July 25, 2009

It's gonna be freakin' cold!

I've gotten mixed reports but, as far as I can gather, somewhere between -40 and -60 will be the average temperature with windchill in the winter darkness of Pangnirtung (if anyone reading this knows any different, please let me know). I've been told to get on the Canada Goose bandwagon and hold on for dear life; is there anyone who disagrees? How far south do you have to be to sweat in your jacket? I want a warm jacket, not a steaming one. That being said, there are aspects of my job which will have me out on a snowmobile trekking around.

If I do take the Goose route, I'm still undecided between a few designs. First off comes the Expedition. Apparently it's the one that has been used at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica for years but is only now available in a woman's cut. One of its attractions is the built-in snow skirt; the others are all free-falling. Also, the hood has a bracing wire with the coyote ruff to make sure it keeps its shape. I could probably throw Gryphon in one of those front pockets and balance him out with Scarlett in the other... wouldn't that be a sight for sore eyes!

Next comes the Mystique. This one's kinda cool in that it was designed for Rebecca Romaijn Stamos when Xmen II was being shot. This one is the only one that is described as being knee-length but, from what I can tell from personal reports, all of these jackets are sized quite large. I don't know about jumping on a snowmobile with this one. Thoughts?

The Trillium is nice (I think). It's a good length, but I'm not sure of the insulation. Obviously it's warm, but it's probably not as warm as the Expedition. It has an adjustable drawstring hood and waist (the others don't), which is a nice feature...it actually shows off that you're a female and not a tree wrapped in a blow-up mattress! Unfortunately, the inside is only a 60/40 duck down/feather blend...not as warm as the Expedition and the Mystique.

The last choice, the Kensington, looks nice. Like the Trillium, it's only a 60/40 duck down/feather blend, but I think it looks like something I'd be more likely to use in the city steets of Ottawa (last Christmas, when the busses were on strike, we had to walk around in temperatures which, at times, went below -30 C with the windchill). Hmmm, I'm not sure.

Footwear is the one thing I'm pretty sure of...the hawk colored Joan of Arctic Sorel boots. The perfect mix of style and functionality m'thinks.

Anyway, if any cold survivors could give me some advice, that would be great. It's a lot of money to spend if I end up getting something that I'm not completely happy with.

5 comments:

Jaime said...

I have the Mystique and I love it. My only complaint is that there are no drawstrings for the hood and it tends to fly off unless you wrap a scarf around it. It has double-zipper so you can always unzip it from the bottom when you're on a snowmobile.

As for your weather badge...what exactly is the problem? Where are you trying to put it precisely? You likely have the new version of Blogger (I have the old). You will have to create a new box thing (in the Customize area). Select "HTML" and paste in the wunderground code. Let me know if it doesn't work.

Jaime

Tara Muise said...

grrr...I still can't figure it out. I guess it's not that important right now; I should be preparing in other, more measurable, ways. I'll play around with it when I have more time.

Thanks for the note about the Mystique!

t

Jordan~Stephanie said...

I feel like the three of us are the coolest and best blog commenters around!

Canada Goose is the best. Jaime recommended them to us, we searched them out and they were mind-blowing. You can't really tell this from the video but, we were in a very well air-conditioned store in shorts and t-shirts. Within 30 seconds of having the jacket on, we were almost sweating.

There were other jackets we tried on, but nothing compared to the Canada Goose.

The Expedition is the jacket I chose, and the ladies Expedition is built for endurance. It's a thick, warm, tough jacket. The MYSTIQUE was equally as affective and was longer, we found this to be a huge selling point, and even more so after we tried it on.

Perfect Segue . . .

Look for a SPORTING LIFE . . they had a great selection. We didn't find much at M.E.C..

I also suddenly realised that Steph may have already answered these questions. Oh boy.

Any questions you have, don't hesitate.

Tara Muise said...

Sporting Life...got it. Did you guys head to TO for the day? Ottawa really sucks when it comes outdoor equipment shops (which I didn't realize until these past few weeks). MEC, Trailhead - that's the standard fare. There's always stuff available online, but sizing is a problem. I'm really nervous about the Goose b/c I'll have to order it and everything I've read says they're sized weird. You guys had to go one size up, right? Grrr.

oh, and we are definitely the coolest bloggers...

Jordan~Stephanie said...

We did - though to be fair, I work downtown already and it is close enough not to be a burden. I think the sizing is pretty average actually, and wasn't really a surprise. I tried on an extra small in the store that day because they didn't have a small in the style I wanted. I could zip it up - but I was also wearing a tank top that day (parka shopping in july haha) and felt it wouldn't really reflect the average day's clothing in iqaluit! I am going with a small and am not worried. What was surprising was that Jordan could get away with a medium - which he generally is not. He's going to get a large anyways. So basically, the point I'm making is that we are both ordering the same size jacket that we normally wear - so have no fear!