150 weight wool base layers

Rab Merino +

It comes in 120g/m or 160g/m

I think it’s 65% merino 35% polyester.

I wore the 160g/m hoody in Alaska for 14 days straight.

Patagonia used to make some too in the same weights, and I have and like some of the Wool 1 (120g/m) but they discontinued it.

Patagonia just released Capiline Air a 50/50 wool poly blend but I haven’t even seen it in person.

Thank you!  What temps were you seeing in Alaska?  The Rab hoody seems better to me – I’m a huge fan of the deep zipper.

The Patagonia stuff might be alright too, hopefully I can find them locally to try on.  I wish they still had the pure merino :(

I think 150 wt. is fine for both T-shirts and boxer briefs. For use with knees and elbows though, it might be better to go with the more burly 190-200 wt. For examples, Icebreaker makes a nice pair of 200 wt “long john” leggings, and of course Ibex makes the popular 190 wt. Indie hoody. I often use both of these for colder snowshoe trips with warmer insulation layers over them, and GTX layers over everything. I also have an Icebreaker 260 wt zippered pullover, which is quite warm and seemingly durable, if maybe a bit of an overkill for use as a base layer.

I just find 200 wt to be too warm for most PNW “winter” conditions.  I haven’t had any real durability issues with 150 wt 100% merino, but no one seems to be making it these days, so I’m willing to try a blend!

Ryley- From my records it was:

8/12 – 67 High 47 Low

8/13 – 67/43

8/14 – 50/42

8/15 – 57/39

8/16 – 58/33

8/17 – 54/28

8/18 – 53/30

8/19 – 47/25

8/20 – 55/26

8/21 – 59/32

8/22 – 60/42

8/23 – 62/43

8/24 – 68/40

8/25 – 65/47

I am with gary… 150wt is fine for briefs and tee-shirts but I won’t want them anywhere that’s high wear.  My 150wt tee-shirts are showing serious signs of wear after 10-15 weeks of city life. As much as I love wool for day to day and travel, I still think synthetic, or maybe a 50/50 blend is better for back country.

For the top, I continue to rave about Patagonia Capilene Thermal Weight Hoody (or its equiv) for cool/cold weather outdoor activities using it (with a wind shirt) about both base and insulation. Without wind protection the grid weave lets air flow through letting heat vent out. With a shell it insulates well. Comfort down to 30F when doing heavy exhersion without a shell, below that with a shell. When casually walking keeps me comfortable down to 40F when combined with a wind shirt. I am reasonably comfortable engage in high energy activities when it’s 65F by fully opening the zipper and pushing the sleeves up to my elbows. Dries amazingly quickly and feels more comfortable than any other shirt I have used when it’s wet.

Voormi’s Thermal II baselayer top is 185 wt.  Very under-rated piece IMHO.  I wore it non-stop during an 8 day end to end section hike of the Shenandoah AT in temps from low 20’s to nearly 70, and it was comfortable throughout.  And durable.

Maybe I need to rethink my layering…

I’m mostly concerned here with ski touring, which is very high exertion interspersed with standing around in the cold.  I have been wearing a 150 wt wool hoody, with a MEC midweight hoody (as Mark said – basically a Patagonia Capilene midweight hoody knock-off).  On the uphill I usually just have those on, then at the top throw on a light fleece and shell as soon as we stop.

Maybe I can just ditch the base-layer, but on longer trips I don’t ever take them off and appreciate relatively smell-free wool.  Or I could just switch to a t-shirt wool base-layer.

Brad was actually recommending wool/poly blends though, not just wool.  So the durability may be different than we’ve all experienced with 150 wt wool?  I haven’t seen many long-term reviews…

For High exertion Yak wool base layers are the bomb. Expensive as heck but IMHO worth every penny. Outperforms every brand of wool hands down. My other base layer for less cold/wet is silk, Terramar. I thought I’d tear them up but they surprised me with their durability underneath outer layers. Can’t expect that if you are in brambles and bushwhacking.

