Antarctic Clothing & Equipment

[Fletch]

About Ventile

Numer 6, please see below for photos of Ventile in action 'down South'.

Can one of our number across the big drink answer me something? Why is Ventile, as Wikipedia suggests, "hardly known in the United States"?

The only US maker (or even merchandiser) of Ventile garments I know of is Lost Worlds, and I'm not even sure they're offering it anymore.

 

[Mike K.]

Beware of any "Canada Goose" parka that is sold on Ebay as many of these are fakes!

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On the topic of arctic/antarctic clothing and equipment, here is a very interesting company that sells some very traditional gear:
http://www.empirecanvasworks.com/arcticanorak.htm

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I posted this query on another thread in this forum. Does anybody own one of these B-7 parka reproductions? I know it isn't an accurate reproduction of the original military ones, but this parka to me just screams ARCTIC EXPLORATION. I have been seriously considering the purchase of one.
http://www.uswings.com/b-3.asp#ALPHAB7

 

[gfirob]

CG Expedition parkas...

The zippers on the Expedition parkas are on the left and they do run about a size large. These zippers took a lot of getting used to, as I recall, particularly if you were all puffed up with a lot of layers underneath and were trying to crane over yourself to see the backwards configuration (imagine a very fat person trying to zip up a coat).

The clothes there at the time (about 15 years ago) divided the classes as well. All the scientists, media and VIP’s on off on a boondoggle from Washington all wore red Canada Goose Expedition parkas. All the workers (mechanics, truck drivers, food service people, field service men and women) all wore heavy duty Carharts.

The red-coat people all drank in the old officer’s club left over from military days (turned into a wine bar) and the old enlisted men’s bar was where the workers all drank. Drinking was a very big part of life there and buying and trading it was a constant process. We ran out in a remote camp and had to trade with the ice driller for some beer at terrible exchange rates…

We were often reminded down there how different life was for the early guys, as we zipped around the continent in jet helicopters and cargo planes or from site to site on snow-mobiles and Nansen sleds. The Scott and Shackelton huts were dramatic reminders of this, but we flew one time with the rear loading ramp of a C130 cargo plane open for us so we could shoot down on (I think) the Beardmore Glacier on the way back from the South Pole, and were aghast at the landscape those guys had to traverse on foot, broken, heaving ice, split repeatedly with crevasses. We were flying at around 100 miles an hour and while it was brisk with the door open, it was hard to imagine men pulling sleds by hand across that ice. But they did.

I spent one cozy evening in what was called “the Hotel California” (which was a motel-like dormitory at McMurdo station) reading Apsley Cheery-Garrad’s book “The Worst Journey in the World”. It is a wonderful volume which chronicled (among many other things) his long struggle on foot across the same sea-ice that we had recently crossed as a day trip in a Haagland tracked vehicle. His account is an astonishing tale of human endurance and old-time fortitude in the face of unbelievable conditions.

Cheery Garrard was the youngest member of the Scott team and was with the group that eventually found his final camp and body. There is a picture of Cheery Garrard on the cover of Sara Wheeler’s biography of him, standing in what looks like a buttoned cotton jacket with huge pockets, a wool scarf and a very odd hat and big fur mittens. He is wearing some kind of wind pants, leather lace-up boots and some kind of wrapping around the boot tops.

In all our modern clothes and transportation, we were rarely truly uncomfortable (though sometimes quite cold) and though we had to take survival training (including building a snow shelter, spending the night in a tent on the ice and learning how to turn off the helicopter engine after it has crashed and the pilot is dead) we were almost never in any real danger.

We were lectured quite severely on clothing discipline, however, and told not to be seduced by the sometimes mild climate. The instructor told us the story of a five-year veteran scientist who took a snow-mobile out to check on his instruments about a mile from the base camp, dressed in jeans, sneakers, a sweater, wind breaker, fleece hat and gloves. It is quite warm there with no wind and full sun.

As he was traveling, a white-out blew in and he could not see his hand in front of his face. He stopped the machine and went to step off. But in fact, the machine had not stopped and he couldn’t tell because he was effectively blind. It was still traveling. When his foot hit the snow, he was thrown off and landed on his back, in his light clothes and sneakers, his snow-mobile (with the radio) continuing off into the featureless white without him.

After he did not radio in on time, a rescue squad was sent out for him and happily found him, but the story became a cautionary tale for all newcomers who might not respect the nature of the weather there. We were only able to shoot for 17 out of 40 days while we were there, because of the weather.

