The Pacific Northwest Gear Thread

eVent jacket works pretty good

I've used a number of different silnylon tarps successfully

Ventilation!

DWR on steroids

Short gaiters (for mud)

Synthetic insulation

Fleece

And for this year, finding snow-free routes. Seems like everything about 2500 feet is snowbound.

Last Wednesday from the Heybrook Lookout station, above Highway 2, south to Mount Index:

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/heybrook-lookout

Yeah, snow free routes are proving difficult this year. What I had planned for Mid-July probably won't happen till early September.

I haven't really found a WPB jacket that is breathable enough for summer. I prefer to just hike through it (below treeline, anyway) with a lightweight wool top.

Also, I'm not sure about windshirts in the PNW. It seams like its either pouring to hard to wear it alone, or calm enough that it isn't needed. I can't seem to find a happy medium.

I'll pose a question as well. How many of you PNW folks use waterproof shoes? I like the breathability of plain mesh, but it seems like you can't go anywhere on a multinight trip without slogging around in wet shoes otherwise.

HERESY on this site , but for wear about town , including wet lawns, and the occasional day hike I still wear my Vasque Sundowners with Gore-Tex totally coated with Snow-Seal. And in Sam Adams Pothole Utopia Portland it's not a bad way to navigate what's left of the infrastructure. My Mont-Belle Rain Trekker is so far great. And I believe in Permethrin especially for Snow-melt Skeeters.

Ozzie wrote, "Also, I'm not sure about windshirts in the PNW. It seams like its either pouring to hard to wear it alone, or calm enough that it isn't needed. I can't seem to find a happy medium."

Au contraire! I find a full zip windshirt with a polyester base layer to be a perfect combination for cold damp days and little spits of rain. I have unzipped and tucked the pack up under my pack to get more ventilation and then zipped up for the downhill or traversing open slide areas where you are more exposed to cold wind and light rain. I've been wanting to try something like the Patagonia Nine Trails jacket, with a breathable back panel.

Speaking of breathable back panels, those packs with ventilated back pads are nice when the humidity is hitting 90%, regardless of the temperature. If you don't wear a poncho and the back pad gets wet, those vented back panels are a lot easier to live with than a soggy cold one. You walk in the rain with your rain jack on, then it clears up and you take the jacket off, but the back panel is soaked. Not nice.

Steady rain calls for jackets with good DWR and pit zips and other vents, or a poncho (which can double for shelter and day hiking emergency backup). One trick is to wear just silkweight long johns under your rain pants, just like you might do for your top. You generally know when it is going to be drizzling all day and the base layer does the wicking job while keeping the cold fabric off your skin.

"eVent jacket works pretty good"

+1

Agreed, I really like my Exos in the rain, and after stripping it down it weighs less than a Pinnacle. Interested to see how well my new (hurray new gear!) ULA conduit deals with sogginess.

My experience with waterproof shoes… they do a better job of keeping the water in than out. I have switched to trail runners with lots of mesh.

I've pretty much just accepted that if it is wet outside, it's probably wet inside. Tents get condensation, rain gear gets clammy, moisture finds it's way in my pack, gore tex mittens and boots leak. It's not a big deal once you realize that human beings are waterproof. I keep my sleep gear fairly dry and I'm usually good.

youll get wet if youre doing anything serious and it rains for a few days … absolutely no way around it …

the trick is to get stuff which dries quickly

A 2-person tarp as a solo shelter, with enough coverage for storing gear and a little extra room around the edges. I also like a shaped tarp, like a Trailstar or a Pyramid or maybe SMD Haven, where a pole(s) goes under the tarp. It probably isn't any faster to set up but it feels easier to get the tarp up quickly with steep-ish walls.

A net insert or tarptent for the month when mosquitos are as bad in the PNW as in the deep south.

Same as in another thread about hygiene, but I like to take a set of merino sleep clothes, knowing I have at least those and a down jacket to change into in camp.

