The lodge outfits each member with comfortable, lightweight hiking boots, storm pants, parka and backpack.
Doing up one's buttons was an achievement in early youth, and buttoned boots a storm centre round which many a battle raged between nurse and infant.
"The oligarch who owned the business had, for some reason, fallen out with someone in the government, so the police rolled up in two 10 tonne trucks with kalashnikovs and big boots on, stormed into the building, took all the company servers away, and then drove off.
In the alleys of the bazaar everyone was in a good mood and a hat: Uzbeks with flat faces and narrow trilbys; ruddy Kazakhs with utilitarian flat caps; hawk-faced Tadjiks in frock coats and turbans; Uighurs in pretty pillbox hats; Kirghiz booted like storm troopers beneath sheepskin bonnets.
"It's not that clear-cut anymore," said Wolfgang Petersen, the veteran film director ("Das Boot," "The Perfect Storm") who is executive producer of "The Agency".
It is safe to say our film is more along the lines of 'Das Boot' or 'Perfect Storm' -- a very realistic film". Unlike the original, which could be described as a campy roller-coaster ride, this "Poseidon" will aim to strike a darker tone.
By David Denby Wolfgang Petersen, the director of "Das Boot" and "The Perfect Storm," is back in the water.
Lightning's most significant summer signing Katy Daley-Mclean, who captained England to World Cup victory in 2014, used her accurate boot to help them storm into a 17-0 half-time lead.
More or less unperturbed, they pulled on their boots and long storm coats and began their day.
Then, wearing the Desert Storm boots I was issued when I visited our troops in Saudi Arabia for Thanksgiving, I was off to a final planeside briefing and into my white Elvis suit white helmet and white gloves before boarding.
