Gear Review: Icebreaker Bodyfit 200 Men’s Oasis Crewe – time to turn down the central heating

 
   
[Note that on 5 September 2012, Webtogs Limited went into liquidation, but its business has legitimately been continued in the name of Dorset Mountain Sports Limited, t/a Webtogs, with whom I have had no contact whatsoever, nor did the liquidator of Webtogs Ltd respond to my enquiry as to whether any members of the public had lost money as a result of the liquidation.]

I was delighted, on return from Canada a month ago, to receive this superbly made garment from Webtogs for review.  Whilst it’s a shame I didn’t have it in Canada, where it would have been worn in anger on most days, I’ve now had a chance to wear the garment for long periods in various conditions.

Here are my first impressions:

Icebreaker Bodyfit 200 Men’s Oasis Crewe

The manufacturer’s product description is provided at the foot of this posting.



First impressions:
Out of the box – it feels a little heavy compared with my regular long-sleeved t-shirt. Because it is – 200gm vs 155gm (TNF Polartec®).
This long sleeve Merino base layer garment appears to be a product of NZ, but was actually made in China – that’s a surprise – but it’s very well made and has a ‘BAACODE’ that traces the wool back to four ‘stations’ (farms) on NZ’s South Island.
It sells for £49.95 RRP, currently £40 from Webtogs (March 2011).
First day out – v comfy under NF fleece. Arms just a little on the long side.

Fit and Finish:

• the medium size fits my 38” chest – it’s snug but comfy
• the length is just right – long enough to tuck into trousers, but equally wearable outside them without it looking too long
• I have heard that when Icebreaker first started to use Chinese manufacturers they encountered quality problems; there is no sign of any such problem with the well finished garment in my possession
• the garment exudes ‘quality’, with the flatlock stitching and  seamless underarm reducing friction from internal seams, making it extremely comfy (I should know by now – I’ve lived in it for the last month)

Features:

• in addition to the features mentioned above, the integrated raglan sleeve design also features a highish neck that helps trap in the heat when you need it most
• the sleeves are generously long; I believe that this is a feature of Icebreaker clothing

Weight:

• at 200gm, this garment is about 45 gm heavier than the equivalent Polartec® garment that I am used to wearing, but it’s definitely warmer.  Ideal for winter use, but probably too hot for most people as a summer base layer, when the 150gm version may be a better choice

Practical Use:

• I’ve enjoyed wearing this base layer, indoors and outdoors, for the past month.  It has certainly resulted in a reduction in our household heating bill, and has meant that in the outdoors, an extra windproof layer over the Polartec® fleece that I use as a second layer has rarely needed to be deployed
• in warm weather most people will find this garment too warm
• I’ve worn this Merino wool top for days on end, including some ‘vigorous activity’, without it becoming noticeably smelly.  This is a big advantage over Polartec® polyester clothing.  On the other hand, if you do need to wash the Merino wool garment, it takes longer to dry than polyester
  [Apparently someone has worn one of these garments non-stop for 196 days in extreme conditions – so there’s no need to try to repeat that particular test!]
• it’s a smart top that can be worn underneath a shirt or v-necked sweater as casual wear, as well as it’s obvious usefulness in The Great Outdoors

Alternatives:

• numerous manufacturers make similar products, with leading producers charging similar or slightly lower prices, Icebreaker being an acknowledged market leader in this field
• there are cheaper alternatives; I suspect that they are ‘cheaper’ in more ways than one
• for really cold weather, Icebreaker offers heavier duty Merino wool base layers such as this one, that may be the choice of readers with poor circulation or a tendency to venture out in extreme conditions 

Conclusion:

• this base layer is ideal for winter use for walking and backpacking.  Some backpackers may wish to deploy it all year round for use around camp and on cooler evenings 
• if you work from home in the winter months, you’ll find that wearing a Merino wool base layer such as this one may have a dramatic effect on your heating bills
• I’ll be using it for winter walks, and for general casual wear, all winter, and I may even take it on the two week ‘TGO Challenge’ backpack in May if the forecast is for cool weather

That’s it for now.  I’ll add to this review when I have been using this base layer for a longer term.
Icebreaker’s own product description is reiterated below

Icebreaker Men's Oasis Crewe 

  
Product Description:
Designed to fit close to the body, this raglan long sleeve top has a higher neck to trap in the heat when you need it most. Flatlock stitching and a seamless underarm reduce friction from internal seams, which will make this top one of the most comfortable pieces of clothing in your wardrobe.

