[at-l] Confessions of a cotton lover

[cwillett@math.uiuc.edu (Christopher Willett)]

The cotton-kills adage is overplayed, for the most part.  I had
my sister tell me my cotton bandana was dangerous to wear during
my recent winter trip to Nepal.  Wearing blue jeans during
cold and damp conditions is not the swiftest of ideas, but for
summer hiking in the southern part of the country, wearing cotton
isn't a big deal.  Heavy cotton takes a while to dry and doesn't
do much insulating while it is wet.
For winter hiking, or hiking where temperature
swings and wind is a concern (i.e, the Whites anytime), try wool.
Schoeller makes a fabric called Skifans which is a wool-something
blend.  Very expensive.  A company called Ibex uses their stuff.
Silk insulates fairly well, but I am unsure of its abilities
when wet.  You might try silk long johns to get the man-made
stuff away from your skin, then have a standard man-made
layer above that.

Chris

----------------------
Chris Willett
cwillett@math.uiuc.edu
http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~cwillett
Department of Mathematics
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

On Tue, 12 Mar 2002 KellyGoVols@aol.com wrote:

> Is there an alternative to icky manmade fabrics in hiking wear for winter
> hiking?  I love cotton, and doing all of my hiking in Florida, it's never
> been a problem.  Someone said in an earlier post that in Georgia, a water
> dipped tee-shirt is almost a necessity.  Same here, if not more so, in
> Florida.  What, if any, are the options for cooler weather?
>
> Kelly
>
>
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