I’ll see if I can find some photos of us dressed up in our red parkas in the blue landscape.

Rob

 

[Dudleydoright]

Nice anecdotes there Rob. thank you very much for taking the time to post them.
You are of course quite right about the 'backwards' zipper though for us Europeans it is the 'right' way LOL And they do run a size large. I'm an xl and my old parka is a medium but fits if just a little snug. My large is almost but not quite a little big.

I have met a couple of guys who worked Down south. You are spot-on about the class distinction. Reminds me of when I worked at CERN. The physists and scientists saw us in the 'Technical Support' as 2nd class. In the Antarctic I suppose it stems from the old days when expeditions like Scotts (but not Shakleton's) were Navy run and there were upper and lower deck and strict social boundaries between the officers and scientists (who were allegedly educated) and 'The Men' who weren't. This wasn't like that for the civillian run expeditions though. I think the British Antarctic Survey post WW2 until the end of having dogs down there got it just right. The end of the dogs and coming of the machines for travel as well as radios (regardless of the intentions behind it) pretty much spoiled the experience in my eyes. I would have liked the idea of needing to be independant and self reliant and yet also relying on your team mates and them only.

A great book to read on the immeditate post-WW2 British Falklands Islands Dependency Survey (FIDS) called 'Two Years In The Antarctic' by Kevin Walton & I thoroughly recommend it. It was a 2 year expedition to map a part of the South that had ex-servicemen (including several from the SAS and LRDG) and is a book I never tire of reading.

As Rob has said, Cherry Garrad's book is an incredible read. The journey by ship just to get to Antarctica is incredible. Get that book !! Rob, the jumper/jacket Cherry wears in that photo was a wool blanket material with large cotton pockets sewn on it and was made by Patons. The wool balaclavas were large for layering and had extra wool blanket material patches over the ears for extra windproofing.

A good DVD to get to look at the sort of clothing that was worn in the early days lot is 'The Last Place on Earth' the story from Roland Huntsford's book of the same name about the Scott/Amundsen expeditions.
'Blizzard' with Bruce Parry is the series of a recreation of the above expeditions in greenland to study the value of each groups cloting, diet and methods of travel. One Brit team manhauling and the Norges using dogs.

I'll keep digging out kit and finding photos.

Dave

 

[Creeping Past]

Can one of our number across the big drink answer me something? Why is Ventile, as Wikipedia suggests, "hardly known in the United States"?

The only US maker (or even merchandiser) of Ventile garments I know of is Lost Worlds, and I'm not even sure they're offering it anymore.

I think you can put that down to the long-standing North American outdors mantra, "Cotton kills", based on the fact that, when wet, cotton next to the skin will remain wet and will only ever lead to your getting colder and colder, which is of course dangerous when you're exposed in the open for extended periods. (Wool, rather than cotton, for base layers and general layering is most effective.)

This has been mentioned in other outdoors threads, including "Historic Hillwalking" and maybe the "Adventurer's Gear Thread". People get quite upset by the mere mention of cotton as a fabric for outdoors garments.

In alerting people to this possible danger, the US has tended to throw the baby out with the frozen bath water.

Mike has already mentioned Empire Canvas Works, who sell cotton outer garments for cold weather. Note that although it's cotton canvas, they emphasise "canvas". In freezing temperatures, tight woven cotton canvas and Ventile provide an effective windproof layer.

I await the arrival of at least one 'cottonist'...

 

[Creeping Past]

A smock from the Heroic Age. Not sure of which expedition so could be Scott, Shakleton or the Graham Land Expd of 1936. Ideas on a postcard please [...]

I live and work very near to the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) and they haven't been much help in dating it .

What a beauty! Just an idea on identification: if that's a retail label, one of the many business directories of Cambridge from the early part of the 20th century would surely include a reference to "S. Morgan" outfitters in Trumpington. The Cambridgeshire Collection is a good source for local history in the area and worth dropping in on next time you're in the town centre.

There's surely a polar research link there...

 

[Hal]

I think you can put that down to the long-standing North American outdors mantra, "Cotton kills", based on the fact that, when wet, cotton next to the skin will remain wet and will only ever lead to your getting colder and colder, which is of course dangerous when you're exposed in the open for extended periods. (Wool, rather than cotton, for base layers and general layering is most effective.) In alerting people to this possible danger, the US has tended to throw the baby out with the frozen bath water.

