Fashion branding

skiiing tends to have a lot more fashion conscious people than tramping.... if you ski regularly you've got the spare dollars to spend and dont mind spending. especially considering how expensive nz skifields are... intersting since you're only skiiing a minority of the year, tramping you tramp year round...

Anything mainstream is at the mercy of the corporations ok, this is where the fashion thing plays in. Skiing, is now mainstream (thanks to snowboarding) like a bunch of other sports which used to be considered rid raf past times (such as surfing, skateboarding etc) and hence these draw a huge market of (mainly) young people. You see the likes of companies such as Nike start to encroach upon these sports, and even with mounting pressure from within the industries these huge corps come in and take all the top players for their team. Its sad, but money rules everything today and its just getting worse and worse. Back to goggles though, your really looking at sperical lens or not (only really good for skiing) and good ventilation. Oh, and wether you use a helmet or not can make a big difference, (most have special straps to account for the extra size) if I was doing big routes I would look at weight also.

the goggles do have vents and anti fog lenses and scratchproof lenses etc. They also dont fill up with snow when you do a face plant unlike my warehouse sunglasses. The other gear its nice to stay dry and sufficiently warm but not too warm. ( a ski run starts with 10 minutes sitting in a chair 5 meters or so above the ground exposed to everything followed by a reasonably strenuous 5 to 20 minutes skiing then you repeat as required) but the helmet is one thing where you need to follow the hype.

Frank and I tramped along the crest of the Craigieburns once en route from Cass Saddle to Hamilton Hut the hard way. A skier took one look at us and burst out laughing at the way we were dressed (just normal tramping clothing BTW). It must have looked strange among all those skiers if you'd never seen trans-alpine tramping.

walk on the tongariro crossing and it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry at what people wear...

I recently heard a story from a mate about when he recently went up Mt Snowden in Wales, which gets harsh weather and quite a few rescues from time to time. He was wearing his normal tramping gear for the conditions he saw, which for him probably meant shorts with brightly coloured stripey poly-pro all over. Apparently there were some SAR people in the region for some reason, who looked at him and decided he was a crazy man. He said it took quite a lot of convincing before they agreed he was okay enough to not require rescuing.

yeah i dont think brits are big on shorts to start with some americans were looking at some kiwi trampers on the hollyford, without hearing their acent or knowing them the americans said "you must be NZers" "yes we are how did you know" the kiwis replied the americans "your clothes arent colour coordinated!"

I also belong to a campstove collecting forum. I posted a picture there of a trip into Roaring Stag a week after the big snowfall that crippled Wellington a couple of years ago. The picture was of a group of us having afternoon tea at the turnoff to Herapai hut standing in snow waiting for a MSr Dragonfly stove to boil up the snow into hot drinks. Regulation shorts on of course. That drew a few comments about how strange it was to be tramping (or hiking if they prefer) in snow in shorts

i tramped to everest base camp in a pair of shorts which caused looks of disbelief on many faces. imet one other chap in labouche in a pair of shorts. he was a kiwi hahaha. my german mate reckons its the best way to spot a kiwi. speaking of branding. I bought a few garments in nepal from a brand called Sherpa. Its like the Nepali equivalent of Macpac. I really like their stuff.