Comment by elliotto | Hacker News Reader

Comment by elliotto | Hacker News Reader

As someone who has led many high hazard outdoor trips for beginners, poor clothing choices from participants often ruin the day. The guide isn't trying to be elitist, he has likely experienced all of the following:

1) It starts to rain or gets windy and a client was not wearing appropriate clothes and gets very cold in a potentially dangerous situation. 2) A client has worn something extremely uncomfortable and chafes or does not have the freedom of motion to move around properly which ruins the day or slows it down. 3) The client damages their nice clothing and is annoyed.

Enforcing proper clothes for an outdoors trip is a cover-your-ass technique which is necessary when you have been guiding for long enough. I have sent people home because they have not followed the instructions and brought appropriate clothing.

Sure it's just a metaphor but it's extremely triggering for anyone who has been in the guide's situation and makes poor basis for an article on building.

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!

I would argue that knowing what is necessary and what isn't is the fundamental claim of engineering and isn't reducible to a pithy aphorism.

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.

The hike around the base of Mount Rainier is a multi-day endeavor. Since the author mentions a guide, I’d guess this is what they mean. It requires preparations like shipping supplies in advance- jeans would be a poor choice.

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/the-wonderland...

Author here... I edited "around the base" to "at the base." It was indeed a day hike. I originally said "around" as in "putzing around," not "circling around."

Understood! Then yeah, jeans are probably fine.

If you show up to my 140 km multi day trip in jeans you get left at the car and not permitted to come to another one. If it's a long day hike you get left at the car but a second chance. If it's a short day hike (but still worthy of a guide) you put on the spare pants in my car.

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