Cold Weather Clothing Update
We have returned from our trip to Svalbard and mainland Norway. Due to limited space in our 2x 65-liter backpacks (boots and winter clothing require a lot of space), I had to leave some clothing behind. I had purchased a pair of cold weather boots and also borrowed a snowsuit to wear around Svalbard to keep me warm. Unfortunately, those items were left at home due to space limitations. My wife was able to bring all of her items due to wearing smaller clothes.
My packing list is below (my wife had the women’s version of WoolX)
Redhead 3 season jacket with fleece lining and hood
Fleece Hoodie
Merino wool full zip sweater (from a local thrift store for $6)
Pair of regular jeans
9 pairs of regular underwear
5 pairs of wool blend weatherproof socks (from Costco)
1 pair of Cabela’s -30-degree socks (dual-layer)
Real-world test results
The day we arrived in Svalbard it was cold; the temperature was near 6F with a windchill of -8. I was wearing my midweight Woolx clothing with a pair of jeans and my 3 season jacket with my thrift store merino wool full zip sweater. I did feel the cold on my face and hands but it was not noticeable on my body. We walked around the hotel area and to a museum that afternoon. We spent about 30-45 minutes in the cold; my hands and face were still the cold parts of my body.
After returning to our hotel to clean up before dinner, the temperature and windchill dropped to 0F and -12F respectively. We spent about 20-30 minutes outside with the same clothing listed above with the same results. This was good news since we were not wearing our heavyweight merino wool yet and the real test would be the snowmobile trip the next day. So far the WoolX midweight was performing better than expected. The next morning we needed to be ready for the extreme cold weather and an extended period (over 10 hours) in the arctic cold.
After breakfast at the hotel, I dressed in heavyweight and midweight WoolX, lined jeans, fleece hoodie, 3 season jacket and the -30-degree socks. A quick look at the temperature at the hotel showed that it was below 0F with a -20F wind chill. When you stepped outside, it was an arctic blast of cold air hitting you. The snowmobile tour company picked us up around 8:30 AM. We arrived at the tour company and added the clothing they provided which included a thick wool Balaclava, snow boots, snowmobile suit, helmet, and gloves.
Into the Elements
After putting on our additional cold-weather clothing, we were sweating in the building due to wearing several layers of warm clothes. At this point, I decided to remove the 3 season jacket to reduce some bulk. We received our snowmobile orientation and off we went. I was warm with the exception of my hands; I had forgotten to turn on my handlebar warming system. Once that was corrected, I was comfortable for the most part.
The only parts of me that were feeling the weather were my face and hands when we stopped for breaks. That was until we crossed over a glacier traveling at approximately 30-40mph; we had limited visibility of 20 feet due to the wind and the temperature/wind chill dropped to about -45F. I could feel the cold through my tour provided Balaclava; my body was still warm except where the wind went between my layers near my neck. We took breaks every 30-45 minutes to stretch our legs and arms and for photos. After about 4 hours we had reached the remote end of the trip on the east coast of Svalbard, where we had a lunch break for about 1 hour.
Middle of the Arctic Wilderness
Since there were no buildings along the tour path, we had no place to take cover from the weather (or go to the bathroom). Other than my wife’s hands and feet, she was fine as well. The tour guide provided hand warmers for my wife to put in her gloves and boots to help with the warmth. To give you an idea of how cold it was: my lighter froze in my backpack and I had a thin layer of ice on my phone that was stored in the chest pocket of my snowmobile suit. My phone’s camera flash also refused to work and displayed an error that it was too cold to use the flash.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the WoolX products performed extremely well in Tromsø, Svalbard, Lillehammer, and Oslo. My go-to items were the WoolX midweight top and bottom with regular jeans and the 3 season jacket. I wore the midweight items every day on the 9-day trip and they were odor-free when I returned home. I was very impressed with the performance; the only real issue was the midweight size XL was larger than the heavyweight XL pants by a couple of inches in length. Not sure if this was due to the midweight being more elastic or if it was incorrectly sized. I did swap out the heavyweight when I first bought it and the second pair was the same. It still fits well; there was just a small discrepancy in length.
Would I recommend Woolx? Yes, in a heartbeat as we experienced temperatures/windchills between -45F and 45F outside and up to 75F inside and we were comfortable all the time. Is it the only product out there that would have worked? Probably not; it was the product that we chose after reading a lot of reviews (multiple times) and we do not regret our decision. As far as customer service; we needed to swap out my wife’s pants for a different size and customer service was very responsive and exchanged them no questions asked. Some of the items were bought directly from WoolX and others via Amazon.
Share this:
Discover more from GeezerAbroad
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Leave a Reply