Comments on: PHD LAUNCH ULTRALIGHT DOWN TROUSERS AND SOCKS

By: TTG

TTG — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:14:27 +0000

Dave: Santa obviously has a big budget in your household! Unfortunately he mustn’t think I am as good a boy as you are as there will be no PHD stuff dropping through my fireplace this year. I did go online and play around with the options for sleeping bags on the design your own. Because I have to add a bit on the length I always seemed to come out with something about 1kg and many hundreds of pounds! Must be doing something wrong. I mean a zip opening is not important but a baffle is, right?

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:30:51 +0000

@Dave: That’ll be due to the looming postal strike – you may wish to give Santa some early hints to avoid disappointment. But of the alternatives, what with one being called ‘Oops’ and another being named after a type of explosive you might want to stick with the man himself!

By: Dave Hollin

Dave Hollin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:13:23 +0000

damn those fiendish chaps at PHD. Just another item to add to the ever growing “want” list. I suspect that Santa is going to have a hard time delivering all my prezzies this Christmas….

By: TTG

TTG — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:22:36 +0000

You can get sleeping bags with no fill in the top half, perhaps someone like Peewiglet could conjure up the opposite with no fill in the lower half then wear these trousers to save weight. If someone has poor circulation perhaps the trousers might be good with such a bag then you just have the upper body covered by the fill in the upper baffles of the sleeping bag. Peewiglet complained that layering up the upper body did not work for her but booties and trews would. Just a daft idea I guess but shows I’m thinking. There are sleeping bags with slits in the sides so you can get your arms out without undoing the zips in order to put the stove on in the morning. I like that idea, but it also needs slits for the feet and lower legs to come out so you can head to the loo. Of course leads to where to place another slit. Sorry for being crude guess I should head back to OM.

By: baz carter

baz carter — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:24:39 +0000

I took a peak at the PHD website earlier and the booties are described as socks, so no soles on these hence the reason why they only weigh 90g.

I also to a look at the troos too. I’m still of the opinion that wearing a primaloft or down top in a sleeping bag is he best way of bumping the bags rating, for the reason TTG stated above. Like Geoff I’d use my sleeping bag to keep my legs warm on camp. This is fine if you were solo or on a neat wild camp but on a commercial site I can see the advantages of being able to walk around with half your sleeping bag on; being social and visiting the toilet block spring to mind

By: TTG

TTG — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:25:23 +0000

Down booties can also be bought elsewhere for less, I just can’t remember. Although As someone posted, Needlesports do down and pertex pile booties. The pertex/pile ones are more for walking around camps or huts. The down ones are also soled for that. HAving said that I think they also do the sock type booties. Thought about getting a pair once.

IME / IMO if you keep your upperbody warm to slightly hot then you keep the extremities warm too. Poor circulation is an issue for some but for most people another layer would probably be better than a down bootie. Think of it this way, down only works when fully lofted, depending on how you sleep you could end up with compressed down booties which don’t work as well as lofted ones. I wonder if it would be better to get down bags with slightly more fill in the foot area if you feel cold there through poor circulation. There are companies that refurbish down bags and you could get them to up the fill power in the baffles around the feet. Also make sure you have a good piece of mat under the feet. I am too tall for most mats which means in winter I carry two staggered so I have two layers under the body (one a thermarest full length or 3/4er length for me) and one layer at each end.

Ruffwear is probably the answer Darren. Get the booties too so Strider’s paws stay dry too. Of course you are lucky to be able to have dogs for company. I want a dog but m,y life means it is not fair on any dog.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:49:39 +0000

I think my mutts would love you as an owner, I don’t spoil them like that. Strider hates gettting wet, and he does let you know he is not happy being wet when we are back home.

By: Peewiglet

Peewiglet — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:19:02 +0000

Doh… just realised you were asking about how it affects me rather than the piglet *g*

I don’t mind the rain too much, as I simply shove on the Paramo (NO NASTY GORETEX HERE! Heh… just joking… I love Goretex too) and put my head down. It helps, I find, that I’m generally listening to an audiobook.

By: Peewiglet

Peewiglet — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:16:17 +0000

Hiya Darren,

Well, Piglet’s small, and still young, and she does notice the cold and wet if we stop moving. I bought her a ‘waterproof’ coat the first time I took her up to the Lakes, but now I’ve got her a little Equafleece polartec thingy (rather like a tube) and that seems to help. Even so, though, she’ll shiver in it if we stop in the wind, so I tend to pick her up at that stage and cuddle her warm. This is one of the advantages to having a small dog

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:02:07 +0000

Great discussion, which only goes to show everyone is different.
It’s why I don’t get all these arguments between folks on the forums about Paramo vs Goretex/Event etc or Boots vs Trail shoes etc etc
What works for one person doesn’t work for another. So as long as something works for you why should it bother others? Sometimes I think people forget that life is too short to worry about this sort of thing.
As Shirl is going to to be doing, we should all be getting out there and enjoying our passion.
While I remember Shirl how are you enjoying this wet weather walking the dog? I found since having dogs I don’t care about weather when out walking as I have to go out in it any way with the dogs. Great excuse to test kit as well
Back on subject. I do like discussions like this as it gives me ideas on stuff to try. I like to try new ideas to see if they work for me. Enables me to grow as a person.
So thanks again for the great comments.