Norwegians even today often swear by wool inside (warmth/insulation) and cotton outside (windproofing). A notorious example of the discomfort caused by cotton inside was the string vest (undershirt) favoured in the 1950s and 1960s, wearing which could be like wearing a wet dischloth next to the skin.
In the UK bothe Ventile and Grenfell cloth have deserved reputations for windproofness and water-repellence.

 

[Dudleydoright]

Well, as a 'cottonista' I have to comment ! Cotton kills in cold weather ONLY if next to the skin. Being hydrophilic they hold water next to the skin which steals your body heat faster than an Eastern European pickpocket on Oxford Street !
However, with wool or silk next to the skin and wool as a mid layer, cotton is still the best windproof outer layer for cold, dry conditions. We are of course talking about a high quality ventile or tight weave Egyptian cotton or grenfell cloth or gaberdine. These materials block wind but let moisture vapour pass through them way more efficiently than any synthetic including supplex.

I think ventile is rare because it is only made in one mill and has an odd patent which stops anyone else making it. As it is used extensively by the UK military- particularly for immersion suits, it only leaves enough surplus material to satisfy a few clothing makers. Even they have supply problems . I also think US military and outdoor clothing makers have more faith in new, man made super super materials.

Just my opinion and I stand to be corrected !

Dave

 

[nobodyspecial]

Ventile was widely sold in the US during the 1970's. A number of firms made jackets, frequently referred to as mountain parkas, out of ventile. However, most mountain parkas were made of less expensive fabrics, either 60/40 or 65/35 blends of nylon or polyester and cotton. The Empire Canvas Works anorak is a wonderful wind shell for winter wear.

Cotton is a wonderful farbic for cold, dry conditions; perfect for Antarctica. The notion of "cotton kills" came into vogue during the 1960's and 1970's as backpacking became popular in the US. Cotton fabric against the skin, either long underwear or wearing jeans, is a very bad idea if the weather turns cold and wet.

Through the 1970's a US firm made down products similar Dave's gear.
http://www.oregonphotos.com/Holubar1.html
The orange parka in the photo on the site is an amazing parka, I have yet to see anything close to it in terms of warmth. Much like a down sleeping bag with sleeves. I have a pair of Holubar down mittens much the same as Dave's mittens; down filled, leather palms, fur backing. Great stuff.

 

[gfirob]

Photo attempt

I'm going to try to post some shots of us in our Antarctica costumes.

This is my wife and I out on the sea ice. My wife is my partner in crime on the job.

This is the camp where we took survival training. You can see the snow saw we used to cut the snow blocks for the shelter in the foreground.

Or if these are the wrong links, then there are no pictures whatever (I have never tried this before). If this works, I'll try to post some more. IF not, any advice would be appreciated.

Creeping past, Empire Canvas Works has some wonderful stuff. And I think that I always had the American "Cotton is Death" predjudice, but never thought about it. But that stuff from Empire really looks great.

Dave, I love that smock from S. Morgan. I'll bet it has a story to tell.

 

[Dudleydoright]

great post Rob. I'm very jealous of the time you spent Down South.

I too wish that old anorak could talk. In one of it's pockets there was an old piece of paper that was written on in ink on both sides. On one side was a number of lines that was a synopsis of the Scott expedition and on the other info on the depots. I'll dig it out and try to photograph it

Dave

 

[Dudleydoright]

Here you go ........

Intriguing, no ???

Dave

 

[Trotsky]

Here you go ........

Intriguing, no ???

Dave

What IS this? I can tell it's from the Scott Expedition with the carnival of animals he used in 1912 for his pole attempt: it's cool!

 

[gfirob]

What a note to find...

This note is fantastic, Dave! What a find. Do you know anything about it? There is something so evocative about these old artifacts. You are very lucky to have them. That anorak is magnificent, really magnificent.

My wife reminded me that there were old clothes inside the Scott hut at McMurdo, but I don’t remember them. I remember there were old seal carcasses and since they used seal blubber for heat, everything inside was covered in black greasy soot. Can you imagine spending the winter dark in these conditions?

This is the inside of Scotts hut as it was when I was there.

This is the exterior

There were still dog houses and bales of hay for the ponies outside of Shackelton’s hut while I was there. These are photos of the outside of that hut at Cape Roydes. The inside has now been fixed up like a little museum by the Kiwi's.

It was sometimes possible, when I was done there, and we were in a remote camp with only a small tent, away from all the radios and machines, to imagine what it must have been like for them those extraordinary men, out on the ice when the wind came up.