• Crewe neck
• Raglan sleeves
• Gussets for ease of movement
• Forward side seam
• Fits close to the body
• Flatlock stitching
• Icebreaker tonal embroidered logo

For Icebreaker’s Size and Easy Care guides, click here
__________________________________________________________

Note: Whilst the gear was provided by Webtogs, this review, over which I have total editorial control, is totally independent of that on-line retailer.

Spring Flowers (3)

Last Thursday Sue went down to the Winter Garden at Dunham Massey with a work colleague and snapped a few images.

The ubiquitous purple and white flowers have now been joined by an array of daffodils that will become increasingly colourful over the course of the next few weeks.

Wednesday 2 March 2011 – Great Gable

Sorry about the delay in posting – I’ll try to catch up over the next few days.

Last Wednesday, was it really a week ago?, JJ, Viv, Rick and I set off from a rather gloomy Timperley (I’ve tried to adjust the image in the slideshow to make it ‘less gloomy’!) at around 7.15am.  Stuart kindly picked us up in Lancaster and the five of us enjoyed a magnificent Lakeland day.  The slideshow (click here – 48 images) provides a fuller story, but here’s a taster.

By soon after 10am  we were slogging up to the base of Base Brown in the sunshine. 

Sourmilk Gill’s fine waterfall, provided a welcome break for those of us with cameras, whilst everyone stopped to peel off layers of superfluous clothing.

The ascent of Base Brown proved harder than expected.  Stuart and I headed up an icy gully.  JJ, Viv and Rick wisely headed around to the right in a futile search for an easier line, and eventually gave up in favour of the path up Gillercomb.  This caused quite a delay, but Stuart and I could hardly complain as we had the only two guidebooks, which clearly state that the easy route up is to the left, rather than the chosen path.

I still feel guilty about this faux pas, but nobody seemed too bothered on this warm, sunny day.

Here’s a view from near the summit of Base Brown.

The route over Green Gable to Great Gable saw us dicing with cloud and admiring inversions, especially towards Pillar, the Langdale peaks, and the nearby Scafell summits, seen below.

A photographer* was lingering on the summit of Great Gable.  It wasn’t actually the best day he had enjoyed up here, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.  He told us he was taking photos for an article on ‘A Year in the Life of Great Gable’ that should be published in Trail Magazine next winter.

* Stewart Smith, professional photographer and blogger, whose entry for the day is here.  Thanks go to Martin Rye for identifying Stewart, and to JJ for taking his photo and various others used in the slide show for this day out.

This self-timed image captures us at the summit of Great Gable, where we enjoyed one of several lunch breaks.

The rocky descent to Sty Head was achieved without resort to any form of hurrying, but we still had time to go a bit further.

Sprinkling Tarn was partially shaded as the sun tried to hide behind England’s highest mountain.  A conflab (below) resulted in the decision to forego Allen Crags and Glaramara today.  Instead we chose to go over Great Slack to Seathwaite Fell, an outlying ‘Wainwright’ that none of us could recall having visited before today.

We passed a tent – no sign of its occupants – in a fine position by Sprinkling Tarn.

After around thirty minutes we reached the summit of Seathwaite Fell, from where the fine views down Borrowdale were partly obscured by the lowering cloud.

A final snack gave us the energy to locate a steep grassy gully to the north west of the summit, and carefully descend it to the main path by Styhead Gill.  Looking back from Stockley Bridge, the flanks of Seathwaite Fell to look quite imposing.  Our route was to the right.

We took a very leisurely 7 hours over this 11km walk with 1050 metres ascent.  Those counting summits could add four Wainwrights and five Birketts to their tally.

As previously mentioned, the slideshow is here, and we did of course enjoy a post-walk beer, on this occasion at The Salutation in Threlkeld.

“A Grand Day Out” we all agreed.

A Grand Day Out

The first few days of March have seen a welcome change in the weather, and my first trip of the year to the central Lake District.

