anne-ireland

Hi guys just a quick question;

We are arriving in calgary in january, what would ye suggest to bring in the way of gear for the cold ie jackets etc, not sure whether to kit the whole family out in snow gear or just bring essentials and get rest out there.

Dont want kids to be uncomfortable so any advice appreciated

Anne

PeterF

Just bring what you have thats warm and ensure you have it in your budget to buy coats etc in your local Bay or wherever.

British 'warm' clothes are never going to be as good the Canadian ones.

sas-lou

Hi there.

Im flying to Ottawa on 8th December and im currently going through the same dilemma .. hubby told me last night it was -16 yesterday over there (holy crap) .. I have brought loads of long sleeved tops and jumpers, they also have long (slightly oversized) coats, today i brought some thinsulate gloves and hats and im just thinking that if they need anything warmer, i'll buy it there .. I do worry however about trousers .. my kids love jogging bottoms, but they are thin .. hubby says you dont want to over dress as as soon as your indoors your melting .. so what is the win win situation????

Judy in Calgary

Bring the warmest stuff you already own, then buy gear once you get to Canada. There is a larger selection of winter gear in Canada, and it's cheaper.

Each of you will need:

• parka - This is a hooded, insulated, water-resistent jacket that should go down to mid-thigh length at a minimum. The insulation could be made from a synthetic substance or natural goose down. Thinsulate is a good synthetic insulation, from the point of view that it packs a lot of insulating capacity into a layer that is fairly thin. Therefore it makes for a coat that is not unduly bulky.
• boots - If you will be standing still outdoors for any length of time (e.g., if you'll be standing at a bus stop), you should get a pair of boots that are good down to at least -30 deg C. Boots that are lined with felt are the warmest. Sorel make boots that have a waterproof outer layer with a felt lining (which can be replaced when it wears out). If you have kids, I personally think you should equip them with Sorel boots. Schools send kids outdoors for recess until the temperature gets down to about -25 deg C.
• ski pants - If you have kids, you should provide them with insulated trousers, for the same reason that I believe you should provide them with felt-lined boots.
• ski suit - Some kids wear an all-in-one ski suit instead of a separate top and bottom. This can be useful for very young kids (toddlers). When kids get a bit older (school age), I personally think separate winter jackets and ski pants are more versatile. There are more situations in which one needs a jacket than there are situations in which one needs insulated trousers.
• warm hat - Something that you already own in the UK, such as a wool cap, may be suitable.
• insulated gloves or, better still, mittens (since mittens are warmer than gloves) - I recommend Thinsulate-lined gloves, such as the ones that skiers use, or mittens.
• warm scarf - Again, this is something that you already may own.
• long underwear - This is not something that you absolutely need, and it's not something that you necessarily have to buy right away. If you create layers, using various other garments, you can get away without it (unless you get into skiing immediately). However, long underwear certainly is very useful to have.

There are many, many stores that sell winter outerwear. Two stores that provide a good balance between quality and price, in my opinion, are:

• Mark's Wearhouse (of which there are several branches)
• Mountain Equipment Co-op (of which there is only one branch in Calgary). You have to pay a nominal fee for a lifetime membership of MEC. I can't remember what it is. It's $5 or something like that. Anyway, whatever it is, I consider it to be indispensable for a resident of Calgary.

Oh yes, these suggestions are for Calgary, although they would be applicable in much of Canada (excluding Coastal British Columbia).
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MarkG

Layers. You want to be able to change the amount of clothing to make it more or less warm; for example, I have thermal legging things, normal trousers and a pair of baggy 'gangster trousers' that can go on top of the normal ones. Wearing all three I'm pretty warm at -40C and can remove the outside trousers when I get to work, or with either two I'm fine down to -10C or so.

That said, my girlfriend says I'm a wuss for wearing so much in the cold .

anne-ireland

Judy, once again you have come up trumps, thankyou very much for such a concise and clear answer
Anne

Judy in Calgary

It depends. For short trips outdoors, say walking from a parking lot into a store, an insulated jacket and gloves are enough.

For longer periods outdoors, your kids may find that ski pants (trousers) are necessary.

It depends on their ages, however. Teenagers are notorious for being underdressed in cold weather. I've seen teenaged girls in Calgary with bare midrifs when the weather has been -20 deg C. Dressing adequately for winter weather is not "cool" in many teenage circles, especially amongst girls. Well, being underdressed in winter actually makes one feel very, very cool, but that's not the sense in which I'm using the word, of course.