This is our remote camp

I left the flap of my tent open here one night because the sun was so hot and the tent so warm, and went to sleep. We woke up the next mornng with half of the inside of the tent packed with snow, all of our boots and clothes buried, because a storm came up in the night and we had slept through it.

We had to spend about 12 hours in that little tent once because it was just blowing so hard outside. It got pretty claustrophobic, so we just lay there and drank Canadian Club and read trashy paperbacks. Be we knew there was always a helicopter ride out at the end of it. Not those old guys, they were going to man-haul their sleds to where ever they hope to get to.

Thanks for posting those pictures, Dave. Its a fantastic collection.

rob

 

[Dudleydoright]

Rob,
again a cracking post and some great photos. :eusa_clap

I understand that the hut was used by several expeditions after Scott's and so was modified in a number of ways. Certainly the wall seperating the men from the officers was removed. Might've even been Shakleton but I stand to be corrected on that. Also, as is visible in one of your shots, there is a large base nearby and so many things from any of the expeditions who used it will have been plundered.

I agree it must have been interesting to live in but for the men of the period we are talking about, dorms in public schools and for the working class lads several or more to a bed were the norm as was hot bunking/hammocking in the Navy. So perhaps it wasn't as bad as one imagines. The expeditioners were also very well supplied with carpenters and other trades as well as some very inventive people of both upper and lower decks.
There is a great Ponting shot called 'The Tenements' which has Oates, Mears, Bowers and others in, on and around their bunks and it all looks very cosy. In fact it looks like a dugout of the trenches in WW1. Not many people realise that several of the expeditioners died on active service with the Royal Navy in WW1.

Regarding my document, I can't remember very well what I was told when I got it but I seem to recall there being a Canadian connection. There were two Canadian scientists with Scott. It would be cool to think it was one of them in the months preceding the return og the ship, writing a precis of the expedition. But of course it could have been anyone writing it at any time.

I pass the Scott Polar Research Institute several times per week. I can get some photos from the small museum section if anyone has interest ? I've been there several times to look in archives and once got to look through a wooden case that held glass plates from the Scott Expedition from Ponting that hadn't (according to the archivist) been opened since the 20's. Being as I have an interest and have quite a few of the Scott Expedition, I was amazed that not one of them had I ever seen before and the clarity was incredible.

Rob, it's shame you're where you are and I'm in the UK. Would be good to chew the fat over a beer !!

Dave

 

[nobodyspecial]

I'd love to see museum photos. This is a great thread.

 

[gfirob]

Send me a beer, Dave...

What a great enigma that document is, Dave, and together with the anorak itself, a great story locked up and mute. You are so fortunate to have those.

I wish you were local too, Dave. Then I could not only share a bear, but get a look at your collection, you lucky dog. I'll bet you have really scratched your head over that document.

I'd love to see whatever you could get from the SPRI. It must have been astounding to look at those photographs.

You are correct about the re-use of these huts. They were originally pre-fabricated in Australia (I think) and then used by the various expeditions that went down there over the years. And since McMurdo station (the group of buildings in the background of the Scott hut shot) was within walking distance, and spent most of its life as a US Navy base base, the hut was routinely looted over the years. The hut is at the end of a little point down the hill from the main station (which is really about the size of a small town).

The supplies outside of Shackelton's hut were also added to by subsequent expeditions, but really, stuff just stays on the ground there until it is covered up with snow. Since Point Royds is on the coast and high up, it gets a lot of wind and the snow doesn't build up. We saw the mummies of seals in the dry valleys that had somehow gotten confused and wandered away from the water and died on the inland ice. They looked quite ancient.

We also frequently flew over the supply dumps of expeditions (probably from the '50's) which were abandoned because the expedition (whatever it was) never materialized or never needed the supplies.

We were at Byrd station while they were dismantling it (all the parts had to be packed into C130's and flown back to Seattle and burned because of environmental agreements prohibiting its being burned in Antarctica) and there was a whole second station left there, buried in the ice about 15 feet under it, that will stay there forever (or until the ice cap melts).

I wonder how many Pollutants are released by four jet engines on all the c130's parked on the ice while an entire polar station was dismantled and loaded onto all those planes and then flown back to Seattle. I can't imagine it wouldn't have been easier just to burn all that plywood there in a big bonfire. But to be honest, the American military really made a huge mess of the place in the time they were in charge (including, I understand, a small nuclear melt-down). There was a huge amount of cleanup to be done.

The Norwegians, in 1993,launched an ill-prepared and ill-advised expedition to find Amundson's tent and sled left by Amundsen at the South Pole (which Scott found when he arrived there) and which have since moved off with the ice and been buried in the snow.

