a baby and you were a little overweight when you found out and now you have visions of more weight and the worry of finding something to fit. Well don't despair, enjoy your pregnancy because there are lots of plus size maternity clothes sold on the market today. They can make you look good at the office or at home, at an elegant party or a casual affair. You just have to know where to find the maternity clothes you want. The Internet is the best place to start your shopping experience for plus size maternity clothes.
In fact some sites will give you tips on what to expect and how to handle the changes you will be going through. The online market offers beautiful swimwear that you can purchase in maternity wear. A plus size tankini wears very well during pregnancy. This type of plus size maternity clothes covers your tummy and gives you a look of style and fashion. You need to look as good as you feel when you are pregnant.
From swim wear to lingerie, from...
Plus Size Maternity Clothes - Keep Baby And Mom Comfortable
Clothes > Plus Size Maternity Clothes - Keep Baby And Mom Comfortable
Too Many Clothes and Not Enough Bedroom
The commercial and residential building trend for today is more living area space and less bedroom space. When an apartment complex has to compromise - the large bedroom and its accompanying storage space will be the first to get the pink slip.Lack of storage space is a flash from the past, when storage was not in walls or in shelving but in massive pieces of furniture each had a specific purpose and the grouping seemed to take up the whole room. As a renter - you'll have to supply your own storage.What's the solution? Consider how America used to live. Small bedrooms herald back to way before the fifties, when people accumulated fewer things and consumerism was less focused on the individual and more on the common good of the family. That changed substantially after World War II and the birth of the "Me" Generation - better known as baby boomers.
An exhilarated nation lavished new goods bought cheaply from around the world on its families, children and grandchildren, and consumerism...
Too Many Clothes and Not Enough Bedroom
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