Winter is coming and given the COVID-19 situation it means that if you want to meet other people savely doing it outside in the cold might be the best way to go about it.
For meetups I’m thinking to have a setup that switches between still group explanation and then pair exercises that can be done while walking around.
As far as clothing goes, I’m very unclear at the moment. What clothes are ideal for being able to be outside in the cold without freezing?
Are there any other concerns about how you might improve outdoor meetups when it’s cold?
For what’s actually ideal, I would suggest (if you find it interesting) reading about technical clothing for mountaineering and winter camping and adapting that to city fashion—but if you want some helpful more affordable tips, what works for me is many layers.
For example, long sleeve undershirt and long underwear from Walmart. T-shirt over the undershirt, cheap sweatshirt hoodie over that. Thin pajama style pants over the long underwear. For me anyway, this can be completely comfortable under an outer layer of only jeans and just an autumn jacket up to maybe −15C or −20C.
Thin cotton gloves under big mitts or heavier gloves. Thin socks under heavy socks. For items where it’s more difficult to layer, such as a toque or scarf (or socks if shoes limit the room), wool is pretty good and is affordable, thick, and sturdy at Army Surplus stores, at least here in Canada.
I would also suggest, don’t neglect extremities or any body parts. For example, I remember once my thighs being very cold wearing only jeans (no long underwear), even though I had an extremely warm parka and was walking briskly.
I’ve found personally that even fairly thin pajama type pants, if you have say two layers under jeans, can keep you pretty comfortable even up to maybe −30C. Since you have in mind a meetup, I feel that even for example students on a budget, could get extremely adequate winter clothing this way at a Walmart in Canada that would enable them to stand outside inactively for 3-4 hours at up to −25C, say.
You should probably give more specific descriptions of the expected conditions than “cold”. Answers will differ if you mean high-desert conditions (-20C, windy but dry), cold-ish city conditions (just below 0C, frozen rain or snow), moderate (generally a bit above 0C, often rainy), or something else (Southern California gets down to 10C and cloudy).
In a lot of places, you should be thinking semi-outside, rather than full open-air. Pavillions or large covered spaces such as outdoor seating for restaurants will keep the worst of the wind and precipitation out, and many of them have heating elements.
I don’t care about high-desert conditions as Berlin won’t hit them. I care about making meetups work in the other contexts and I’m happy about any suggestions for that even if the don’t work for all cases.
Cool (but not cold ;) ). I’ve only been to Berlin in the summer, but from travel guides, it seems basically temperate and not overly-damp—there will be occasional snowfall, but no significant accumulation, and many days will have no cold rain to deal with.
Standard advice for clothing in variable conditions applies: look to layers, so you can adjust over time, and add/remove pieces when you go indoors or if the sun is out and it’s 5-10C warmer or cooler than you expected. A sweater/jumper over your shirt gives you flexibility here. I have a fleece undercoat with a waterproof shell that’s great in really cold conditions, and fine as just a shell when it’s warm (+5C) and rainy.
For meetups, you’ll still want to find covered areas—even if no rain is in the forecast, less moving air makes a noticeable difference in comfort. I suspect there’s no way to make it pleasant and effective enough to be worthwhile before you can do it in an enclosed (but not crowded) space, but I really look forward to hearing how it goes.
Winter is coming and given the COVID-19 situation it means that if you want to meet other people savely doing it outside in the cold might be the best way to go about it.
For meetups I’m thinking to have a setup that switches between still group explanation and then pair exercises that can be done while walking around.
As far as clothing goes, I’m very unclear at the moment. What clothes are ideal for being able to be outside in the cold without freezing?
Are there any other concerns about how you might improve outdoor meetups when it’s cold?
For what’s actually ideal, I would suggest (if you find it interesting) reading about technical clothing for mountaineering and winter camping and adapting that to city fashion—but if you want some helpful more affordable tips, what works for me is many layers.
For example, long sleeve undershirt and long underwear from Walmart. T-shirt over the undershirt, cheap sweatshirt hoodie over that. Thin pajama style pants over the long underwear. For me anyway, this can be completely comfortable under an outer layer of only jeans and just an autumn jacket up to maybe −15C or −20C.
Thin cotton gloves under big mitts or heavier gloves. Thin socks under heavy socks. For items where it’s more difficult to layer, such as a toque or scarf (or socks if shoes limit the room), wool is pretty good and is affordable, thick, and sturdy at Army Surplus stores, at least here in Canada.
I would also suggest, don’t neglect extremities or any body parts. For example, I remember once my thighs being very cold wearing only jeans (no long underwear), even though I had an extremely warm parka and was walking briskly.
I’ve found personally that even fairly thin pajama type pants, if you have say two layers under jeans, can keep you pretty comfortable even up to maybe −30C. Since you have in mind a meetup, I feel that even for example students on a budget, could get extremely adequate winter clothing this way at a Walmart in Canada that would enable them to stand outside inactively for 3-4 hours at up to −25C, say.
You should probably give more specific descriptions of the expected conditions than “cold”. Answers will differ if you mean high-desert conditions (-20C, windy but dry), cold-ish city conditions (just below 0C, frozen rain or snow), moderate (generally a bit above 0C, often rainy), or something else (Southern California gets down to 10C and cloudy).
In a lot of places, you should be thinking semi-outside, rather than full open-air. Pavillions or large covered spaces such as outdoor seating for restaurants will keep the worst of the wind and precipitation out, and many of them have heating elements.
I don’t care about high-desert conditions as Berlin won’t hit them. I care about making meetups work in the other contexts and I’m happy about any suggestions for that even if the don’t work for all cases.
Cool (but not cold ;) ). I’ve only been to Berlin in the summer, but from travel guides, it seems basically temperate and not overly-damp—there will be occasional snowfall, but no significant accumulation, and many days will have no cold rain to deal with.
Standard advice for clothing in variable conditions applies: look to layers, so you can adjust over time, and add/remove pieces when you go indoors or if the sun is out and it’s 5-10C warmer or cooler than you expected. A sweater/jumper over your shirt gives you flexibility here. I have a fleece undercoat with a waterproof shell that’s great in really cold conditions, and fine as just a shell when it’s warm (+5C) and rainy.
For meetups, you’ll still want to find covered areas—even if no rain is in the forecast, less moving air makes a noticeable difference in comfort. I suspect there’s no way to make it pleasant and effective enough to be worthwhile before you can do it in an enclosed (but not crowded) space, but I really look forward to hearing how it goes.