To go along with what others have said

eVent jacket is light, and will keep you dry in some conditions. If it's really rainy and/or you're exercising enough the jacket will get wet, but it doesn't absorb much water and will dry quickly.

the jacket will also provide wind protection

you need a lightweight baselayer that will dry quickly if it gets wet. In good weather you can just wear that. Also needs to provide bug and sun protection.

that's all you need when you're exercising

if you're in camp then you need a synthetic or down vest or jacket – thick enough for the temperature

that's all you need, anything else will be unecesary weight

at least that's one way to do it

I agree with Dale—windshirts work great out here. I backpacked out fifteen miles today through mostly snow and light rain wearing just a wool tshirt and a houdini and was perfectly comfortable the whole day, even at 4800' when it was 38º and windy. Of course, I was also carrying a poncho tarp in case it really started raining. I've found the poncho keeps me much drier than either my paclite shell or marmot essence for long durations. And, it makes for an excellent lean-to windbreak during lunch and shelter at night.

In fact, I'd say that a windshirt and a poncho tarp are my two favorites recent additions to the gear I regularly carry.

I think Silnylon tents have their challenges in the PNW for all of the obvious reasons – the sag factor is much worse here than say, in California which has a lower humidity. The dew point in Washington seems easily reached on the west side of the Cascades and especially in the shoulder seasons, condensation is often a problem.

I would gush over a silnylon tent too if I lived in California, Utah, Arizona or anywhere else the stetch factor of silnylon isn't constantly tested.

As for windshirts, I guess i will have to give one a go again. I never had as much reason to wear one as have others.

Dirk

"I think Silnylon tents have their challenges in the PNW for all of the obvious reasons – the sag factor is much worse here than say, in California which has a lower humidity."

A couple strategically placed bungee guylines (mine are from JacksRBetter) can eliminate this on a tarp setup. Pretty slick.

I find that real estate in a shelter goes a long way in incessant rain. Sizing up a tarp beyond the minimal requirements adds a couple ounces, but tons of sanity. Something like the Hex3/SL3 is awesome for a couple people camping in non-stop wet. Smaller setups work, but can be miserable. For not much more weight, a lot more space can be had. On the bright side, I almost never carry water. I'll trade 4-8 ounces of extra shelter for 2-4 pounds of water any day :)

Do you use Down Bags and if so do you do anything special to keep them dry. Does the general relative humidity take out a lot of the warmth?

My backpacking is all done in the rockies so mostly I deal with thunderstorms or light rain and dry the next day. Humidity is alos quite low but I am planning a WCT trip for 2012 and debating the bag choice. My tent will probably be a Hubba Hubba rather than a single wall.

Curt – +1 on both points. I do have some bungee on one of my tarptents and it helps. Doesn't eliminate the issue, but does help. I also liked the tip about snugging up a tarp in Mike Clelland's book, where you place the hiking pole "at the nose a little longer than you need; set it up at an angle, with the point on the ground being away from you. Then if the shelter 'relaxes' or sags slightly during the night, you can just reach out of your bivy and pull the bottom of the pole toward you."

I also agree that a larger tent is helpful. I've shared a two-person tarptent and it works great. But in big time rain, when the tent sagged, it was difficult to prevent bags from touching the sides of the tent.

Greg – On sleeping bags, this is what makes it personally difficult for me to figure out which bag to take. I have some very warm bags (I do a lot backpacking in the fall) and when it's cloudy or wet, the down loses some loft because of the relative humidity. I didn't realize how much until I hiked California and was too warm in my summer bag.

But it really depends on the weather in Washington and where I am. I've been in the Olympics sleeping in a cloud and was miserably cold in a 15 degree bag. Other times I've been too warm in a 30 degree bag in Washington when it was colder (but considerably drier). That's my experience, and I am sure others will contradict that experience. If anything, I'd like to go with some lighter sleeping quilt to see if I can make it work.

