Historic Hillwalking

[nobodyspecial]

I've backpacked without trekking poles and I've backpacked with trekking poles and backpacking with trekking poles is easier. I find hills are much easier, both up and down, with a pair of trekking poles. I was skeptical until I tried them and now I won't go back. I was also skeptical of led headlamps and digital cameras at one point, some items are an improvement.

As much as I'd like a ventile rain parka, 3 layer eVent rain parkas are quite nice. The best aspect to modern gear is that it generally will dry faster. On a multi day trip in wet weather that can be a big advantage.

 

[BellyTank]

Excellent points, all.
Thank you.


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[H.Johnson]

Defining the boundaries of 'historic' hillwalking

I was clearing some stuff out of my loft the other day when I came across a box that contained some walking gear that I had bought in the early 1960s and put aside because I had 'moved up' to more serious hiking.

It contained a rather nice 'daysack' size rucksack (hardly used) a pair of hideous maroon leather boots with yellow laces (never worn) and an anorak (also never worn). Interestingly, the boots and rucksack were made in Czechoslovakia - a lot of Relum kit was imported at the time.

My first thought was that I had most of an instant early 1960s hillwalking impression. All I need to add is the corduroy breeches, red stockings, the woollen 'bobble hat' or cloth cap and the Ewan McColl song book.

Then it struck me that I would be psychologically incapable of wearing it. I'm a big fan of vintage hiking, historic hillwalking, whatever you call it, but somehow to me neither term seems to apply to the 1960s. Yet these things are from almost 50 years ago. Is it that 'historic' always applies to something just before your own time, I wonder?

 

[nobodyspecial]

Yet these things are from almost 50 years ago. Is it that 'historic' always applies to something just before your own time, I wonder?

You might be on to something. Maybe we are all looking for the era in which we were born too late to take part in.

 

[Creeping Past]

I started with an idea in mind of what a well-dressed hillwalker would have worn in The [generic] Past. On researching, I found they'd have worn leather, cotton, silk, etc. Now I'm looking specifically for comfortable, stylish, functional clothing and kit. So I guess I'm still encountering the generic past.

 

[H.Johnson]

So...is the 1960s 'The Generic Past'? I need to know before I dispose of this stuff!

 

[Creeping Past]

Clothes evoking the Generic Past -- the ideal past (fictional or real) that's assimilated and seeps into one's consciousness: the Creeping Past, if you will -- will tend to mesh with a certain idea of function and style in yor brane. In such clothing, you'll imagine yourself even more raffish, adventuresome and devil may care than usual. If this does not apply, these garments must be discarded.

For historical hillwalking purposes, the era or decade the stuff's from, or evokes, is immaterial, so long as the fabrics are natural and one's ideal intent is enacted.

Back on sub-topic, though, I started walking in the 1970s and certainly wouldn't wear any of the kit I used then, including the Doc Martens. I was just a kid and all my lot could afford was the cheapest plastic kit available back then. It would be a different story if I'd had access to better stuff 30 years ago. I imagine your objections to the 60s kit are based on aesthetics and quality rather than functionality.

Perhaps we're the first generations to face the problem of re-encountering our past pastimes, in addition to the pastimes of historical figures. Now there's a post-postmodern conundrum of everyday life for you.

 

[BellyTank]

Now, I must admit to feeling a little dizzy.

I think you're right.


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[Creeping Past]

I'm glad it had some impact. I had a quiet lie down after I wrote it.

 

[Chasseur]

I think that it links with idea of how "living history" or "re-enactment" of older periods is seens as more "normal" than more recent ones. For example, is the US there is no stigma about Roman Legions, medieval knights, Revolutionary War, Civil War, etc. living history.

When you get to WWII, in particular German and SS units (as we've seen a few times on the WWII forum here) some people's eyebrows start to raise. If someone was to tell you they re-enact the Vietnam War or Desert Storm, that just seems wierd to most people.

Just a thought.

 

[H.Johnson]

I think it's the human condition, involving the unattainable - the 'just out of reach'. You will know it as a fact that the perfect view is always going to be from the next mountain. The ideal camp site is always in the next valley. The best billy of tea will be brewed around the next bend in the river, or the tastiest scone at the tea room you haven't yet discovered.

