Do It in Jeans First

I think posting a few pictures of what chafing looks like would clarify the danger: potentially large red burn typically in the groin area, will take weeks to fully heal and be very painful. Or maybe if the hiker really pushed through the pain, it's all that, plus bleeding...

Having one member of the hike, that may not be the lightest, needing to be carried for miles, or maybe hope you can get an helicopter ride...

Don't hike for a day in jeans!

So that leaves us with the following approximate advice, "Skip anything extra that's uncessary, unless it is actually necessary, and make sure to know the difference."

Easy!

Ya, this is the scenario that I think is easy to conflate with the general advice wrt hiking or as a metaphor. It's your job as a guide to set the whole thing up appropriately, and if someone just disregards that it's going to be a liability, especially in a group setting. Everyone needs to respect that what they're in for could be quite demanding and risky.

For hiking? I can imagine this applying if you are climbing Everest. Not to taking a walk in the forest.

this. Went to some hikings in Ushuaia, took only a backpack with me. Only brought two pair of pants, the one i was wearing and another in the backpack, the backpack one suitable for hiking, the one i was wearing was a jeans that i used for travelling and staying in the plane and airport. After three days hiking with the jeans one i sent it to the laundry and used the good one. Not a single problem encoutered.

There are pants that look like jeans and feel a little bit like them - athleisure - that probably don't have this limitation.

I had a pair. I wish I knew how to identify them because searching for athleisure jeans is turning up traditional jeans as well, including slim fit which would be worse. Maybe non-denim jeans.

Edit: I think the brand was Prana. Maybe they were denim, but "performance denim". Is all denim unwieldly in extreme situations? My jeans like this felt different, to where I might like them significantly more or significantly less based on what sort of pants I felt like wearing on a given day. They seemed a lot more like pants and less like jeans. https://www.prana.com/men/bottoms/denim.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq...

This is an optimization though, when you just get started, start with what you got. In situations where someone is just starting and doesn't have gear, AND it's actually an ambitious day, my only requirement is some kind of grippy shoes and a headlamp. Anything below an ambitious, unpredictable day, and you can probably just roll with basics. Couple hours is nbd and I do most days in jeans. Comfort is usually more important.

That said, definitely some situations I'd have preferred not to have jeans

People overestimate their risk of an extreme situation occurring while hiking and underestimate their risk of being in an extreme situation in everyday life. They are roughly equal.

So if you were really that concerned, you’d be wearing hiking pants everywhere, even when not hiking.

I'm currently in the process of deciding how cheap I want to buy a new tool.

I'm seriously considering buying an airbrush. I still have hundreds on unpainted miniatures lying around (mostly from a Reaper Bones kickstarter many years ago), and although I've had a few painting sessions and got some colour on some of them, there's too many of them to put a serious dent in them. But I keep reading how airbrushing can speed up the process while improving the quality. At least for primer and base coat, and once you're good and you get a really expensive airbrush, also for detail.

But even basic beginner airbrushes can cost $100 for just the airbrush, and another $100 or more for the compressor. But there are also airbrush sets with compressor included for just $25. Crap no doubt, but maybe good enough to try some basic priming? Using it might give me a better idea of what I want in an airbrush and tell me whether it's for me, or it might give me a bad experience and turn me off it completely when a more expensive one would have given me a much better experience. If I'm not sure, $25 is an easy decision to make, while $200 is serious commitment. But a bad experience for $25 might also discourage me from the better solution that would have worked for me.

This is a paradox of modern life, where we're indundated with gear choices and advice. Any nontrivial activity can be approached in a minimalist or maximalist fashion, and there's no certain way to choose one over the other. It doesn't require the Internet, though it may be influenced. Just mention home cooking at the lunch table, to experience the full brunt of it.

Even the minimalists brag about their (remaining) stuff, which always includes at least one Apple product.

The in-between-alists just smile and nod, knowing that we'll be drowned out.

Another facet of modern life is being able to try everything once, which means having to get the most out of it, with the assurance that it will be great. Heaven forbid figuring out your gear needs on a progression of increasingly ambitious outings, some of which are miserable. This is how we end up with beginners on extreme hiking adventures.

It seems to happen for most things online. It's probably many things about online discourse that make it so, but for hobbies it's probably because you have super passionate people, and people who are too busy being online to have actually done much of the thing, talking with identical authority on the topic. That leaves the median people drowned out, if they're online at all.

The incremental chances of dying from hiking in jeans are probably small, but those of having a bad time are non-negligible (and I say that as somebody who’s hiked quite a bit in jeans due to not knowing better). And why would you want to have a bad time?

It doesn’t need to be high tech activewear: Running shorts (weather permitting) can do just fine.

What makes you think it's limited to the internet?

Know how many 9 year olds I’ve seen hit in the head with a baseball, while at bat? (Many. One kid on my sons team was hit in the head for four consecutive tournaments last fall.)

Always wear a helmet when you’ve got a bat in your hand.

Obviously your idea of safety coming first is based on your exact specifications, which are unclear and known only by yourself, which isn’t actually very useful

> But safety should always come first.

No it shouldn’t.