When the temperature gets down to about -30 deg C, reality sets in. At that temperature, even a teenaged girl will bite the bullet and wear a proper parka, etc.

As for disrobing when you come in from the outside, that's the burden of Canadian winters. It's a pain in the tush, but there's really no way round it. When kids come back in from recess at school, they have to take off their boots, parkas, ski pants, gloves/mittens and caps/beanies. Each child has a locker in which to store this stuff (or, at a minimum, a hook from which to hang his/her parka and ski pants).

In our Calgary house, our front entrance hall had a bench whose seat lifted and underneath which there was storage space. Inside the bench, each family member had a bin for his/her scarves, caps, gloves and mittens.

For relatively short stints in the outdoors, you want to wear warm outer layers that easily can be removed when you come back indoors. It's not advisable to wear long underwear and other garments that are time consuming to remove if you'll be outdoors only for a short time. Long underwear is worth wearing only if you're going to be outdoors for a substantial length of time.

One of the things that I didn't like about Calgary was that I had to put on a warm jacket and boots, even if I just wanted to pop out for two minutes to take the garbage to the back lane. I couldn't very well trample through the snow in sandals.

One of the things I like about Vancouver Island is that, for short little trips outdoors (e.g., taking out the garbage), I can wear sandals. Well at least that has been the case this far into my first island winter.

Mitten clips - I forgot to metion these items in my previous list. They clip mittens to the end of the child's jacket sleeves. You need them for young children. If the child doesn't have them, he/she will lose umpteen mittens. However, once children reach a certain point in school, say around grade one or two, they will refuse to wear "idiot clips" any more. They will say that they are for babies only.
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sas-lou

Again you have come up trumps .. thank you ever so much.

That was one of my concerns regarding the children and school .. Its ok having all these clothes on, but where do you put them when you take them off.

Would the same apply for work .. If you go for a job interview and its -20 outside .. will they mind to much if i went to a side room and adjusted my professional work attire and take off some layers, obviously in those temperatures i dont want to travel to an interview in just skirt/shirt/heels.
I want to look professional but i also would like to be warm.

Its the little things you worry most about.

R I C H

You're worrying far too much. If it's cold, you wrap up. Nobody will bat an eye if you have to take off boots and strip a few layers. Keep yourself decent though

fledermaus

I don't wear half the winter gear we bought. Unless you are out on a hike or you know you are going to be standing around in the cold I think all you need is a warm coat, and some layers. Good gloves or mittens keep your hands warmer. a hat that covers your ears and a scarf. If you have too much on once you get indoors you will be uncomfortable as everywhere seems to be overheated.

MOH has some lined jeans he wears to work, otherwise he's ok in standard jeans. When I go to work I just wear my scrubs and then make a dash from the car to the building.

In the summer you have to take a jacket with you, when you get indoors it will be over airconditioned and you will freeze.

Such is Canada. Well Ontario.

Judy in Calgary

About the job interview ....... It would depend on the nature of the job and what sort of clothes people at the specific company wear to work.

In an office environment in which the standard of dress is reasonably "professional" (and this would include many administrative / secretarial jobs), it would not be appropriate to go to an interview in a parka and Sorel boots. And, no, in most cases there wouldn't be a side room in which you could take off some of your layers.

For these kinds of interviews, you would need to wear a wool coat and dress boots. Another kind of dress coat that is acceptable is a raincoat with a removable Thinsulate lining. Without the lining it's a raincoat, and with the lining zipped in or buttoned in, it's a winter coat. The coats of this type that are really warm are not cheap, however.

When you arrived for the interview, the reception room would have a cupboard or coat rack that you could use for hanging your coat. But you would keep your dress boots on for the interview.

The fact that you would need to invest in two types of coats and two types of boots all at once would be a financial burden. Canadians do not buy these items in a single winter. Over time they build up a collection of coats and boots for different temperatures and applications. Since these garments are bought at different times and wear out at different rates, the purchases of replacement also are staggered over time.

Sas-lou, what I would do if I were you is buy a casual parka and hiking boots (not Sorels) when you first arrive in Ottawa. Would I be correct in assuming that you won't start job hunting until after Christmas / New Year? By that time, winter gear will be on sale, and that would be the time to buy a dress coat and dress boots. I find that an ideal time to look for stuff on sale is around December 27th / 28th.

