A tribute to old things

It’s the perfect sweater. Long, very warm, while being relatively light and not bulky. No wool or synthetic fiber sweater can replace it. Slight problem, he is over 75 years old. It was a sweater the father wore when he was a Boy Scout in the mid-1940s.

Mary Tison
The Press

The garment is worn, all holes. At first, it was possible to patch the biggest holes with appliqués, but the holes keep multiplying. One day it will be necessary to resolve to retire the famous sweater. But not right now.

Outdoor enthusiasts sometimes find it difficult to part with an old piece of clothing or equipment. And it’s not just for sentimental reasons.

The “rock skis”

Some activities are particularly hard on clothing and equipment. This is how skiers keep an old pair of skis for the first outings of the season, the famous “rock skis”. These skiers have no desire to damage the base of their beautiful brand new skis on barely passable slopes.

Ice climbers also tend to leave their beautiful, expensive Gore-Tex pants and chic down jackets at home: a knock from crampons or ice axes can happen so quickly. They therefore wear old clothes which they frequently repair with great blows of adhesive tape. It’s not very elegant, but it does the job.

Jean-François Gauthier follows a slightly different strategy: he dares to wear his expensive Gore-Tex pants when he attacks icefalls, but he wears old gaiters over them.

“The $30 gaiters from 1998 protect my $350 Gore-Tex pants from a misplaced spike! he exclaims.

Often, outdoor enthusiasts will hold on to a particular piece of clothing or equipment because they can’t find an equivalent in stores. This is the case of Mathieu Durand, who has climbed several peaks, from Kilimanjaro to the Vinson massif, in Antarctica, via Denali and Aconcagua.

He ended up breaking the waistband of the pants. As the garment was guaranteed for life, he sent it to The North Face to have it repaired. However, the company offered him a loan so that he could buy new pants.

“There was nothing in the product line that was equivalent,” continues Mathieu Durand. So I asked for it to be returned to me broken. They ended up sending me a belt of a similar model that roughly matches. I am keeping it. »

For comfort

An old piece of clothing or piece of equipment may have ideal characteristics that are hard to find.

“I have an old backpack that’s 20 or 25 years old that I love, because it’s comfortable and it has pockets of exactly the size you need, where you need them,” explains Géraldine Trouillard. , experienced hiker. So too bad if it is discolored and worn. »

Comfort is indeed one of the main reasons for keeping an old piece.

Joëlle Dupont, another hiker, describes her old backpack as a “backpack slipper” to illustrate its comfort. But there is more.

“It has at least 12 years of heavy use, but I keep it because the straps, closures and frame are still in perfect condition and I hate overuse,” she explains. For me, keeping my outdoor gear until it’s no longer usable, or really unpleasant to use, is an eco-friendly move. »

Many outdoor enthusiasts feel that the quality of clothing and equipment was superior in the past.

“In the past, stock was built to last and designers hired climbers to design optimal clothing for the sport,” says Jean-François Gauthier.

He still uses an old Mountain Hardwear windbreaker (“They don’t make good ones anymore”) which he has modified over the years by adding elastic at the neck, zippers at the sleeves and hatches in the back (“which I can remove when I do my approaches with a backpack”).

This is the kind of modification that we hesitate to make on a brand new garment.

A hiker and climber, Martine Lamarche, still cherishes her old technical sweaters from MEC and La Cordée “in beautiful colours, long sleeves, breathable, which are at least 25 years old, worn, but not with holes”.

“It was such a good quality,” she says. So much more durable than today’s technical clothing. We shared so many adventures together, they are part of my life. »