Favorite high Sierra shirt?

You could just be Kuhl like me, but get a collared shirt with girly accents. ….OOOOR you coud just get an eye patch and dedicate yourself to the full look of the current shirt!

HTH

KJ

Dork shirt. lol. Mine spends most of the time in the drawer. I would still want long sleeves for sun protection. And a quarter zip would work OK for ventilation. Not bad for sex appeal either. Maybe that's just me.

I used to totally love Patagonia cap 1 silkweight crews for this, but they changed them a few year back from 4.5 oz to 6.3 or something. Totally ruined it for me. Now the cap 2 is lighter. I have one and like it. That is what I will be taking. They do have some cap 2s with zips as well. I am more or less a shlub, so my opinion may mean little, but I would consider this pretty stylish:

http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/womens-capilene-2-baselayer-lightweight-zip-neck?p=44910-0-CNVL

I like my ultimate base layer to be both very cool (sex-appeal cool is good too) and fit comfortably under my merino hoodie, so capilene works for me, but I know lots of people prefer stuff that fits more like a shirt, such as the dork shirt. YMMV.

There are also the silk weight merino – super comfortable and super soft and easy to layer but a tiny bit less breathable. But sounds like a tiny bit warmer might be the ticket for you.

BTW, even the thump loops on the pat crews are useful – I have been looping my index fingers through them and I get good sun coverage of my hands when using poles.

You might take a look at the Exofficio sol cool crews and hoodies. Definitely more stylish. The weight is very similar to silkweight capilene. I have the men's hoodie which has a 1/4 zip and can confirm this is very cool. Also has the thumb loops, but this time actually designed to help cover the hands. Very useful. Looks like for some reason the women's version has cords at the neck, but even the men's would be a step up style wise from the dork shirt. OK, anything would be a step up.

Anyway, just some ideas.

HA! You guys seem to think that I actually CARE about how I look! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I actually really liked the dork shirt, i just don't like the fabric to be honest.

I just keep going back and forth between short sleeves vs long, and zip t vs hoody thing. I have this nice silk weight nike running hoody that I might wear…

Of course, I do like the zip-tees…………

"HA! You guys seem to think that I actually CARE about how I look!"

Or maybe we are just covertly staging a fashion intervention! ;-)

Oh and I do need one of those…..

I'm SO looking forward to my 60s when I can freely wear cat sweatshirts, a mumu and slippers and wander around grocery stores with abandon.

RR seems has a new fabric for some of its shirts.
" NEW super soft silky Nylon/Polyester Fabric"
"1.5 oz featherweight Nylon/Polyester fabric" vs old "2 ply 3oz featherweight Duralite nylon"

Does anyone have experience with this

It looks like the Adventure shirt will never be warm — too much mesh. Do they really keep you cool in hot humid summer weather?

I mowed the yard on a sunny 93f humid day, and tried both a 6oz merino l/s, my RAB l/s that weighs 3.5 oz, and my exofficio reef runner. The ex officio was hands down the coolest, and is mosquito resistant. I used it on my jmt hike w/no complaints except it is forevever horribly stained.

Go for a loose fitting vented shirt

the most important thing should be the SPF/UPF rating… you're going to be moving though a lot of high altitude sun exposure…

Billy

A deer ate my favorite green Ultra Armour long sleeve UPF 50 shirt in the Trinity Alps. Nothing like getting awoken by Ken asking whose hole-filled slobbery shirt this is on the ground.

del

polycotton long sleeve button up shirts.

Check out the Rab Boreas: soft, breathes, 1/2 zip, hood, works as baselayer or outer.

2 shirt combo. One or both, together with a windshirt covers any non-rainy >35 degree walking for me.

Patagonia Island Hopper short sleeve. Modified by cutting off the bottom several inches, so that the hem of the shirt is at my belt line, letting the air flow. Also, I stitch the horizontal opening of the pockets closed, leaving just the vertical openings. Lasts forever. Love this shirt. It's been my go-to hiking shirt for 10 plus years now.

