UKC

When the weather starts getting a bit chilly on the hills I usually pack a particular fleece. This is a nice navy blue colour with a "sternum" zip. I often get my leg pulled about always wearing it.

The thing is it seems to be made of pretty stern stuff, having been bought for me circa 2004/5. It is showing no obvious signs of wearing out and, judging by a photo of me wearing it in 2005, has not faded over the years.

It's kept me warm in the Pyrenees, the Himalaya at up to 18000 feet, Morocco and, of course, Snowdonia, the Lakes and Scotland.

It really is an old and trusty friend.

Anyone else got any garments equally or more durable that you couldn't bear to be parted from?

In reply to mypyrex:

My Helly double fibre pile jacket.
Not windoroof but warm as toast even when wet. Bought in 1987 for £47 from Jo Royle in Hanley.
Always in my sack for hilltrips year round.
The zip pullers gone but it still zips. Any ideas on where to get an exact replacement zip?

In reply to mypyrex:

North Cape pertex wind shirt, thirty years. Rattles like a bin-liner in the wind but I like it.

Lucky chalk bag string, twenty five years.

Had a lucky woollen jumper until recently, but it finally unravelled.

The thing is that my fleece is not made by any of the recognised outdoor gear manufacturers. In fact it's true provenance has been lost in the mists of time. It might have been purchased in Tesco.

In reply to mypyrex:

I still have a goretex jacket I bought in the early nineties. The 3 layer stuff. It's fine, just a bit of seam tape needs sticking back down.

I recall wearing said fleece on the ascent of Kalar Pattar and Thorung La. Over a couple of base layers and beneath my North Face jacket it was great.

I have a Tiso Slaters synthetic duvet jacket which was a Christmas present in 1981. It served much of my mountaineering needs until around 2000 and since then has been my cragging and Ratho belay jacket. Some stitching has gone but the zip is still working fine after 35 years.

In reply to mypyrex:

Original Lowe Alpine dryflo tops - I've got a short and long sleeve version that have taken everything I can throw at them about 20 years. That includes walking, climbing, skiing, cycling and kayaking.

River Island shorts - absolutely brilliant cotton shorts that have been a staple of my summer wardrobe for years. I really wish I'd bought about 7 pairs. Ditto my TNF Meridian shorts - just brilliant for everything, but starting to show some signs of wear now.

In reply to mypyrex:

I persist with canvas gaiters (Trailwise) because they are water-tight, tough as the proverbial old boot and repairable. One colleague refers to them as the Captain Scott Memorial Gaiters.

Just to wind Mr Plastic Alpine up a little bit more, I sometimes turn up with my Alpendale salopettes, Ventile smock or my 1970s ski jumper that my mum knitted for me.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

I think I have a couple of those tops somewhere.

In reply to mypyrex:

Have a Lowe Alpine fleece which was a 'works issue' in 1994 or 5 and still worn regularly (its hanging on the back of my chair as I type). Also some Helly Hansen Lifa longjohns & top from the 80s still in the cupboard although I can't remember when I last wore them but they've have often been in the bag 'just in case'.

Also have some fairly old jackets (late 90s), one of which lives in the boot in winter for wearing if I have to put chains on the car, not really waterproof but fine for a few minutes & saves getting my new(er) jacket filthy.

In reply to mypyrex:

Mountain Equipment balaclava, c. 1989/91, blue fleece with delicate "Chairman Mao" red piping. I rarely if ever use it as a balaclava these days, as doubled over it makes a nice woolie-hat-style hat. I've always been attached to it, so much so that once, many years ago, when I left it in a Chinese restaurant in Keswick where my forestry MSc year had eaten, I pleaded with the group and driver so convincingly and with such emotion that we turned around near Whinlatter and I was able to retrieve it.

In reply to mypyrex:

I have an unbranded light weight jacket that is pretty windproof, had it about 15 years now and wear it for both climbing and under my motorbike jacket.
No matter what abuse I throw at it it never left me down.

In reply to marsbar:

That really shows just how bad my Rab eVent jacket that fell apart after about 9 months was... the wonders of modern technology I suppose.

Fleeces seem to be completely indestructible and last forever, though I do prefer the newer stuff like primaloft these days. My second hand ME Fitzroy, which was pretty well used when I bought it, seems able to soak up a seemingly endless amount of abuse. Can see it being a good few years yet before it needs replacing.

