Hi everyone,
First post here.
I regularly visited the Scottish highlands before my more UL days, first wearing my 2.5l PU coated North Face HyVent, then my 60D Fjallraven Keb eco shell PU membrane. Got into backpacking light without revisiting wetter and colder areas, going to a (2L?) Columbia outdry Ex Eco jacket (can’t find the denier) with the familiar microporous membrane, and finally going to making a 20D 1.1ozy RSBTR silpoly rain jacket in the style of the Yamatomichi long Hoodie or the Sierra Designs Cagoule.
When I wore the silpoly jacket last April in Utah during an afternoon of steady cold rain and wind, I felt very cold wearing my Patagonia tropic comfort hoodie and Argon 67 7d Skylight gear wind jacket underneath. The fabric itself provided shelter from the rain, but zero insulative value and even felt like it was actively withdrawing warmth from my body. (I was reminded of this effect the first times I was in colder wind or rain with my Outdry jacket where I was trying to use it as a wind jacket, but let’s leave that one out of the equation because it has a breathable component to it as well).
Where I hated my 3L Fjallraven wetting out and completely soaking me from the inside, I loved that it didn’t continuously dump out my body heat. My silpoly jacket however had a weird characteristic of giving me a cold sweat: zero air permeability made for a stuffiness in rain that made me sweat (luckily I’m not a heavy sweater), but the uber thin fabric that was hit with water was extracting warmth like crazy. I had to bring an aggressive pace to keep from not getting dangerously cold.
Can you help me characterize what happened here? What should I grab when I’m expecting 40-50F with prolonged wind and rain? Does a silpoly rain jacket only shine in warm, sudden downpours? Does a forecast of colder rain and wind ask for a higher denier face fabric, or maybe for adding an active insulation piece, or both? Is high breathability in a rain jacket even what’s best in cold and windy conditions (in case of my outdry)?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Greetings from NL