The Norwegians sent a group who had lots of mountaineering experience but little Polar experience and they made some fatal errors and dropped two of their snow-mobiles into a crevasse (because they were traveling abreast rather than in a line front to back). This happened 1400 miles away from the nearest rescue group—the joint USA-New Zealand Search and Rescue Team from McMurdo and the nearby New Zealand Scott Base. It was led by Steve Dunbar, an American who was our survival instructor and told us the story.

The whole story (a truly amazing polar rescue story) is here:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/cold-science/life-work/crevasse-rescue-93.htm#more

The short version is that the region where the Norwegians were stranded was too treacherous for a c130 to land so they had to use a little Twin Otter flying from the South Pole, after the rescue team flew there from McMurdo in a c130.

The Otter landed on what turned out to be an incredibly dangerous field of crevasses and snow bridges, which meant they could not land there again and had to take everybody out in one trip. They were also at the very end of their fuel reserves.

So bad was the crevasse field that the rescue team, who were roped together, fell into crevasses 20 times during the four hours it took them to travel about two miles from the Otter to the Norwegians' camp. There they retrieved the first survivor, with a broken arm.

Steve (our instructor) rappelled about 120 feet down into the crevasse, to where it was only about eight inches wide and the temperature was around minus 30 degrees. He saw the arm of the obviously dead second victim about five feet below him, sticking out of snow that had fallen into the crevasse. He couldn't reach the victim and the team had to give up the idea of recovering the body.

The American/New Zealander team took three and half hours to get the Norwegians back to the plane, mostly because of their inexperience with rope work. All of the Norwegian equipment and half of the rescue equipment had to be abandoned to make the airplane light enough for a safe takeoff.

The American/New Zealander team was subsequently bitterly criticized in the Norwegian press for not bringing the body of the dead Norwegian out. Mr. Dunbar (who, together with the New Zealanders and the other Americans had risked his life getting the survivors out) was outspoken with us in his commentary about the Norwegian press and the expedition itself, whose main goal was to find the tent to use it as an exhibit at the 1994 Lillehammer, Norway, Winter Olympic Games.

According to Steve, their equipment, their background and their training were all inadequate to the task of transversing this very dangerous route for what would end up being a PR stunt. They were all very lucky to get out alive, he said.

I was in a Twin Otter in Antarctica and I am astonished they were able to get that many guys out in that little plane.

Rob

 

[Dudleydoright]

Rob, you have been very privaliged to have experienced something few others have.
I was once given the chance to go to the Antarctic as a guide but ended up turning the job down. Regretted it ever since. Although according to a friend who did a total of 17 years down south first as a guide in the days of dogs and ending up as boss of Rothera ((I think), Antarctica is not the place it once was and the variety of types of characters that used to end up down there has palled over the years.
My times in the Northern Territories and Canada and the Alps never quite made up for my missing out on the real South.

Please feel free to keep posting your observations and photos and I will continue to post bits of my collection and people working ( although you've seen the best bits already).

Cheers
Dave

 

[gfirob]

Thanks Dave. Please post some more pictures of your collection and I would love to hear about your work in the north. It is very likely that remote work in the high north was much more demanding than work in the Antarctic (at least since it has been so domesticated by the National Science Foundation). I should also emphasize that I was there as a journalist, which meant all I really had to do was walk around and look at stuff. This is not really very hard work, compared to the men and women that really work there.

And by far the most interesting people there tended to be not the scientists or administrators, but all the people in Carharts who kept the whole place working. They were from all over the world (many from Alaska) and they were there for a huge range of reasons. There were also "Science mercenaries" which were graduates in one kind of science or another who couldn't get jobs in universities so they signed on as hired help for heavy lifting at the deep ice rigs and other science camps.

I think you are probably correct that the earlier days were a lot wilder and probably more free, in a way.

But I'd like to hear about your work in the north.

Thanks again for your generousity with your collection and your thoughts.
Rob

 

[Dudleydoright]

Well, no luck on the museum front. It's closed for re-modelling and won't have exhibits in it again until 'late Spring'. I should've checked the website before going ! Luckily though I work around the corner.

Here's a few photos of anoraks and parkas in action.......

And one of one of my N-3B parkas . The early nylon ones were used in Operation Deepfreeze'.

Rob,
I'll try to get some of my experiences of seismic exploration in the North on here too. It was fun and interesting work.
Cheers All,
Dave