In reply to ChrisH89:
It's the lightweight vs durable thing I guess to some extent.
I'd be really upset if a jacket didn't last a few years at least.

In reply to mypyrex:

Doesn't most Buffalo gear fall into this category, the stuff never wears out.

In reply to Andrew Lodge:


Yep. My 1993 special six is back out. Love it.( apart from the hood)
Also mitts of the same year going strong. They live in my pack year round.

In reply to mypyrex:

Still occasionally using an original Mountain Equipment Thermofleece jacket I bought in Ambleside in 1982.

In reply to mypyrex:
I got my montane superfly event jacket for the LAMM 2005 and I'm pretty sure my paramo Velez is older. I also have a girl scouts of America TShirt that was given to me by a family friend and is about the same age as me. I'm rather attached to the formerly purple, now greyish fleece troll hat in my profile pic. I bought a new hat to replace it in about 2011, but somehow always forget to wear the new one.

In reply to Andrew Lodge:


Yes, but it really stinks.

Or is that just me.

In reply to mypyrex:

I have a Berghaus goretex jacket, purchased from Marshalls in Aberdeen around 1993. It's still waterproof(ish) and the poppers work. Zip packed up years ago and the tape is hanging off the seams. It hangs at the back door for wet weather hen feeding and wheelie-bin shifting. It weighs a ton and the hood is horrible - massive and no form of adjustment.

Similar era North Face fleece, from Barrabas in Benasque. Still going strong, still warm, all zips work, indestructible.

In reply to alan moore:



Well, we don't like to say but......................

In reply to mypyrex:

While putting some stuff away I saw my old duvet jacket which is still in good condition & worn on occasion - ots a ME Annapurna bought in 1976 (can remember the date as it was for my first trip to the Alps & for me at the time was very expensive. I also spotted a pair of Koflach ultras, they look OK but after hearing stories of old plastic boots falling apart I'm not sure if I'd trust them very much.

In reply to mypyrex:

Dave Gregory used to wear an old and very battered denim jacket for climbing on the grit (no point wrecking good clothes was his manttra) and I quizzed him about its age. Turns out it was the last one of three that he bought cheap in Sheffield market in "about 1950",

Chris

In reply to mypyrex:

My old Joe Brown extendable rucksac bought in 1971 for just over 6 quid. Admittedly there are more patches than canvas visible but I still use it for local cragging. My local climbing shop wanted it for a window display but Id never do that to it.

In reply to alan moore:

I once bumped into a bloke from the same climbing club as me collecting horse muck from the Trans Pennine Trail during his Sunday morning ramble.
I asked him how he was going to get it home to his garden without spoiling his newish rucksack and he unfolded his well worn Fjallraven jacket and said" I allus wrap it up in this first. Doesn't seem to harm the proofing at all..."

In reply to mypyrex:

I've got a Barbour wax jacket that I wear for dog walking, pub etc and I think it'll last longer than I do, it's bombproof. The smell is a bit funky, mind.

In reply to Dave the Rave:
Use a split ring (keyring) instead. that's what I've done with the sprayway fleece I got in 1990, It's now been relegated to gardening/DIY because it looks tatty, but is still plenty warm enough. I've a couple of T-shirts the same vintage I still wear, but aside from that nothing else has lasted (although my Buffalo tecmax shirt did well until the stitching rotted out of the back of the neck. The fleecy stuff inside was still good, much better than fleece).

In reply to Toerag:

The key ring trick has save a couple of fleeces and a sleeping bag. My favourite walking top (possibly a soft shell in modern parlance, but basically a fleece with a windproof outer) is well over 20 years old now, as are my thermal tops. All Mountain Equipment CoOp own branded stuff.

In reply to Toerag:

Thanks for that but it's actually the bit that I would thread it through that's gone as well.

In reply to mypyrex:

I've got a woolen beanie from 1981 and two Norwegian shirts from 1985 - the latter are regular dog walking attire. A Goretex jacket from 1987 is relegated to gardening. I threw a Lowe Alpine 'Alpine' rucksack from 1982 out a month ago. I have a lovely Ultimate down sleeping bag, one of the first to come from China. Dates from 1980, still pretty immaculate. It got a professional clean a little while ago and now smells of flowers. I also have an ME Annapurna duvet jacket, c. 1985 - one of the manic electric blue ones