This guy did 1,500 days in one – https://hikelighter.com/2016/08/06/icebreaker-tech-t-lite-short-sleeve-tee/

Just want to put in a plug for FirstLite’s Wick (150, wool mesh pits) and Fuse (200, solid) Aerowool blend series. Durable, breathable, comfortable pieces; less itchy and better fitted for my money than Icebreaker. https://www.firstlite.com/products/tops.html

It took me five years of reading Dave Chenault’s blog and posts to realise that hunters have been dealing with these issues in parallel with lightweight backpackers and often have solutions.

I’ve used Smartwool 150 merino layers, both long-sleeved and short-sleeved, for years.  A quick google search came up with a men’s 150 hoody on sale at Backcountry.com.

Great deal on Rab’s non-hooded 160- wt. Merino top:

https://www.campsaver.com/rab-merino-160-long-sleeve-zip-tee-men-s.html?_iv_code=1CC-AT1-RAB0903-336220&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwrCRz-zJ3QIVBI3ICh1f_w1_EAQYBCABEgLXrPD_BwE&_iv_mens-clothing-size=extra-large

I scored one of the hooded models for $70 last week.

For a base layer T-shirt, I really like Icebreaker’s 150 Anatomica shirts (when on sale). I only wear 200-wt. T-shirts in the winter.

If you are ski touring…high exertion followed by rest, and still want wool, I would think that the wool mesh from Brynje or Aclima would be right up your alley.

That Aerowool looks pretty promising and interesting, but it doesn’t state the percentage of wool to nylon (I’m only interested in it if it’s still a majority wool).  I may want to try it.

I now have 4 years experience with nuyarn blend 85% wool 15 percent nylon  125 weight long sleeve shirt from KUIU.  This stuff is significantly more durable than my previous 150 wt top and dries a bit faster.  It just keeps me feeling more comfortable in a wider range of temperatures than synthetics…….plus, odor has never been an issue for me with this top on a trip (up to 11 days).

https://www.kuiu.com/hunting-shirts/ultra-merino-125-ls-crew-t/20015.html?dwvar_20015_color=Verde-2.0&cgid=shirts#start=5

Just over a month ago I bought the Voormi River Run Hoodie……it seems to dry a bit faster than Nuyarn with more artificial yarns, but I cannot yet comment on its durability or odor fighting for more than 3 days of hiking which is the longest I’ve taken with it so far.  It seems to wick and be a bit cooler in hot weather than the nuyarn stuff.   I have very sensitive skin and wearing polyester for too long tends to give me heat rashes etc., so I only use it on day hikes.

https://voormi.com/collections/ultralights/products/mens-river-shirt

Michael K…

The Firstlite Aerowool 150 is 65% Merino, 33% Nylon, and 2% Spandex.  I’m not sure what the Fuse 200 is.

Have experimented with different ratios of wool to synthetic, and have found that surprisingly, even if there is a minority of wool, say 45 to 35%, it still reduces odor pretty dang well compared to an all synthetic shirt. This was particularly noticeable in a shirt that has a lot of polypropylene, which is notorious for developing and holding onto stink. I also have some thrift store polyester wool blend dress pants that I use for winter, in which even down to 30% wool ratio definitely makes a difference.

Personally, I would love to try (there are none that I know of though) alpaca and polygiene treated polyester blend baselayers–a range from 50/50 to 55% polygiene polyester to 45% alpaca. The individual fibers of alpaca have a higher tensile strength than sheep´s wool, and it doesn´t absorb quite as much moisture. And there can be void/air pocket areas in the alpaca fibers which can boost warmth a bit for the weight over sheep´s wool (even more so in Angora [rabbit] wool, but that´s too fragile to use for active wear imo.  Good sleeping socks though!).

Duckworth Co.
https://www.duckworthco.com/duckworth-textiles/
(scroll down for descriptions of their fabrics)