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This is my very first post (just joined today). I did an AT thru hike last year and never had the need for a windshirt. I’ve also done a lot of hiking in the northern Rockies where I used to live. I never saw a need for one there either. I’ve always just used a nylon button-down shirt or a rain jacket.
Albert – until last summer I never saw a need for a wind jacket either. While I still don’t see a “need” for one, I now carry a wind jacket on almost all 3 season trips. It breathes better than a rain jacket, cuts wind beautifully, and is super light, making it a perfect outer layer for hiking on cold mornings or on cool windy days. It’s more comfortably for hiking in dry moderate conditions than fleece or a rain jacket IMHO. A wind shirt adds a lot of versatility and noticeable insulation for just a 3 ounce penalty.
For added functionality, I also sleep in a windshirt because it glides smoothly under the STS Nano Mosquito Net, making it much easier to move around under the net. In contrast, fleece and most other fabrics stick to and catch against the mosquito net material. Another benefit is that the wind shirt seems to keep body odor out of the quilt better than more breathable clothing does.
As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, wind shirts may be less useful on rainy trips, or on winter trips (a rainproof jacket makes more sense here). And if you’re really pinching the ounces, a light rain jacket performs the same basic function and is more multipurpose.
Unless it’s very windy, I find that maintaining a level of air permeability is important when you are exerting yourself. A high level of air permeability in your shell layer (lets say 35cfm) is about 75 times more air permeability than the most breathable shell (neoshell 0.5 cfm). Sometimes when hiking I am not really exerting myself that hard, like walking on flat ground or downhill, and if it’s really windy and cold I will cut off air permeability with my rain jacket.
If it is not warm out and super windy, like so windy that it takes extra effort to walk into the wind, then I can unzip my rain jacket and let the cool air blow in. On a quick overnighter in Joshua Tree this year, I wore my neoshell all day long both days, never took it off. The windstorms were intense, sometimes blowing sand in my face sitting down. This is an example where a hardshell was more appropriate than a breathable windshirt for hiking in the wind.
My point is that being able to adjust the air permeability of your shell layer based on a wind speeds and exertion levels is useful. Carrying both a breathable windshirt and rain jacket allows that. For those of you hiking in climates where you rarely get cold hiking during the day, even in the wind, unless a rain storm rolls in (High Sierra in July/August is like this) then only carrying a rain jacket makes sense.
i have worn windbreakers & windshirts for 40+ years, and for their weight and volume factor, no other garments have provided such versatility & convenience.
@Adam Kilpatrick
You’re not walking where I walk then, almost everybody I walk and ski with either wears or carries a windshirt.
My biggest complain is the fragility not the weight [ Montane Featherweight 130 grams in XXL] as I only seem to get 3 or 4 seasons from one. Mine goes over my thermals and under my midlayers and it needs to be pretty cold to need more than my thermals + windshirt when skiing hard.
The downside to any of the UL windshirts I have seen locally is the slim cut, too tightly fitting to wear over anything other than the next to skin layer, the next fit and size up you may as well incorporate some UL insulation and Patagonia sell a lot of NanoPuff here for this reason. But if the wind is really blowing then adding a fleece layer under the windshirt would be advantageous and I see a DIY project here to try and keep that layer lower than 250 grams.
Go back 2 or 3 decades tho and what is a “MountainParka” but a heavy duty wind layer? No-one experienced would have ventured out without one in the pack or on their back
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