Clothing for the mountaineer is of vital importance. As regards homeland climbing, little need be said. Woollens should be worn next to the skin, and for outer garments the usual plan would apparently be to use up all old disused details.
Discarded army outfits and tunics have been much in evidence and the appearance of many a cragsman has become deplorable. Of Gunga Din Kipling wrote, "The uniform he wore was nothing much before and rather less than half of that behind," and the same might almost be said of a few climbers. Rocks rough-handle any kind of clothes badly, and though outfits more adaptable to Piccadilly than the Pillar are inadvisable, the demands of respectability are worth consideration. Lady climbers are beyond reproach in this respect, but the writer wishes they would wear short tunics.
At some of the centres the landlord keeps a store of climbers' cast-off clothes which have become a sort of public property for a "dry change" to be used by casual visitors and others. Some are very casual and exchanges are not unknown. Frequently quite good suits are left behind at Wastdale Head, and after an Easter holiday a well-known Oxford don who is somewhat exclusive in his colour choice decided to leave his climbing garments for the general store. Next term he was astonished to meet his exclusive tweeds in the "High" worn by an undergraduate. He was not easily persuaded that exchange is no robbery.
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| Men in tweed: George Mallory on the Moine Ridge. Photo by G W Young. |
Discarded army outfits and tunics have been much in evidence and the appearance of many a cragsman has become deplorable. Of Gunga Din Kipling wrote, "The uniform he wore was nothing much before and rather less than half of that behind," and the same might almost be said of a few climbers. Rocks rough-handle any kind of clothes badly, and though outfits more adaptable to Piccadilly than the Pillar are inadvisable, the demands of respectability are worth consideration. Lady climbers are beyond reproach in this respect, but the writer wishes they would wear short tunics.
At some of the centres the landlord keeps a store of climbers' cast-off clothes which have become a sort of public property for a "dry change" to be used by casual visitors and others. Some are very casual and exchanges are not unknown. Frequently quite good suits are left behind at Wastdale Head, and after an Easter holiday a well-known Oxford don who is somewhat exclusive in his colour choice decided to leave his climbing garments for the general store. Next term he was astonished to meet his exclusive tweeds in the "High" worn by an undergraduate. He was not easily persuaded that exchange is no robbery.
References
From George D. Abraham, First Steps to Climbing, Mills & Boon, Limited, London, 1923.
From George D. Abraham, First Steps to Climbing, Mills & Boon, Limited, London, 1923.
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