Here I am near the summit of Great Gable on Wednesday lunch time.

A write up of that day and others in this enjoyable week will follow during the course of next week, as we are due to depart shortly for a few internet free days, plus we have a visitor who deserves better than to be abandoned in favour of a computer desk…

Sunday 27 February 2011 – A Walk from Home

Last Sunday I abandoned a plan to stroll around The Wirral, due to inclement weather.

An easy bit of exercise around Timperley in the rain was in order.

Whilst the Forsythia (above) was flourishing, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the towpath in such a poor state of repair.

Sunday morning means training at the local rowing club.  Their oars can be quite dangerous to wildlife.

But these Mallards seem quite happy with life.  The female is impressively fertile judging by the increasing number of albino ducks on this stretch of the canal.

Leaving the canal by the Bay Malton, I joined the Trans-Pennine Trail, which soon passes our local ‘recycling plant’ (aka rubbish dump, or ‘tip’).

The trail progresses on to Carrington Moss, home of training grounds for local football teams.  It’s quite damp at present.  It is after all a ‘moss’!

After passing a Sustrans team of volunteers, assiduously manicuring trees beside the trail, to avoid cyclists being speared by wayward twigs, I left that trail in favour of a path beside the River Mersey.

Judging by the debris on the fence (above), the path I was on, not an official Right of Way, must spend some time under water.

After passing this flourishing willow as the path narrows around the rear of an industrial estate, a dead end is encountered when the A56 main road is reached.

Across the road, paths around playing fields lead back to the canal where it passes under a motorway bridge.  The towpath here, between Dane Road and Sale, is in great condition, having recently been renewed as part of the Sustrans initiative.

But the section from Brooklands to Timperley was extremely muddy, and I was filthy by the time I reached home.

Here’s my route – about 17km, in a fairly energetic 2 and a bit hours.

A Timperley Sunrise

It’s an early start tomorrow.  It would be nice to get a sunrise like this one on 11 December 2007.

100,000 Page Loads! And a New Look to the Blog

   
I’ve used Statcounter to record page loads since I started this blog in October 2007. I know that some bloggers (OK, maybe not UK Outdoors Bloggers!) get over 100,000 page loads every day, whereas it has taken nearly three and a half years for this one to reach that milestone. Google’s own stats, which only started recording data fairly recently, give higher figures (3,404 page loads compared with Statcounter’s 3,334 for last month). Those people using a service such as Google Reader to view the blog will escape detection unless, like the three people last Wednesday (see below) they then go into the blog, to make a rare comment for example.  So given that currently the blog has 84 subscribers and 46 ‘followers’ (some or all of whom may be subscribers?) the actual number of people looking at the blog is rather greater than that recorded by either Statcounter or Google.

Visitors seem to average about two page views. Most of them simply arrive at the current blog posting and presumably scroll down if they aren’t bored by the first screen. Others arrive via searches, mainly ‘Google’.

Last Wednesday, with 119 page loads, was a typical day.  They can be analysed as follows:

Direct page loads from friends and known contacts	23
Via Google reader	3
Via other bloggers' blogrolls	33
Via our sister site, topwalks.com	5
Via Google image searches	33
Via Google etc searches for recipes	9
Via Google etc searches for the TGO Challenge	5
Via Google etc - other searches	8
	119

That obviously excludes the visits to Google reader and other subscription services.

It’s interesting (to me anyway), that our other website, topwalks.com (not a commercial site – just one that friends can view to see what we are up to) gets nearly as many page loads, more on some days, despite only being updated every month or so. 

So it is with some satisfaction that I observe that both sites are clearly used by people as a resource.  It’s a shame that so few make contact by way of comments or emails.

A New Look

Last week I tried to change the blog list to reveal current posts of interest, as I noticed that quite a few visitors to the Postcard come from that direction, so ... just to be fair...
but I played with the template and pressed the wrong button! I tried to get the old one back but I couldn't find it!   There is no record.  It’s history! 

This time I’ve taken a screen dump (above) and I think I'll stick with this template for a while, but I may change the header, footer and background images on a regular basis.  At least this new template enables slightly wider images to be loaded.

Any comments / suggestions for improvements will be welcome.