Safety is almost always a trade off of real (or perceived) risk and reward.

If safety came first, you’d never swim, hike, or drive a car.

But how many people died even though they had the ‘right’ gear?

Sorry can you explain the situation where jeans lead to the death of a hiker? I don't buy it.

I think you are right.

But a gentler answer is that if you don't know what you need to do the hike, you ask around for best practices and probably end up following some that are overengineered.

The people like you during your hike, in my experience, fall into two groups. Either they've had so much experience that they know exactly what works and what doesn't work for the conditions or they kind of got lucky.

Being synthetic, they also release microplastics into our freshwater when you wash them. I do my mountainbike trailriding in jeans. Have never experienced much of a downside. Also, big plus: jeans look rad when you patch and mend and dirty them!

They last a lot longer? What hiking pants do you use?

second hand army gear was always my goto for hikes and traveling in general. no need to verify whether the clothing was suitable, because, while there may be even better gear out there i can trust that army gear is most certainly not unsuitable. it's cheap and also already worn in so you avoid issues that you sometimes get with brand new clothing

Thoreau was a phony who’s mom washed his clothes

How would you know, though? Not jeans specifically, but there are countless gotchas with most hobbies, and for skill based hobbies you'll almost always be bad at it first.

That's essentially the advice here, get started instead of getting stuck researching and preparing.

I think preparing your mindset for setbacks and being open minded to learning from them is more practical than being overly prepared. Since you are new, you won't be able to account for all possible misery. Chalk off the easy preparation first then get out the door.

Exactly, lowest entry fee is the best, if you find you're into for more than new years resolution month, spend a bit more and have a nice winter. I usually rent skates and have only not purchased some because my leg alignment is slightly too wonky to do it enough.

Same goes for snowboarding or anything that has rentals, let the discovery process happen in the least committal way possible.

Nothing improves skating more than getting them sharpened if you haven't already.

well, it was better than chainmail...

I don't think gyms let you wear jeans. Something about friction with the seats or something.

That said, appropriate gym wear is readily available at Wal-Mart. T-shirts, sweats, cotton athletic shorts. Ladies are going to want a sports bra, and may wish for leggings which my wife picks up for $5 a pair at Old Navy all the time.

Climbing works great in jeans if they are a bit stretchy. Especially good for knee bars - almost as good as a knee pad and 1100% more stylish

This is an impressively high sick-burns-to-words ratio, well done!

“I don't need to make an LLC” also pings way too hard here.

I mean… yeah? Why wouldn't you do it all in Excel first?

Preach! Three years ago I bulk-replaced every non-dress sock I own with Darn Toughs and haven't looked back. They hold up well too--even my thin & short lifting socks.

I bought a pair 2 years ago. This morning I poked a hole through one when I was putting it on. I've already printed their lifetime warranty claim form and plan to see what their service is actually like. I have high expectations.

> The author is blatantly wrong wrt "jeans and hiking", but otherwise firstly doing the "discount" version of a thing to learn the thing is the right approach.

Wildly disagree, but I suspect when they mention hiking, you get a specific idea or degree of what that means based on the type or terrain you regularly experience. While there are pieces of gear I wouldn't go into certain situations without, what those situations are and what that inventory looks like are pretty variable.

To anyone who'd like to try, jeans are fine, sometimes they're inadequate, sus out the trail and the conditions, don't let a lack of non-jeans prevent you from trying, but also proceed with sensible caution and learn to know your surroundings. DO NOT RELY ON GOOGLE MAPS EVER EVER, get something else or an actual map, and don't expect to have cell service.

If you have no fitness at all, start small (1-3hrs, flat or a few hundred meters of elevation gain), bring at least a liter of water, do it with someone or tell someone where you're going, go early during the summer. I'd advise that the most generally applicable requirement in terms of gear are shoes with grip of some kind (I use relatively inexpensive trailrunners, boots aren't as nimble but can be better depending on variables), then a basic headlamp unless you're in the north in summer, compass maybe, a lighter, and calories, everything else either depends on environment or other variables and you get a sense for it over time. A 20L day pack is helpful, but a regular backpack is just fine as well.

For pants, it's not rare for me to just bring breathable shorts from Lulu and normal Levi's jeans, switching between them as necessary, but sometimes just one or the other, and nearly always in a basic-ass cotton shirt that I just take off because I can't be bothered. The only people who mention my attire are the ones who never do it. Your mileage may vary.

Lastly, I personally never bring headphones, don't listen to anything, and keep the phone off or in low-power mode with GPS on. I'll check in at a halfway point if it's a long day, but when I'm in nature I'm in nature, and I'd recommend the same. It's empowering to learn to be capable in nature and with nothing but your own thoughts.

Edit: Mentioned by someone else, a guided adventure as an inexperienced outdoors person is not the time to deploy my advice, respect their requirements, they know more than you whether it is or isn't ultimately necessary. My advice applies outside that context, where you're not someone's else's liability. Read my advice as analogous to "you don't need cleats to play soccer, unless you're joining a team, especially as a noob, so get out there and kick a ball around"

Yes, and you know that from experience.

So why would you ever wear them?