Dirk

To facilitate stargazing and feeling a little more connected with the environment I’m in, I prefer to sleep without a shelter – to “cowboy camp” – whenever possible. In the past I have always found a bivvy to be necessary to fend off the heavy dew that coalesces in the wee hours, and clings to every exposed surface. Much to my delight, however, I have found that the water-resistant variant of the Marmot Helium sleeping bag performs like a champ in such situations.

Now, to be fair, the shell fabric won’t turn aside real rain. But heavy dew, mist, and even short-duration drizzle is no problem at all. Then, in the morning, all I do shake the the water droplets off, and hang the bag up by the two loops of cord conveniently sewn to reenforced seams at the foot end. By the time I’ve eaten breakfast, washed up, and packed up my camp, the bag is dry and ready to pack. In this way I’ve spent many a night under the stars, in temperatures as low as 10° Fahrenheit (wearing my normal sleeping clothes inside a silk liner to keep the bag clean), I’ve been perfectly comfortable.

In general, I find the Helium Membrain* to be an excellent bag. The construction quality, and design are both top-shelf. If I absolutely had to find a nit to pick, it would be that the zipper isn’t 100% snag-proof (though, it is a lot better than some bags I’ve used), and that like most sleeping bags, weight could be trimmed if they replaced the down-filled baffles on the bottom with a pad sleeve (à la Big Agnes). Other than that, I find my Helium Membrain to be the perfect bag for sleeping under the stars, and recommend it highly.

*As I understand it, Marmot’s earlier water-resistant models used Pertex Quantum N-090 ripstop fabric for their shell, and were given the designation “EQ.” Since then, Marmot has switched to a proprietary shell fabric developed for them/in conjunction with Toray Industries which they have dubbed “Membrain,” and all their products featuring this fabric are thusly named.

I have the marmot pinnacle 15 degree bag and I really like it for Oregon weather. I sometimes backpack in October at 4000 feet before it snows and I stay nice and toasty. I think it makes a perfect 3 season sleeping bag. Once you spend a night in October at 4000 feet in a $20 sleeping bag you won't ever hesitate to throw a few hundred dollars down on a quality sleeping bag.

To answer Greg, I've always used down bags and haven't found any issue with using them in even the most damp of conditions.

In February, I camped in the Columbia Gorge at 3900' and it got down to 32º. It rained heavily the entire hike in and I hadn't brought a change of clothes. Needless to say, my down jacket and 30º sleeping bag collapsed pretty quickly crawling into bed. I was really really cold until dinner cooked, and pretty chilly early in the night, but as I'd heat up the air in the sleeping bag and then unzip the bag to let big clouds of steam out of the bag, I got warmer and warmer. By morning, the sleeping bag, my jacket, and my clothes were all 95% dry.

I'd consider that a worst-case scenario for down in the Northwest, but it still insulated enough when wet to keep me out of any real danger at it's rated temperature. I think the real danger of down getting wet in 3 season backpacking is discomfort, not death.

That said, the pros of down (weight & longevity) seem to outweigh the cons.

Thanks for the tips. Down seems like the way to go and generally the worst case is cold rather than hypothermic.

Synthetic bags make some sense

If you can keep a down bag dry, it will be lighter

But most people occasionally screw up and their down bag gets wet

Synthetic bag retains most of its warmth when wet

Especially for a less experienced person maybe you're better off with synthetic

new on BPL, howdy from the snowy NW.
@ jerry adams: I agree, if you screw up your down will, well, let you down.
ive had many frosty mornings and rainy nights in down, and as long as you drybag-it, and keep it away from wet tent walls, treat it as your infant (litrally) itll do you well.

space in a tent is all choice. I have a tarptent contrail, and although its small it vents great. I have no problems waiting out storms, but I typicaly hike thru them.

I never carry rain pants.

also: ANYONE ROCKING VIBRAM FIVE FINGERS THIS SUMMER? im takin it to the peak in mine this summer, but looks like PNW spring mud will put them to the test…a great example of wetwarm: surviving NW trail conditions:!