Postscript:

1.  Does anyone agree with this comment from Andrew - “the use of some very blue landscapes as background down the right hand side makes a lot of the text difficult to read and some impossible”.  Personally, I don’t have a problem, and I spent some time trying to find an image that didn’t cause me a problem!  But if it is a problem, I’ll change the background image, which I’m planning to do quite regularly anyway.

2.  Theo has asked about the geographical spread of visitors, and the following screen dump shows the spread for the last 500 page loads as at the morning of 3/3/11.  The Hungarian page loads come from just one visitor with a fascination for our 2008 TGO Challenge postings, so that’s just a blip.

Spring Flowers (2)

 
It had been a couple of weeks since we’d last been down to the winter garden at Dunham Massey. The sun was shining. It was Sue’s birthday. SaHH (Stay at Home Hazel) was progressing well with her current assignment.

No excuse not to visit the garden, then. And here’s some of what we saw; the winter flowers (the identities of which we didn’t note) are coming on a treat now it has warmed up a bit. It was also good to see bees being very numerous and active in some of the flower beds.

And in our garden the blackbirds are singing - are they in love?  The wood pigeons certainly are.

Wednesday 23 February 2011 – A Slide Show – ‘Far West of the USA, from Arches to Yosemite’

Sue and I were pleased to be asked by Stockport Walking Group to present our fourth slide show to them tonight.

We had originally planned to cover more, but in preparing the material we realised that we couldn’t do justice to the content in just one hour, so we hope we didn’t disappoint the thirty strong audience by leaving the National Parks accessed via San Francisco – Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia, to another time.

Our trip to the USA in September 2003 saw us landing at Las Vegas and heading off to Zion,

then Bryce Canyon,

then Arches, via Moab,

then Canyonlands,

and finally – via Monument Valley and Navajo – The Grand Canyon.

This was an old fashioned slide show, with images from before the days of good digital cameras, and I think that the quality of those images is better than the ones in our digital slide shows. But, they can’t be cropped or blown up, and we seem to take a better ‘range’ of pictures with the digital cameras.

Anyone wishing to see this show would be most welcome. There are 100 images, it takes less than an hour, and we have lots of maps and additional information that may be of interest to anyone considering a visit to these National Parks. We enjoy doing this, and don’t make any charge.

Wednesday 23 February 2011 – The Salford Trail (Part 2)

It was a pleasure to rejoin (literally - my membership had lapsed in 1988, according to Peter, the LDWA’s membership secretary, who seems to be in constant touch with his archives) the Long Distance Walkers Association’s East Lancashire Section for the second of five stages of The Salford Trail.
This was not a ‘crack of dawn’ start.
In fact, Rick and I zoomed off from Timperley only to realise that we could get to the Lake District in the time we had allowed ourselves to reach the depths of Salford.
So we returned to Chez Rick for coffee.
A quick whiz around the M60 then saw us collected by JJ and V at Worsley Old Hall before heading (JJ’s car neither zooms nor whizzes) to the start of this (‘linear’?! – see map) walk from Clifton, where a hardy band of walkers had finished Stage 1 of the trail in the rain a few weeks earlier.
It was still raining.  East Lancs LDWA seem to plan their walks to take place on rainy days. I hope to change their luck in due course, but that was not to be today.
We were to rendezvous at 11.00am at a bus stop in Clifton for ‘Stage 2’.  So it was that on this driesh morning small gaggles of bedraggled walkers congregated at various bus stops in Clifton. A rag tag miscellany of some 24 participants were finally rounded up by walk leader Reg, who ensured that he personally informed everyone that they should stay within a metre or so of him to hear his invaluable commentary, which would otherwise be drowned out by the noise of a nearby motorway.
“Pardon?” was the unanimous response.
I’d mentioned this walk to Alan, an ‘outdoors blogger’ (Alan Rayner’s Blog on the Landscape! – an excellent read and source of some interesting ‘gear’ experiments) from Rochdale who I’d never actually met, and was pleased to discover that he’d turned up to this event. Whilst it’s a very friendly and welcoming group of people, it must be a bit of a shock for someone more used to walking alone or with his wife, to suddenly be confronted with 23 strangers. It was great to meet you Alan, I hope you enjoyed the day and that we’ll see you again soon.
The Salford Trail is a 53 mile route around Salford that has been devised by one of its esteemed residents, Roy Bullock, who was on hand to keep walk leader Reg on a tight leash and prevent him from straying too far from the ‘official’ route. This didn’t stop Norman (53), a confirmed alcoholic with no waterproofs, from trying frequently to escape by heading to the front of the ‘pack’ and shooting off in the direction of one or other of Salford’s numerous hostelries muttering (bizarrely) ‘I just want to dry out’!
Anyway, Roy has lovingly constructed a web site for this walk – The Salford Trail, which describes the route in great detail.  Here he is with Reg and some ‘hangers on’.

