Canadian Adventurers and Explorers Bundle. John Wilson

      Women climbers in Phyl’s day were accepted only if they kept up with the men and disguised from others the fact that they hiked. Phyl always thought it unfortunate that so many women were discouraged from pursuing climbing because they were not as strong as the men, and she advised women: “Don’t go too fast at first. Just go steadily to begin with and do the breathing, in and out as regularly as you can, with the movement of your body. Have the right attitude and just hang on with it.”

      There had been some changes in women’s clothing since Phyllis first began to hike and could wear hiking garb only on the mountain slopes, never below. Knickerbockers were a wonderful improvement over the bloomers that had been easy to hide under skirts but so voluminous they caught up on the bushes. Knickerbockers were tapered like a man’s pant, but only came to the knee. Women could wear knee socks or tights underneath, although “puttees,” a kind of khaki cloth wound round the legs below the knickers almost like a bandage from the knee to the boot, were most popular. Puttees were actually good for snow because they kept the snow from getting in your boots and were thus a precursor to gaiters. Britches – as Phyl called the first trousers worn by women – were held up by a pair of suspender straps. Eventually in the 1930s and 1940s women began to wear more tapered ski pants with an under-foot strap that held the pants tight to the body and prevented snow from getting under the legs of the pants.

      The fabrics used in those early days were made from natural fibres, not synthetic. The first tents Phyl and her Girl Guides used were a heavy canvas that was firm and stiff and very water repellent. The canvas was perfect for a fixed camp location but not at all suitable for packing and taking on the trail. For backpacking in to the bush and on climbing expeditions, Phyl sewed their tents of sail-silk or Egyptian cotton, a light, tightly woven cloth that had proven to be durable in wind and rain. Don designed the tents and made templates for all the pieces. Then they shifted the furniture out of their living room, laid out the fabric on the floor, and cut it all out. Phyl sewed the pieces together using her trusty treadle, a sewing machine operated by foot power. The treadle mechanism connected to the arm of the needle, and as Phyl worked the treadle with her feet, the needle arm pumped up and down, lifting the needle in and out of the fabric, which Phyl guided with her hands.

      When the tent was completed, snaps and all, it weighed about two kilograms and was big enough for the three of them. A little V-shaped antechamber held their packs and boots. The guy-ropes were very strong and matched perfectly to the weight of the fabric. The tent fabric was water resistant as long as nothing touched the sides during a rainstorm. Over the years, waxes renewed the surface.

      Phyl also sewed climbing clothes because store-bought clothing did not last in the bush, nor did it keep the flies from biting and the rain from soaking their bodies. She often made climbing trousers out of old wool blankets, for the natural oils in the blanket made the trousers rainproof, almost waterproof, windproof, and warm. Yet the wool breathed, so the wearer never really got heated in these home-made pants. Phyl generally sewed hers as knickers and then wound puttees around her legs. She always wore a wool shirt and carried extra sweaters. She never put the sweater on until they stopped, because this was when the sweat on her skin would cool and give her shivers. For instance when she stopped for lunch, Phyl would put a sweater on and then if needed, she would also add what they called a “bone-dry.” The bone-dry coat was the same canvas-type coat as that worn by loggers, except an extra piece of canvas was sewn over the shoulders and down the back to help with perspiration beneath the climber’s pack and as an extra padding against the wooden pack frame. The bone-dry coat also had pockets for carrying a compass, a notebook, pocket knife, and snack foods that would be awkward to get to in the clothing layer beneath. The bone-dry trousers generally did not have pockets, but they were essential when pushing through wet bush as they were almost completely waterproof.

      When Don and Phyl began climbing the mountains around Vancouver, people packed their supplies by wrapping everything up in a wool blanket and then fastening and knotting it up with rope or belt. They looped the rope or belt to make a shoulder strap and slung the load over a shoulder. Soon packboards were invented and hikers could have their hands free because their load was fixed to a wooden frame fitted with shoulder straps, which balanced the load between the shoulder blades. Don did not like the Trapper Nelson style packboards then in vogue. He thought the wooden side pieces were far too long for hiking in dense underbrush as they easily caught on vines, salal, or fallen logs. He fashioned his own packboards, tailor-made them for himself, Phyl, and eventually Edith. The two wooden bars down the side of the frame were shorter than conventional ones. The other advantage to Don’s design was that the canvas packs were completely self-contained and could also be used without the packboards, unlike the Trapper Nelson design that integrated the pack onto the board.