 Poster: A snowHead
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Was talking to my mum today about skiing as kids when we all lived in Switzerland. We moved there in 1965 (aged 6) and I left in 1981 but they still live there. This was in the days (seriously!) of leather ski boots, clamp down bindings etc.
I skied all the time and do not remember ever getting really cold. She said we wore really cheap ski clothing as it was the start of my dads career we did not have not loads of money in those days. Just seems amazing that the gear I wore would have been nothing like what I wear now, materials have made incredible advancements yet we still get cold!
I remember having just one layer of thermals under a pair of ski trousers and a sweater with a jacket. Also really basic gloves and in those days I had never heard of glove liners. Wonder where the logic in all of that is? Surely it cannot be that any of the stuff I wore was more insulating? Has to be getting softer in old(er) age I reckon?!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@swishtony, we moved about a lot! Seriously, I rarely get cold skiing, normally it's only if I'm on an old-fashioned chairlift in a howling gale. Skiing keeps me warm. I don't really wear anything particularly different now to what I wore in the 70s. Just normal jacket and salopettes with a thin base layer underneath, maybe an extra t-shirt on a cold day. If anything the leather boots we had then were a bit warmer than the plastic boots we have now, and woolly hats are probably warmer than helmets. I agree the gloves were crap though, I often had cold hands so I started wearing mittens sometime in the 80s and have continued to do so.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Wool.
And more activity.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@swishtony, we are generally very mollycoddled now, and have no resilience to cold. Most of us live in centrally heated houses. But in my childhood all the bedrooms were entirely unheated, there was just one coke stove which could make the main living room/kitchen warm, the loo was outside and round the back.
When I went skiing with the school in about 1963 my mum knitted me a big oiled wool sweater with a snowflake pattern. It was Norway, and April, and not remotely cold, actually. I came across the sweater a few years ago, tried it on and tore it off instantly; it was so itchy!
I couldn't afford to go skiing again till I was 40.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Oh, and C&A.
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@swishtony, in the 1970s just running away from the thousands of sexual predators was enough to keep warm. Plus everyone was proper hard and that, have you not seen the Sweeney?
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I was never cold in my Rodeo stuff! I don't think it was waterproof, windproof or anything!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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My first ski session involved waterproof trousers over thermal insulated trousers, t-shirt, pullover and anorak, woollen hat and leather ski gloves. The ski gloves were the only items sold as skiwear, everything else was more akin to that worn by someone going fishing. Having enjoyed the sport the first thing I bought was a "proper" ski suit as retailed by the high street C&A's, don't knock it, that outfit lasted over ten years and endured some damp plus icy days on the Scottish slopes.
Thankfully, I am still managing to get away with thermal base layers, thin ski jumper but now an improved brand ski suit.
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Definitely C&A featured quite a bit when we started again, with the kids - in fact we were watching a DVD last night that my OH has created of old video films he took in Austria in the early 90s and one year one of our sons is in a rather vivid yellow/blue outfit that came from the local white elephant shop and was so thin it was more like a track suit. He thought he looked like the bees knees - till the next year.
@pam w, I went on a school trip to Solden in 1964 or 65 and had the big oiled sweater with a snowflake, leather lace up boots etc.
I think we all just put up with a lot more than we are prepared to nowadays - I love my Icebreaker layers, heated boots, teabags in the gloves!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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we are generally very mollycoddled now, and have no resilience to cold. Most of us live in centrally heated houses. But in my childhood all the bedrooms were entirely unheated, there was just one coke stove which could make the main living room/kitchen warm, the loo was outside and round the back.
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This. (though we did have an actual indoor bathroom, thank you, this wasn't the Jurassic age). We didn't have central heating until I was seven, and i have no memory of being cold as a child. I have no central heating now, and am generally less cold than everyone else. It's what you get used to.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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It's what you get used to
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exactly right @Lizzard, my grandchildren in Connecticut sit around in their house in the winter in very light clothing and it is flipping freezing there - we were our thermals in the house under other clothes and take hot water bottles. We didn't have central heating when I was a child, fireplaces in the bedrooms, but you only got a fire if you were not well. Got dressed under the bedclothes.
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As a kid we were always playing outside, every day, regardless of the weather. We were fairly weather hardened/beaten.
My first few trips were in my dad's work oilskins. Then after my parents realised that this skiing mallarky wasn't just going to be a flash in the pan they started to buy me some gear. The biggest difference to today was the bottom half, none of the baggy insulated ski pants of today. Two pairs of my mum's thick woolly tights and a pair of skin tight salopettes with padded knees and shins, same as everyone else. There must have been some cold days because I seem to recall lots of thigh slapping and rubbing going on.
The top half was t-shirts and woolly jumper below an anorak/ski jacket. Woolly hat with compulsory bobble or a very jaggy woolly balaclava if it was really cold/windy.
I remember how made up I was when my folks got me a 'Look' hat. Still wear it for skiing to this day, although the bobble got the chop in the nineties.
Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much  on Fri 23-01-15 12:29; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
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My C+A Rodeo ski jacket was the official definition of s**t. Leaked, zips fell off, pockets got holes in (remember several times having to work the backdoor key all the way round the lining and try to poke it back thru a hole in to a pocket).
Never remember feeling cold as a kid making snow men, wearing one of those Kenny style anoraks with the adjustable strap on the hood, and wearing wooly gloves knitted by Nana, and wellingtons with name written inside (and a wooden peg with name on to clip them together in school).
Do remember feeling cold as a teen, wearing mostly C+A.
Then after we had a very localised snowmageddon in North Kent (1986? 1987? forget exactly but it was the winter before/after the great storm) there was naff all snow for a decade, so everyone forgot about chilly weather.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Dachstein:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Saying that... my Grandparents did live in Berne, so those knitted wooly gloves may well have been knitted from Swiss Alpine spec wool, rather than a ball of lightweight stuff from the shop in the highstreet.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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we did have an actual indoor bathroom, thank you, this wasn't the Jurassic age
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I'm a lot older than you, Lizzard  I suspect few people in our street had a bathroom or an indoor loo.
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