Today’s stage from Clifton to Worsley soon took us over a very bouncy bridge from which it seemed the lighter amongst us may be catapulted at any moment onto the motorway.  We continued towards a huge line of electricity pylons beside a confluence of motorways in the M60/61/62 area of spaghetti, eventually grinding to a halt at the ‘PRIVATE’ signs that protect the sanctity of Wardley Hall from such wastrels as our LDWA group. Probably just as well, as the skull of a previous trespasser who was hanged, drawn and quartered, is on display there in a glass case, and we didn’t want Reg, a ‘butcher’, to get ideas above his station.
[Or so I was told!]
We then passed a cemetery, in which Joe Gladwin (Wally Batty in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’) is buried, before the first of many crossings of the A580 East Lancs Road saw us arrive at a picnic table in Roe Green.
A nearby Methodist Chapel sported one of those bright blue plaques that announce things like ‘A Famous Person, J. Bloggs, lived here from 1992 to 1993’.  Today’s star on a blue plaque was Michael Vaughan, the Yorkshire cricketer, whose formative years were spent hereabouts. [ie – he was baptised here]
So why didn’t he play for Lancashire?
“Come on” hastened Reg “we don’t want to keep the wardens waiting”.  So off we went, through a sea of mud past Ellesmere Golf Course, with worried walkers concerned for a while about the whereabouts of their absent leader, who had skipped briefly behind a tree. Luckily, by the time a route decision was needed, Reg had sprinted back to the vanguard of the party and was on hand to deliver the goods. By and by, via a route that may not be correct on the map at the foot of this posting, we reached Blackleach Country Park, where the wardens had laid out some tables for us to enjoy lunch in the Visitor Centre out of the rain, and they supplied tea and coffee for those who didn’t have that with them. It was a very jolly time during which Peter (LDWA Membership Secretary) confirmed that despite a 23 year lapse as a member, I could simply renew on the basis of the details on their system – he even had my old LDWA number and my address to hand on his ‘phone!

Others were feeling rather weary by now, and shortly after leaving the country park we joined an old ‘loop line’ where another Peter decided to take a break from walking.

I didn’t quite have this in mind as a legitimate way of progressing an LDWA walk, but was reassured by Norman, a font of useful information – “he does 100 milers in one of those”, he quipped.
Much of the rest of the walk was on the course of these old railway ‘loop’ lines, which have luckily been preserved as an amenity. In fact, some parts have only recently been restored for  use, one section being with the help of a local Junior School.

The railway runs through a shallow cutting, above which a pipe line carrying water from Thirlmere runs, and the site of Little Hulton station, 1875 to 1954, is celebrated with this stone plaque and a small seating area.

Further on, a small box bridge carrying pipes is adorned with plaques on both sides exhorting the proud fact that the bridge was made by Henry Bayley Son & Co, Albion Iron Works, Miles Platting, Manchester, in 1868.

The final section of the walk was spent crossing fields, in woodland, and on the loop lines, but mainly (it seemed) negotiating the East Lancs Road, in this instance via a bridge, or is it a tunnel?, under a  four-way junction of that road.

Whilst Norman and others could now dive consciencelessly into a nearby hostelry, our small but sober contingent returned to Clifton and thence to reflect on today’s good company and do battle with Salford’s afternoon traffic in an effort to get back to Timperley in time to prepare for our respective ‘next appointments’.
It’s a busy life!
The LDWA’s ‘official’ and much more accurate report is to be found by scrolling down this page.
Here’s an approximation of the route – about 17km, with 200 metres ascent, taking us just over four and a half hours, including an hour for breaks.