A little more about winter fashion

Lucia Deleiris , pictured above wrote in to my comments page to tell what layers she had on she said "In the picture you see only the top layer, but I also have on merino wool long underwear, expedition weight poly pro pants, then work coverall windbreaking pants over that, merino wool top, part wool shirt, fleece jacket, down vest, then two jackets over that. wool scarf, and two hats, and heat packs inside gloves and in my trans-Alaska III Cabella boots!"

Lucia is an experienced winter survival painter having made numerous painting trips to both the Antarctic and to the arctic documenting in paint the wildlife under the auspices of the National Science Foundation. Below is a picture of her wearing that same coat in the arctic.
One night on this trip she tested out a new sleeping bag by sleeping in her car overnight. It was about zero , she looked OK at breakfast. Tough girl. Here is her web site

Chemical hand warmers are a nice thing to have when it is super cold. When you pull the disposable warmers out of their protective packets a chemical reaction begins involving iron and salt and activated charcoal all sealed up in little polypropylene bags. They rapidly heat up and stay that way for hours. Toe warmers are also available. If you put a pair in your gloves or boots they will keep them warm all day. I only use them when it is super cold, but they are a nice luxury then. You can buy them inexpensively here or at Amazon .

I was also asked about snowblindness and how that can be avoided. Snow blindness is essentially a sunburn of the eyes. The snow reflects a lot of UV waves into your eyes. One way to cut it down is to wear ordinary glasses. The plastic lenses cut the UV rays by a lot and the high density polycarbonite lenses that I wear cut them even more. As always when painting outside, a hat with a brim will also provide some protection for your eyes. Perhaps because I wear thick polycarbonite lenses I am never bothered by the glare from the snow.

I also wear lots of Polar fleece. Tomorrow I will tell you the story of that