Hi,

I'm looking for dressing tips in the winter. My wife and I are visiting Alta for 5 days during the New Year's. We've planned activities such as reindeer sledding, snow shoe hiking, snow mobiles, setting up bonfires in the forest etc.

We're from a warmer place (Switzerland) and haven't set foot in temps below -5 C for extended periods of time.

I have the following jacket: https://www.mackage.eu/products/jack
(The label on the jacket says -15 to -20 C)

If I pair this with a good midlayer and merino baselayer, does that suffice for the cold north? Otherwise I'll have to budget a decent chunk of money for a thicc parka.

Any other tips are appreciated!

by FlakyEducation3469

5 comments

  1. Yeah, with a merino baselayer and a midlayer you should be fine with that jacket.

  2. Alta usually has fairly mild weather compared to other places in the north. So temperatures probably won’t go much below -5 C.

    In any case, remember that you need layers snd they can’t be too tight. It’s the air trapped between the layers that keeps you warm, not just the clothes themselves.

    This is also the case for shoes. You need shoes that has wiggle room for your toes even with thick socks on. I usually wear winterboots one or two sizes bigger than my summer shoes.

  3. That jacket is fine, just add a wool under shirt, a solid scarf, gloves, winter cap, wool longs, non tight winter pants, wool socks and nice winter shoes thats slightly big (you dont want tight fitting winter shoes)

  4. Any jacket that has a temp rating is not to be taken seriously.

    Just layer, get merino wool layers, make sure everything you have is breathable because when you’re wet, no amount of insulation will keep you warm. Bring tons of merino woll, layer them, throw that jacket you bought in the trash no matter how expensive it is because it’s cringe fashionware and not something truly designed to be “life preserving” or “life saving” as a proper jacket would be. That’s something to walk around a promenade in while you go shopping. That’s not something for the activities you’re talking about where there will be temperatures that narrow the margin between being alive and hypthermia.

    Bring lots of merino wool layers and then a isolation jacket with a hood (downjacket) that you will wear underneath a shell, either a softshell, hardshell, or something like a canvas. You will be soaked in that jacket and it will be wet even the next day and not provide warmth plus it doesn’t really look like it’s wind-resistant and all the insulation in the world won’t help when the jacket isn’t wind resistant and the isolation is wet. This is why people use non-insulated layers. For snowshoeing in those regions, I wear 3-4 merino layers building them up then a shell that has ventilation. A balaclava is mandatory, especially for snowmobiling and sledding. The outer shell needs to have a properly designed hood that allows cinching properly around the face and then has a string to pull the brim back so it doesn’t fall over your eyes and allows articulation. One way to tell a crap jacket from a good one is how much is spent in making the hood functional to do such things as keep you alive. Your jacket doesn’t have one because it’s a fashion jacket and makes all sorts of red flags for someone hoping it will keep them alive in January in Finnmark and the Lappland and nearby regions.

    …but it’s your life, so you do with it what you want, but please do not go there unprepared because you thought your 900 Euro fashion jacket is a technical, life-preserving jacket. Tourists go to those regions all the time and need help or die because of being pretty arrogant and thinking they spent a crazy amount of money on something so it should keep them alive.

  5. I live far north of Tromsø and have down jackets I hardly use. Layers of thin wool, fleece or wool mid layer and a thin wind and waterproof shell jacket is my ultimate go to. Getting sweaty in cold weather is a killer.

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