[at-l] Re: Re Cold weather hiking

[krk@speakeasy.org (Kenneth Knight)]

One way to control problems with rapid cooling off, especially at rest stops, is to wear something
like the following (which I learned about partly through experiment and then through reading books
like Mark Twight's Extreme Alpinism and talking with other people including Ryan Jordan of
backpackinglight.com - which everyone should be reading by the way - OK yes I'm involved with it so
maybe I'm biassed..;) ). Wear a snug windshirt, lined or unlined (I have unlined), over which you
put a snug fitting insulating/wicking layer, follow that with a shell layer. 

The windshirt is a psuedo-vapor barrier and slow evaportive cooling, as the moisture moves through
the windshirt it can then work its way through the wicking layer and finally out through the shell.
The key is to slow the movement of the moisture away from your body at least while it is very close
to it. 

This is winter wear. I'd not wear this layering pattern with temps much above freezing (although I
might use similar clothing and reverse the inner two layers - wicking, windshirt, shell).

You still need to add insulation layers when the temps start to plummet and nothing beats nice
lofting down for this.

You can use a real vapor barrier shirt but for that to work it had better be real cold and you have
to pay close attention to the heat your generating. It is easy to really sweat up a storm which is,
of course, a bad thing.

On 12/22/01 at 2:08 PM, Orange Bug <orangebug74@yahoo.com> wrote:

> You really have to pay attention to your pace and sweating, as you can get
> sweaty and chilled real quickly.

**  Kenneth Knight    Web Design, IT Consultant, Software Engineer  **
**       krk@speakeasy.org        http://www.speakeasy.org/~krk     **