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I recently got inspired by this video by a group called Hands on History:

Hiking like a Viking

Essentially the group does hiking trips while carrying/wearing only items such as Viking people would have carried back in the day. I.e. leather boots, woolen tunics, furs, etc. They even carry exclusively historic trail food.

Being a history/reenactment/Live Action Role Playing Game enthusiast this has great appeal to me.

Would questions surrounding such historic outdoors adventures be on-topic here?

I'd be especially interested in all topics surrounding gear, e.g. what kind of clothes/cloaks to use for rain protection, ...

What makes this question different from this one is that I'm more interested in older history, e.g. medieval or ancient Roman context. I.e. especially periods where outdoorsmanship in and of itself wasn't yet a thing and sources/documentation thus might be harder to come by.

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    Why not? If you haven't already, see The Viking Answer Lady
    – ab2
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 3:24
  • Possible duplicate of Historical Questions
    – Charlie Brumbaugh
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 19:59
  • Hi fgysin. Do you have an example question or two that you might ask? Thanks.
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 20:13
  • After wandering around a number of websites, my concern is that we couldn't accurately answer this, so most, if not all, of the questions would be speculation or opinion-based. Even people who've studied Vikings for years base their opinions on archaeological finds, interpretation of those finds, and stories handed down by generations of people. It's also heavily scientific, which isn't really on-topic.
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 20:17
  • My fear is that a question will be posted, and it might spawn a comment discussion about whether or not it's on-topic, or might be better on another site. Because articles I read discuss evolution, Biology:SE might be suggested, or History:SE, as @Chenmunka mentioned, or maybe even Skeptics:SE. It also might end up with a lot of edits in order to try to keep it on-topic, and we, myself 100% included, might run the risk of changing the question altogether. Please understand that I'm not criticizing the idea, or your intention in asking it. It's a fascinating subject!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 20:58
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    @Sue has mentioned some caveats in writing such questions. But try one and see! For example, a question about the energy output of someone travelling over a route with (a) modern skis and (b) Viking era skis, and the different techniques used in (a) and (b) should be on-topic.
    – ab2
    Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 23:51
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    @Sue just because a question might spawn problems doesn’t make it off topic...
    – Charlie Brumbaugh
    Commented Nov 25, 2017 at 4:01
  • @ab2 has a good idea I think, especially things like different techniques. Even with current gear, there are different techniques for using it. Much of our site is built on those questions!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Nov 29, 2017 at 4:57
  • Also, is the Viking Era the only one you're interested in? There are other periods in history when outdoor pursuits are a bit more easily documented, so it might be easier to answer with less speculation. Those time periods might be more recent, but still interesting.
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Nov 29, 2017 at 5:14
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    I'll put together a question when I find the time and we'll see how it goes. :) Thanks for participating.
    – fgysin
    Commented Nov 30, 2017 at 7:17

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I don't see why not. Such questions may be for a niche group of readers but they are still questions about enjoying the outdoors.

There may be some overlap with History.SE. I believe they would accept questions like "What did the Vikings wear for rain protection" too.

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