Chilly Weather Moisture Management

[Jerry Adams]

"I've made some clothing from closed cell foam with some success. It stays warm when wet but it is hard to get it to fit. On some trips I will take along a float coat. It is made for boaters and is made of closed cell foam. It is heavy, however."

I like that concept of making clothing from unconventional materials

I keep thinking about making something like a vest out of bubble wrap. That would be lightweight. If the bubbles face you then there would be some ventilation for persipiration. If the bubbles face away you got a vapor barrier.

[Brad Groves]

Josh, probably a combo… 22*F can be a pretty warm day when you're snowshoeing. I generally prefer a thinner base, 150-ish. A windbreaker or windbreaker vest can be key. Your lower layers can also affect overall heat; if you were wearing a 200-wt up top, & a 200 wt, fleece pants, & shell pants on the bottom… need to get rid of some bottom insulation too.

I find that I cool off more quickly in synthetic than in wool. At first that seemed, well, wrong to me. Then I realized that by virtue of wool retaining 35% moisture, instead of the mere 3% of synthetics, wool allows for less (or less accelerated) evaporative heat loss. Note that I find very little difference in drying time between the materials, provided they're worn… 5 to 10 minutes max.

[ROBERT TANGEN]

Re: "I've been hiking for 50 years and long ago gave up staying dry. I'm a heavy sweater and no amount of layer management will keep me dry." I'm no expert, but Vapor Barrier Clothing is a lot more manageable than clothing made out of closed cell foam, I would guess. If you wore a suit of VBL you could sweat gallons, and wouldln't it wouldn't all drip out of your ankles (and into your boots, so block that), and cause no harm to your insulation?

[David Olsen]

My wife and I are like that. If I am step kicking up
a glacier or skate skiing, I will be sweating, no matter
the pace, no matter the temperature, while my wife will be layered up in fleece, down and goretex, and dry.

I have had chest and legs frost nipped even while
they were sweating when there was a strong breeze and
cold conditions and I hadn't enough clothes on.

The best system for me then, when working very hard
in cold and windy conditions, is a thin poly layer,
under a Goretex hard shell. I sweat up to a point,
then reach an equilibrium. The Gore fabric acts as
a semi vapor barrier, which for me is the best of both
worlds, tho I am moist, I stop sweating hard.

In the last bit of hiking for the day, I change into
a dry shirt so I have a little bit of walking before
stopping for the night so the chill of changing doesn't
last the rest of the night.

[Roger Caffin]

> Moving at the same pace he might be wearing a dry cotton t-shirt and doing fine. I will be wearing
> several layers and all of them will be soaking wet.
Which is the point many of us have been trying to make: if you are sweating like this you are wearing TOO MUCH CLOTHING!
Try wearing just a similar T-shirt and carrying the excess clothing.

Cheers

[Josh Newkirk]

Brad, yeah i might try to wear a thinner synthetic shirt next time. Bottoms were probably a big factor as i had 200wt, soft shells and rain pants. Next time I think just rain pants and 200wt.

I would just wear soft shells and 200wt but I was tripping a bit due to inexperience and so dont want to get wet knees.

[James holden]

just … mid weight softshells pants alone should do it at those 20F temps

i wear knee braces, they provide some insulation … those combined with gaiters and thigh length thinner underwear should do the trick … for me anyways

[Anonymous]

"i use when active

-very thin wicking base
-light fleece
– windshirt or light softshell

when stopped i add

– big puffy belay jacket ,,, syn or down, or both depending on the conditions

basically 4 layers … but effectively 2 as the "action suit" rarely comes off"

I use when active

-very thin wicking base- Under Armour Coldgear Base 2.0 or Helly Hansen polypro LS crew
– Patagonia R1 Hoody
— MH Transition Featherweight Vest

when stopped I add either

– Montbell UL Down Inner Parka, ID Event Parka or both depending on the conditions.

Eric,

Please excuse my plagiarizing your post, but I type slow, our setups are very similar and you saved me a lot of typing. ;-)

basically 4 layers … but effectively 2 as the "action suit" rarely comes off

[Author]

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