Kit
Packing for four seasons
PLACE
Faroe Islands
READ
3 min
INDEX
02
An afternoon on eighteen islands can hand you all of them at once. What we actually carry.
Gásadalur, twenty minutes after the photograph above
An afternoon on eighteen islands can hand you sun, sideways rain, still fog and a wind that makes a car door dangerous — in that order, inside two hours. People pack for the forecast. The forecast is a average of things that will not happen at the same time.
What we ask people to bring is short. A hard shell that actually seals at the wrists and hood. One warm mid-layer, wool or synthetic, never cotton. Boots already broken in, with a sole you would trust on wet basalt. Gloves you can work a camera in. That is the whole list that matters.
What we ask people to leave: the umbrella, the second pair of jeans, the tripod that weighs more than the camera, and anything described as water-resistant.
The one addition most people are grateful for is a dry bag of about ten litres. Not for the sea — for the boot of the car, which will be wet by Tuesday, and for the ferry deck, which is wet always.
We carry the rest. Flasks, a spare shell in two sizes, and a bag of wool hats that we have never once brought home in full.
The islands do not have bad weather. They have four kinds of weather per afternoon.
What actually comes out of the bag on day one
Other notes