180 to 200 weight long sleeve quarter zip merino hoody. Any brand will do as long as the hood fits. worn over or under the Island Hopper

you know, I LOVE my Rab Boreas, i wear it ALL the time against the AC here in Texas! – I actually wondered about making this my regular shirt!

I'm really, really torn between a longish short sleeve (i have a men's short sleeve silkweight patagonia cap 1 whose sleeves come to my elbows…this is one of my choices right now) vs a silkweight Nike dri-fit hooded L/S running shirt. the nike shirt is leading in my choices right now…super soft and silky, baggy for air flow, light grey color….seems like it would be really nice. Reminds me of a super light version of the patagonia sun hoody. Supposedly has an SPF of 50…..

But now I'm wondering about the Boreas. I would live in that piece if I could. It wouldn't be too hot? I have the Beluga color (that dark grey).

"regular" shirts are out for me for this trip – I initially really liked the RailRiders that I had, but after my last trip to the Ozarks I just hated the nylon fabric against my skin for some reason.

"But now I'm wondering about the Boreas. I would live in that piece if I could. It wouldn't be too hot? I have the Beluga color (that dark grey)."

For me, wearing a windshirt 100% of the time (even one as breathable as the Boreas) would be way too hot on the JMT (unless it is constantly overcast and does not get above 60 F). I found the Boreas added a fair bit of warmth. I think you'd be better off with something else, preferable long sleeve for sun protection.

When I first did the JMT back in the 80's from mid Sept into Oct, I hiked in a short sleeve cotton T-Shirt… :)

These days in the warm months I wear a thin long sleeve cotton T-shirts to hike the High Sierra when it's warm. Cotton cools like no other. The long sleeves keep the sun and bugs off. You can always push the sleeves up and make it short sleeve. If it is cold, I will wear synthetic shirts. If the weather is mixed I might take one cotton and one synthetic.

People have become so fearful of cotton these days… but it's the best on a warm day pushing you pack up those long, steep, sunny trails. Evaporative cooling.

Billy

er… I should ad that I wash my cotton hiking shirts with Sun Guard (by Rit) which increases the UPF rating of cotton from about 5 to 30 UPF. The treatment lasts for 20 washings.

Billy

Billy, do you have find that the sun gaurd changes the cotton shirt at all? (breathability, moisture absorption properties, ect)

Justin,
no changes of any kind that I have noticed and I've been using it for about 3 years now.

Billy

Have you ever tried any Dri-Release stuff? It's really interesting, because the huge majority of it is synthetic, but it usually feels great and more like natural fibers, because the natural fibers (always between 10% to 15%) are wrapped on the outside of the synthetic fibers. It doesn't feel like most synthetic shirts. The Dri Release that uses cotton feels the best to me, but i've only tried the cotton and wool kinds. There is also tencel, silk, etc blends (always with polyester that i've seen).

Has decent odor control too (the wool ones are actually pretty good). Wicking and drying is in between decent and good, but it wicks differently than 100% synthetic and wicking type shirts. The moisture doesn't spread as much over a larger surface area, but more pumps through from the inside to outside. I'm not sure which is better. Larger surface area seems like it would dry faster overall and be more quickly cooling, but these dry pretty quickly.

But again, the feel is nice and you can get these kind of shirts pretty cheap often.

I find the cotton ones are neither too hot, nor too cool, (good for a wide range of conditions, but not necessarily excellent for extremes) though to some extent it depends on the thickness.

Yeah, cotton (and cotton blends) is great for dry, hot weather. Not so much for humid hot weather.

"Have you ever tried any Dri-Release stuff?"

No. Sounds interesting… though probably a lot more expensive than my Target cotton T :)

billy

"No. Sounds interesting… though probably a lot more expensive than my Target cotton T :) "

Well laddy, that depends. Being of Scottish descent (sterotype follows) i'm a wee bit frugal meself (usually).

I got a Dri Release t-shirt off STP for less than 10 dollars with a coupon and all that. So, might be a bit more expensive than the Target cotton T, but probably not by much.

Also, higher UPF off the bat thanks to the 85% polyester, so less need to buy UV protecting additives.