Synthetic thermal baselayers comparable to Mont Bell Zeo-line?

You'll find that a lot of people here will highly recommend Polartec Power Dry High Efficiency grid fleece fabric with polygiene treatment for both baselayers and midlayers. If you've seen regular grid fleece before, there is less fleecy area with the high efficiency stuff and more void/empty space. Most solid materials are much more conductive of heat energy than air, but the trick is to still the air. The high efficiency grid fleece works best with a wind blocking outer layer if you want maximum warmth retention. However, if you need to dump heat and moisture fast, it's easy and quick to do so.

Fishnet stuff like the below also works well in this regard, and the polypropylene ones absorb very, very little moisture.

http://www.shopfest.com/cgi-bin/cart.exe?preadd=action&key=8000M551T&reference=/cgi-bin/cart.exe%3Fsearch%3Daction%26keywords%3DALL%26searchstart%3D18%26template%3DTemplatesBR_search.html

Hard to beat for 5 bucks, but will stink being polypropylene and not having a antimicrobial treatment. I'm working on a home treatment with taking some Ghee and infusing it with clove and rosemary (and possibly other) essential oil and rubbing it into the polypropylene since PP is rather oil absorbent. Clove is one of the most powerful essential oil antimicrobials, and rosemary helps to keep oil from oxidizing and is moderately antimicrobial as well. Might be bad in Grizzly country though!

Wow that's some serious DIY – why ghee? I would have guessed coconut oil since that stuff has an infinite shelf life at room temps w/o going rancd.

I've thought of coconut oil, but the extra virgin stuff i have does have a limited shelf life. Ghee has a pretty long shelf life, since it's basically pure saturated fat without much of anything else in it.

Regarding coconut oil maybe the more refined stuff is better in that regard?

Cabela's has THE largest selection of synthetic base layers I've ever seen.

NOTE: My oldest Cabela's long john set is now 18 years old and has seen 8 years of ski patrolling (XC & alpine) and 12 years of hunting. It still fits well and shows no signs of wear.

I've seen people ask the question here before but never actually saw a response…
Are MB base layers good?
How do they stack up to capilene and phasic fabrics?

Pretty hard to beat power dry HE imo…but I'm still curious about MB….
Seems hard to find reviews on em…

I can tell you that their wool layers are superb. No experience with their synthetic bases

I just got a Cabellas E.C.W.S. top which is made of the grid fleece stuff. I was surprised it weighs the same as my 100 weight fleece (10 ounces). Going to do some comparison testing later this week.

It's not talked about often because it's not new, but Patagonia's Capilene in varying weights are all phenomenal. They wick well, dry fast and are very well constructed. You won't be ripping any seams!

I skip Cap1 and go straight to Capilene 2, 3 and 4. I like the 3 for bottoms and the 4 for tops as cold weather is concerned. 2 is a great weight for a t-shirt.

I think Capilene is made with the Polartec Power Dry mentioned above?

I just got some Cap 4 tops and bottoms. They feel great, and have unbeatable warmth/weight. But despite the odor treatment, I still found that they build up an awful smell after a week.

Thanks guys – since the Mont Bell merino lightweight stuff was in stock I decided to test the waters with that for now since it's winter and I'll make use of it. I've read a lot of good reviews of both their synthetic and merino baselayers and I'm pretty sure they will both work out well. If the merino is light enough I might still use it in the higher elevated campsites during the summer. I froze my bum off last 4th of July in 40 degree overnight temps in Cherry Springs State Park (PA).