What does the fashionable climber wear when plying his or her craft? Well, I suppose that depends – on a lot of things, really. What type of climbing, what time of year, what part of the world, and even when in history the climb occurred.
Perhaps the earliest known climbing garb was that seen on Otzi, the “Ice Man”, whose body was found at an elevation of 10,500 feet in the Alps near the border between Austria and Italy. I call him a climber because anybody found at such an elevation was climbing, regardless of whatever other reason he may have had for being there. At the time of his death, he wore a woven grass mantle, a coat, a sheepskin loincloth, and goatskin leggings. A leather chin strap tethered his bearskin cap. Moisture-absorbing grass filled his boots. That’s probably what everyone like him wore at the time if venturing high into the mountains in 3230 BC. That’s as early a glimpse as we’re ever likely to get into the earliest of climbing attire.
Climbing as a sport didn’t really start, at least most historians would agree, until the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786. That’s a full 5,000 years after Otzi died. Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard, on that first ascent, had sense enough to wear layers to protect themselves from the elements. They wore waistcoats, big wool coats, several layers of stockings and tall leather boots. As they got warmer, they peeled off layers to cool down, just like climbers do today. It wasn’t until the 1870s that women seriously got into the climbing game, probably because social restraints held them back until then. Even so, it was felt that in order to be proper, they should wear long dresses.
Came the early 1900s, tightly-woven cotton garments were developed – even though they added warmth and were somewhat windproof, they tended to absorb moisture, and as we all know, if your clothes get wet they don’t keep you very warm.
It may surprise you to know that one of the most significant developments in clothing was the invention of the zipper in 1913. That meant that everything didn’t have to be buttoned up or be a pullover. This added speed and comfort. World War One and the Great Depression kind of put a kibosh on any new developments, though. When the 1921 climbing party went to attempt Mount Everest, they wore camel-hair coats over tweed and Norfolk jackets.
Andrew Irvine and George Mallory both died on their 1924 attempt on Everest. In recent times, when Mallory’s body was discovered, he was wearing gabardine, wool, cotton, and silk – pretty incredible when you think that they made it up to at least 28,000 feet, and with no supplemental oxygen at that. It was the first sign of what alpinists and mountaineers would wear in the modern age. The lighter, blended fabrics boasted dynamic performance features (airflow, insulation, moisture-wicking) and signaled a positive turn away from the sport’s traditional layers.
The 1930s brought more significant developments: the goose-down jacket in 1936, and the Vibram rubber sole for mountaineering boots. The 1940s brought even more: Velcro in 1941 and Ventile fabric (a high-quality woven cotton) in 1943. In 1949, a type of climbing slipper was developed, which would lead to future generations of climbing shoes. 1949 also saw the development of a mesh fabric out of cotton to allow more air to pass through – they called it the Health Shirt. The garment was wildly effective against cold and moisture. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay wore them to the summit of Everest.
The 1950s brought more important developments: better zippers in 1951, and the cordlock toggle in 1952. Those may seem like small things, but they really changed the functionality of climbing clothes from that point forward. The year 1959 saw the invention of Lycra, a super-stretchy fabric. Flashy gear for the ski crowd came as a result, but even some rock climbers took to it and wore neon-colored clothes.
Until the late 1960s, outdoor garments consisted of cotton, leather, silk, and wool. Down filling was still reserved for major Himalayan expeditions. The problem was that all of those materials had great limitations – they either absorbed humidity very easily, as was the case of wool, cotton, silk, and down, or they were far too heavy and not breathable. In 1965, a company called Sierra Designs introduced the 60/40 Mountain Parka. The fabric was a blend of 62% nylon and 38% cotton – it was highly effective at repelling wind and rain and became very popular and much-copied.
In the 1970s, along came waterproof coatings and waterproof/breathable laminates. In 1970, a fellow named Bob Gore secured a patent on the application of thinly stretched PTFE (better known as Teflon) to create a waterproof membrane. Within a couple of years, Gore-Tex material was on its way to achieving household name status. I was excited to see this new product, and in 1976, while in Berkely, I bought a jacket and pants made of this material. Truth be told, when I tried it out in the coastal rain forests of BC, as soggy a place as you could find, I wasn’t impressed. It was supposed to let moisture from your sweat pass out while preventing rain from entering, but I didn’t think it worked well.
Also in the 1970s, Yvon Chouinard, along with a handful of collaborators, developed the synthetic pile sweater for mountaineering. The introduction of the light, highly insulated, quick-drying design outperformed traditional wool sweaters. The new sweater drastically reduced bulk and the need for multiple layers. These traits took the market by storm, and the synthetic pile sweater quickly became one of the most successful outdoor garments ever. Side-release plastic buckles and developments in gaiters also improved the lot of climbers. In 1975, the softshell was introduced, a close-fitting stretch jacket that was both wind and showerproof.
In 1980, Chouinard introduced synthetic long underwear, an ultralight, hydrophobic alternative to cotton long johns. Also in 1980, a company named Boreal launched the Fire — climbing’s first “sticky rubber” shoe. Nike handled the hikes to and from climbing walls by developing the very first approach shoe, the Lava Dome. Five Ten followed Nike’s lead in 1985, introducing the Five Tennie approach shoe. The Five Tennie featured the brand’s proprietary (and still popular today) Stealth climbing rubber sole.
In the 2000s, environmental concerns came more to the forefront. Companies like Arc’teryx and Patagonia were turning towards simpler and less caustic production methods, such as undyed, natural fabric.
I know these pictures are very dated, but I wanted to share with you a few from the 1970s. This is what we all wore back then.
On the summit of Mount Jasper. Note the Woolrich woolen knickers, the knicker socks and the heavy mountaineering boots. And of course the tuque – hey, it’s Canada after all.
On the way in to Stewart Peak. See the knickers, knicker-socks, gainters. I love the suspenders.
And one more. Atop a peak in the Lillooet Range in 1977. Here you have the rather disheveled Desert Mountaineer posing with an early iteration of Gore-tex, along with knickers, knicker-socks, gaiters and heavy mountaineering boots.
Yikes.
I confess that if there have been any ground-breaking developments in recent years in the way of mountaineering garb, I haven’t kept up with them, but I wanted to share with you the major developments that occurred up until my time. I hope you’re all wearing exactly what works for you nowadays as you head into the hills. Have fun.