End Pavement

Thanks to the Blasphemous Bicycler for pointing to this BBC news story about an experiment to see if climbers back in 1924 could have made it up Everest clad only in the clothing of the time. I guess some folks have managed to convince themselves it was impossible because, God knows, people could barely walk upstairs before they invented artificial fabrics.

The findings are a step closer to proving the men could have reached the top, 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary.

Over the past few weeks, climber Graham Hoyland has been putting the old-style clothing worn on the fateful Mallory expedition to the ultimate field test on the world’s highest mountain.

Wearing replica gear made from gabardine, wool, cotton and silk, he wanted to disprove the common myth that the 1920s climbers were ill-equipped to reach the summit.

Anyhow, the experiment was successful for protection purposes, but was actually better than the newer materials for comfort and (of course) style, the latter of which being of prime importance. If you’re going to be clambering around on freezing mountains unlike sane people, you might as well look good doing it. As the Blasphemous Bicycler says,

Surprise, Surprise, wool and silk work out just fine in outrageously cold conditions.

More importantly, a mountaineer decked out in stylish woollies, cuts quite the dashing figure, and is sure to be popular with any young ladies he encounters on his way up the mountain.

Nice goggles, too (also very important). I want that outfit now, or one like it, and I’m not the only one; according to Hoyland,

“All the other climbers thought the jacket was stylish and wanted to know where they could buy their own versions of the clothes!”

This story brought to mind another from a few days ago on the Commute By Bike blog, No sweat bike commute, in which Fritz writes about bicycle riding in clothing other than the latest high-tech fashions.

I spent 15 years of my life with a faster bike commute. Each year, I had a new personal best for the time trial home. I wore sport-specific gear — bike shoes, bike socks, bike shorts, bike jersey, bike gloves — to improve my performance and wick away the sweat and I carted my work clothes to and from the office every day.

A few years go I began a radical experiment: I wore my normal work clothes to the office. I discovered something that LeMond and Petersen didn’t know about: you can go slow on a bicycle! The secret to the no sweat bike commute is to take it easy.

Words to live by.