For me, the 50s and 60s were the decades of my best hillwalking experiences and to recreate them is psychologically close to 'reliving my youth' - dressing as I did in my teens and twenties. I suggest that for many people - myself included - this is an embarrasment, rather pathetic and to be discouraged. You 'don't want to go there' in your sixties. Dressing as a previous generation did does not contain any of this stigma.

Now, I must admit to feeling a little dizzy.

I think you're right.


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[Creeping Past]

I finally get your point.

The other day I was looking at a pair of modern plimsolls (a nice pea-green, made by Superdry). I had a flashback to my 8-year-old self, clad entirely in hand-me-downs (heavy denim jeans, a dark green short-sleeve Aertex-style shirt and a pair of old-style black and white baseball boots).

I prevented myself from buying the nice new shoes through some primal fear of self-regression and dusted off my plain white plimsolls on returning home.

 

[H.Johnson]

Understandable, but illogical, perhaps. I need to overcome this inhibition. This week-end is the Summer Solstice. I'm off to Stonehenge to see the sunrise and I will, I promise, be wearing my new-found 1960s hiking gear. Let's face it, among ten thousand people wearing everything from bedsheets to oak leaves I'm hardly going to stand out!

 

[BellyTank]

I finally get your point.

The other day I was looking at a pair of modern plimsolls (a nice pea-green, made by Superdry). I had a flashback to my 8-year-old self, clad entirely in hand-me-downs (heavy denim jeans, a dark green short-sleeve Aertex-style shirt and a pair of old-style black and white baseball boots).

I prevented myself from buying the nice new shoes through some primal fear of self-regression and dusted off my plain white plimsolls on returning home.

Superdry, their basketball boots are very nice.
I'm wearing my £3 Primark special, knock-off Chuck Taylors today.

There are certain items of clothing that I wore when I was 16 years old, that I still wear at 40 odd. The basketball boots(black/black) and skinny, skinny legged black jeans(self tailored, of course), for instance. I have found it a little annoying that this pairing has become something of an alternative youth culture-meets-mainstream-fashion standard.

Nice with the green Anorak, though.

Why is it that English* folks often refer to "Basketball boots" as "Baseball boots"? You're the umpteenth (sorry to make a statistic out of you).


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[Creeping Past]

We called them baseball boots when I was a kid (early 70s onwards). The only people we knew who played basketball were the Harlem Globetrotters, and we Fenland children looked nothing like them at all. I suppose we never thought about specialist footwear back then.

Maybe NZ and Oz were more US-centric back then and aware of exotic stuff, like north American ball games.

Since I'm in that train of recollection, I should've spelled "plimsolls" as "plimpsoles", because that's how we pronounced it round my way, back then.

 

[H.Johnson]

Since I'm in that train of recollection, I should've spelled "plimsolls" as "plimpsoles", because that's how we pronounced it round my way, back then.

You mean they didn't have soles made of plimp?

 

[Creeping Past]

plimp: n. pl. plimp or plimps.
1. The heavily ridged bark or rind of certain Asian plants; related to rubber.
2. Sole of leisure footwear, whether or not fabricated from plimp (UK-specific).
3. plimpsole line: colloquial; the scuff-marks on skirting boards, doors, etc., caused by ingrained dirt on shoes soled with plimp.

 

[BellyTank]

Well that puts the kybosh on my understanding of "plimp",
although, to be fair, it was just something overheard on Peckham Rye.
Your is much more logical.

plimp: n. abbreviation of pimp limp
"Rodney has one crazy plimp. He looks like a bicycle with a twisted wheel."


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[dit dah]

Damn it, you turn your back for three months and everyone starts talking about historical hillwalking again....

There's more to this "Fedaero Lounge" than meets the eye.

 

[Creeping Past]

Hemp cap and a spotted <s>do-rag</s> handkerchief on the head

After extensive testing this summer, I'm adding a hemp canvas 8-panel cap (cream colour) to my warm weather wardrobe. Functional, stylish and guaranteed to raise a smile from fellow hikers on the hills sporting purpose-made extreme bandanas or beanies.

I've also taken to wearing a spotted hankie*, pirate style, when on more energetic hikes, where scrambling is a possibility. It looks grand. I've no photographs to back up this claim, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

*British abbreviation for handkerchief; I've never seen South Park, so I've no idea what you mean.