It depends on what you're doing. Welding in it is different than inspecting in it or surveying in it.
Welding in it a good pair of thin silk glove liners (or 3, one pair, then latex medical gloves over them and another pair or 2 of thin liners) with heavy wool liners over that, all covered by (too big size) welding gloves will get you thru in 40-50 below as long as you have some time in the truck, and you usually do at those temps. Or old surplus GI trigger mittens : ) Mittens always beat gloves at extreme cold, imo.
The feet are major, frostbite'll ruin your world. Then the nose, face protection is a bigun'. In those temps it good to know your GPS location and phone numbers or radio calls, just in case someone goes cold. Exposed skin is bad in 30 below or more for extended times.
20 below is easy, under that it starts getting worse depending on wind and your time out.
J
In addition to JTMcC's excellent recommendations, I would add the following:
Clean, dry spares of glove liners and sox.
My best winter friend is a hair dryer. Small travel sized can be purchased at WongMart for about $8.00. The ultimate in comfort is to be able to dry out and warm up your hands, feet, boots, gloves, coveralls, etc. It works good for defrosting the lenses in your hood too.
and also makes a handy defroster for the crane when the heater takes a crap. dont ask me how i know
Thanks for all of the help fellas. Unfortunately I won't be welding or doing just inspection. We will be working with some tools, scotch bright wire wheels, wire brushes and sand paper, but they don't have much heat in them. lol I'm going to go on the hunt for some silk liners and see what I come up with.
Thanks again,
R.C.
You are not using them right if there isn't any heat in them.....LOL
Scrub faster young Danielson, wax on, wax off.
Well I might of steered you wrong, I don't know that they are made of silk, that's what we call them tho. The very thin liners.
If you're not welding it'll be a lot easier, you can wear stuff that won't hold up to the spark attack. A lot more options there.
J
If you're not welding you can check places like The North Face, Patagonia or Arc'teryx for cold weather gear, gloves, long john type of stuff and smart wool. When I'm not welding I use stuff from them to keep warm. Has been in the range of 0-21 F for the last 7 days. 21 was an amazing high and have not seen higher than that since. Yesterday was supposed to be in the 20's and never made it past 15 according to my truck.
6-25 degrees is cold. Down towards the 6 degree mark with wind and look for some wind proof stuff, ski pants or jackets. Cut the wind out and the wool and down jackets can start working better. Gloves and feet buy up some hand warmers and foot warmers from holemart, they work well put in your gloves for extreme cold. I was watching the weather in Minnesota last week and the weatherman said to watch exposed skin. It was one degree outside, think that was also the high for the day. Wind was kicking pretty good. He said the wind chill was minus xx Fahrenheit and that at those temperatures exposed skin would be frost bitten in 15 minutes.
Good luck up there, if it is going to be 6-25 degrees that's not to bad really. A good set of Carhart bibs and jacket with some underarmor or similar will get you by. A good hoody, face coverage and gloves/boots. Have fun!!!
Shawn from the land of Kansas
Just got back from our elk hunt on the San Francisco Peaks, Flagstaff, AZ. Temps were from zero to mid 20's for part of the time. We hunted between the 8,000 to 9,000 ft elevation mark on the north side of the peaks.
Base layers, thermals, and quilted pants. Layering is great for shedding some when needed. Micro fleece or the underarmour head gear work great for the face and head insulation. Boots and good socks for wicking moisture are important.
I was able to take a stand for long periods and not feel the cold. For two days we had winds probably gusting to 50 mph. Then the front came and dumped more snow on us and left us with the cold temps. Wind chill was the watch word then. Cutting the wind makes all the difference.
Have a Great Day, Brent
Kix, I wouldn't make too many preparations, since those are Celsius lows, and your F. temperature is actually going to range from about -6 at the lowest to +25 by Saturday!
Revised due to latest forecast: only +12 for Sat. +16 by Mon.
Brrrrr............
It's good to live in a tropical country.
Giovanni S. Crisi
Sao Paulo - Brazil
Hey RC, Welcome to Canada friend. Airdrie is in Alberta, a Province of Canada. Weather has been crappy. Don't forget foot wear, extra insoles and plastic bags. Buy good quality out door active underwear gear. Dress in layers weather changes. Cause It's going to get worse for cold buddy. I'm living North in Edmonton. You'll get used to it if you dress for it. The cold builds fellowship which I think is a misery loves company thing? Oh yea... and big pay checks. As a fellow welder, look me up. 780-471-3567 if your in the neighborhood.
I would HIGHLY Recomend Heading South instead of North ! Do you have a Calender ? This is the WRONG time of year to be headed up there ! (I am not really sure there is a right time) but this is not it !!
Have you considered Hawaii ?
Hey Kix,
I'm a few days late on this but one of the best Arctic gloves that they stock up here on the N. Slope are Refrigiwear. Pretty comfortible but of course a little bulky.
Howdy Ray....hope all is well brother!