I would advise you against buying Sorels right away. Live in Ottawa for a while, and find out how much time you feel like spending out of doors in winter and what winter weather in Ottawa feels like to you. Test if hiking boots with warm socks are adequate or if you want more insulation around your feet.

If you have young kids or if you have older kids who have to walk quite some distance to school, then I do recommend Sorels. Young children's smaller bodies have a suface to mass ratio that is different from larger adult bodies. Consequently young children lose heat more quickly than adults do.

I have just read R I C H's response, and I disagree with it, at least for the business environment in which I worked for years in downtown Calgary. At times I did stints of office work in the industrial area, and it was more casual there. Universities and colleges (at least from what I saw in Calgary and here in Nanaimo) are not as casual as an industrial area, but are more casual than Calgary's downtown business environment. When I've done courses at Mount Royal College in Calgary and attended events at the University of Calgary and at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, I have found faculty members to be more casually dressed than people in offices in downtown Calgary. Even after many businesses in downtown Calgary switched to business casual or smart casual dress codes, it still would have been more appropriate for a woman to attend a job interview in a wool coat and dress boots than in a parka.

Actually, the lower a woman is on the totem pole in a business environment, the more conscious of dress and grooming she needs to be. A female engineer or geologist will be hired for her technical qualifications, experience and skills, and her employer will forgive dress that is a little on the casual / sloppy side. In an upscale company, part of what an admin assistant, secretary or receptionist brings to the job is a presentable appearance. An employer may not even be conscious of it. But I can assure you that, if the short list includes two women who have similar qualifications and experience but who look different from each other, the woman who is well groomed and wears sharp, professional-looking attire will get the job.

When I started turning grey in Calgary, I decided to leave my hair natural. At the time, that sort of thing was being done by faculty at the university, but it was not being done in the business environment in downtown Calgary. I felt very self-conscious. I was aware of being almost the only woman with grey hair in the downtown core. I felt tremendous pressure to dye my hair, as all the middle aged women around me did. But I was determined to stick to my guns on that issue. In recent years (from my 2000 return from Australia onwards), I started noticing more and more women with grey hair in Calgary's downtown core. There are enough women leaving their hair grey now that the decision does not require courage. When I did it, it required a certain amount of guts.

I don't think a man can understand this. The way our society looks at things, grey haired men look distinguished, but grey haired women just look old.

Back to sas-lou's situation, I admit I've never worked in Ottawa, and it would be useful to get Ottawa-specific feedback for her.
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R I C H

Judy, I've interviewed for a number of positions recently, from middle management down to admin clerks (all within a university). How people arrive dressed in cold weather really doesn't matter. Once they've shed their warm outer wear and maybe changed from boots to shoes, that's when presentation is important - how you'll actually present yourself in the office environment.

Most seem to over-dress for an interview anyway. The reality (here) is that smart casual is perfectly acceptable, suits are uncommon, ties rare, and clean, smart jeans are fine.

Canada2006

We've just spent 2 hours in -5oc in central Montréal with 2 young kids (3 and 1 years old). When we arrived in Canada we went to Mountain Equipment Coop. (MEC) and bought parkas for us and a ski combination for the 3 year old and a head to toe one for the one year old.

Today we were as snug as a bug in a rug except... my wife had her Euro ankle boots on - very nice to look at but her feet were too cold and the 1 year old had normal shoes on and she was too cold. The 3 year old had Canadian felt lined boots (Kamik) and was great.

I find Canadian clothes different from those in Europe with more anti-cold features. Therefore I would recommend buying cold weather clothes here. If you're just dashing from the car to the mall to the house, you could get by with layers and a Euro coat, but not for a walk and not at all for long at -35oc.

For shoesm I would suggest Globo - not the most fashionable, but good value. They're all over Québec, I'm not sure about RoC.

NikkiB

Two good shops - assuming they have them in Calgary.

Marks Workwear - I got a -30 degree rated coat here for about $50 in the sale.

Army/Navy Stores - I picked up a pair of -40 degree rated boots (nice looking too) for $10.

The stuff from UK is normally pretty rubbish unless you have some expensive good stuff. If not best buy it here.

MarkG

I got my big coat there in a sale last winter; which I didn't really understand, I'd have thought that they'd be raising prices old cold weather coats when temperatures were at -20C with -40C forecast, and not cutting them .