by Gadgetgeek » Thu 13 Dec, 2018 9:50 am
In my experience, the ruff goes on the shell layer, both for "plain" shells, and for partially insulated ones. I've never seen a removable ruff apart from my dad's big snow-goose parkas, but my understanding was that was simply for easy cleaning. In general from what I've seen, the hood insulation on the inner jackets is designed to go with the design of the shell, I've seen partial internal hoods, although the fur lined "trapper" hats are pretty popular as well. The hood is supposed to be helping trap the heat coming up from the rest of the body, so there can be a lot of fitment for the fully traditional designs. The shear amount of fur in some parkas is staggering, far more than just a ruff, but again, a custom coat for an ice-flow hunter is going to be very different than one for a growing child.
Conditioning and knowledge are also a big factor with using "traditional" northern gear, for us softies its also good to have things like the neoprene masks skier now often wear, as cheeks and noses get frostbite without you knowing. So unless you have a buddy to check with, its easy to miss it. The fur helps block some wind around the face, but to be honest its percentages, not a fool-proof solution. Even when my mom was learning, the older ladies told her that much of what they knew they had to re-learn as the "real" traditional ways were long gone. As kids we always wore knit wool scarves, sometimes wrapped half a dozen times around our faces. Moisture management is a tough thing to deal with, so there are many ways around it. I've been told that in some places inuit kids are taught to breath out through their nose, and in through the mouth to help let the moisture out above the collar, but that may also be myth, I could never get it to work.
A lot of people seem to forget that -40 really means -40 equivalent, and wind-chill can really drop those numbers if you are not careful. My mom cared for a patient who got frostbite in under 20 minutes through jeans, and it was only -25C, but the wind was very strong that day. Montreal is not all that cold, and going building to building is not the same as full wilderness, even though some people seem to think it is. Also a big difference between one day of x-country skiing, and three, five, a week, same as any other activity, as you know.
Another huge factor is full tundra gear compared to what's used a little farther south where you need more movement due to trees, but also have the ability to make fire. Proper tundra gear is insanely over-done, so much so that coats are often worn open during hard activity, but need to be warm enough in case you have to shelter in and sleep. There are also many techniques for warming up the skin on your face periodically, and many old folks from the far north have frostbite scars, its a risk people take.
There is no great magic to it, anything that can happen in alpine aussi areas can happen at -50C, it just happens faster and is less forgiving. People do the same up there, over-layer, over compress their down or restrict bloodflow with tights, too tight socks and boots, wet socks, all the same mistakes. In a lot of ways -25 to -35 are more dangerous because people don't prepare enough, and the chance of getting wet is higher. When you know its going to be -45 you don't screw around, and you plan your moves.
My dad had to go fix an aircraft out on the tarmac, it couldn't be moved inside. OHS rules were that he could be outside for 90 seconds due to temp and wind. The guy who was going to drive him out to the airplane was Inuit, and was only in jeans and a hoodie. My dad commented that it was one thing to act tough, but that seemed a little insane. The guy replied with "oh, you thought I planned on getting out of the truck!" and doubled over laughing. For reference the truck had two aftermarket heaters built in. He's sure he heard the door lock click behind him when he got out.
Sorry that this is a little disjointed, I don't want to tell you things you already know, I know you've probably got as much time in the snow as I do, even though I'm a fair bit younger. For reference our inuit parkas were made when we lived in Yellowknife and Churchill, and are more a hybrid between Inuit and Dene designs, as those are both transitional zones between tribal groups, due to geography. I'm also trying to pick through memories that are from when I was pretty small.