clothing

Mac, in regard to your clothing inquiry there are many lively past posts. This is one of those personal choices that are up there with knives in terms of individual ideals. Suffice it to say the layered look is in be it natural materials or the latest generation of synthetic. Keeping spare socks on hand is a given, but how many people carry a spare watch cap? At the end of the day mine is also tired and wet from sweat . It gets a breather while the spare does night watch. Clothing is indeed vital; both for protection and a place to stuff all the tools we carry. The mummy found in the Austrian-Italian Alps is a fascinating look back at clothing and gear. It's all there( Doug may dissaprove of the copper axe), nothing has really changed, including misfortune that can strike the best prepared and knowledgeable.

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>but how many people carry a spare watch cap?<p><hr></blockquote><p><br><br>Oo, oo! I do! I do! <grin> And it is a real pleasure to put a dry one on at night - plus it keeps that part of the sleeping bag cleaner and drier. Paranoia, er, preparedness is the other reason we carry a spare. It has been important over the years with the kids... they have all lost one once on winter trips, and I sorta hazily remember one sleep-deprived hypothermic night many years ago... anyway, I carry a watch cap in my kit year round - that's my spare. If weather dictates a watch cap, I ADD one to my head or jacket pocket.<br><br>Scouter Tom

Austrian-Italian Alps guy was amazing to say the least...<br><br>About the clothing... When boating and in the cars I have I carry spare pants and shirt at all times. I get grubby so it is useful. I don't pretend to be a pilot, and it was not me that was soaked in gasoline, but I think if I was a pilot I would try to keep a small bag with jeans, shirt, jacket, and shoes in the plane. Maybe there is less room in a plane than I think, but then that would be less than a canoe... can that be it? I think I would agree on not having any spare copper ax of any kind... we have steel, and I might want one of those say a 2 1/2 pound Hudson type..... I was just asking.... Mac<br>i am new here, and do hope I am not a bother.....

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>i am new here, and do hope I am not a bother<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>Heh-heh-heh - I am enjoying your posts - keep it up.<br><br>Tom

Has there ever ben thoughts as to putting a piece on ETS about Otzi?<br><br>When you think about it, he carried the same sorts of things most of carry in our EDCs and PSK loads, just bulkier or more skill intensive. Most of us have built packs (or bug out bags, or 72-hour packs, et al), and with only a few changes, we carry the same he did, just in different styles and quantites. Pointing out how the basics haven't really changed in a few thousand years might be an interesting thing to have here, both for gear and for the reminder that even best skilled and equipped person here could screw up, die, and in a few thousand years, be a scientific find.<br><br>Any volunteers?

Y'know, I think that's a great idea... a side-by-side comparison (with commentary or links to same). Hey, Chris, sorta up your alley, kinda, isn't it? How about it?<br><br>BTW, I seem to recall reading recently that he actually was wounded - probably succumbed to his wounds - sustained during a fight with some other person or persons...<br><br>Scouter Tom

Perhaps Hikerdon and I can find some interesting links. This is probably better pursued in the various websites for the " primitive" technology folks. The latest research on Otzi reported the unidentified object in his shoulder as a projectile point and the one fracture. It is hypothesized he was in a "range war" between competing people and had to "bug out."

http://www.gla.ac.uk/Acad/ lBLS/DEEB/jd/otzi.htm and www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/icemummies/iceman.html will give a good briefing to new readers. Otzi carried a pouch with flint and a retouching tool, ( I believe a small pressure or percussion tool for flaking) two bark boxes( one with coals), a hafted flint knife, copper axe, fungus ( used for fire tinder and/ or medicinals) a wood frmed backpack and his bow and unfinished arrows. Otzi dressed in three clothing layers; deerskin leggings, jacket and grass rain cape, bearskin cap and moss stuffed footwear. Incidentally, I was told by a friend who served in an Italian mountain division the sheepherders were still using those grass capes well into the early 1900s! So much for naked in to the wilderness with only a knife.

Chris, my basic outdoor clothing list always includes a balaclava helmet, even for the desert. Very effective at retaining heat when things get cool.<br><br>I don't know, but I suspect that something like the balaclave was around during Iceman's era...

Chris, I believe I recently read that yet another hypothesis considered the iceman to be a sacrifical victim. Sounded a tad far fetched to me.<br><br>Maybe archaeology isn't an exact science........

There were a couple toher items in his kit. Bone awl, shaped striking stone (pyrite?) and flint, some cordage, and some items like a couple of chunks of bone that could be anything from his equivelent to carrying out can to raw materials for tools to religious/devination (throwing bones, it's kinda like reading tea leaves) items.

This is probably unduly harsh, but bear in mind that the one thing archeology can tell us is that iceman did not survive with the kit he was carrying.<br><br>Poor guy - he should have waited until he had a frou frou pack, the Victorinix thingee with the cute little compass, and a 22 shell to use for a whistle.

1: any of us can be taken out by hypothermia<br><br>2: any of us with a deep penetrating wound to the upper torse is going to be SOL on just a PSK. If perontinitis (sp) doesn't get you, the leak will.<br><br>I don't see it as a failure of the kit, but just Murphy making a house call. I question any of us being able to survive, without outside support, in that situation. Doesn't mean we won't try, though.

So what do we learn or observe from this look into the past? There truly is "nothing new under the sun" and even an "equipped to survive" individual may succumb to misfortune. The latest GPS is merely a very sophisticated elaboration on Otzi's intimate knowledge of his territory. The humblest of knives we agonize over would all be sought after compared to his flint dagger ( and ironically not as sharp.) we probably will never know what brought Otzi to that lonely place. What we do know is he lived 25-40years , well advanced in that age. So somewhere in Europe a distant descendant is preparing for a bicycle tour through the country. What we wonder is, does he have his Altoids tin pocketed?