The best backpacking winter midlayer? Help!!

There’s no simple answer to this. It depends on the conditions, how much you sweat, and the layers you use under and over your choice of mid layer.

Something you might miss is my current favourite – the Rab Alpha Flash jacket with the innovative Polartec® Alpha™ Direct 120 insulation at just 280g/10oz.

I’ve been around long enough to be cynical about the latest fabric innovations, but this really does deliver with great warmth to weight and phenomenal wicking. I’m just back from a couple of days on an icy Dartmoor where I was wearing just a merino base, the Alpha and a 90g wind jacket. I was dry and comfortable in a wind chill of -10c, and despite working hard in deep snow my base layer stayed completely dry. I’m a a sweaty beast and have never experience this before – very impressive.

Fairly new to me, but I know someone who says she’s found it pretty durable.

So worth checking out, I think.

Why not just fix the perceived fabric wear problem with a patch when you buy the garment?

A lot of this “problem” isn’t the fabric wearing out as far as I can see but cosmetic because it looks “ugly” but no UL garment is going to last long compared to traditional gear is it and I thought that a short working life was part of the accepted trade-off for being UL.

A few of my PowerStretch tops have silicon dots in the wear areas to counter this, you can do the same at home with diluted plumbers silicon and a small paint brush

What Geoff said: “There’s no simple answer to this. It depends on the conditions, how much you sweat, and the layers you use under and over your choice of mid layer.”

A week ago I was leisurely XC skiing in 20 degree F with little wind with just two layers: a Ibex Indie base layer (150 micron wook) and a Patagonia R1 fleece. When the wind picked up, I added a windshirt. When I stopped for a break, i added a synthetic puffy.

Thank you for your reply and suggestion, i live in central south carolina and tend to work many hours so my backpacking trips mostly take place in the NC smokies, so that would be the environment and as far as layers i usually wear a columbia omni heat midweight baselayer, columbia polartec 100 halfzip fleece, and columbia outdry featherweight shell for windy or rainy conditions, and a synthetic or down jacket underneath the shell if really cold during camp or stops. By all means im not experienced or a professional so i appreciate all input. Thankyou again.

Hope i dont sound like a columbia fanatic, thanks for eveyones inputs and replys they all help very much.

Ryan

That’s a pretty classic setup and should work fine in most conditions. It’s what I used for decades in Scotland and the Alps. The Alpha jacket I mentioned would replace the fleece and offer a decent but not essential performance improvement. On multi-days in cold wet, I would also use a technical mesh such as a Brynje under my base layer – something they use in Scandinavia and which works very well to keep a dry and warm pocket of air against the skin even when you’re working hard and sweating. A very light (< 120g) wind jacket adds some extra flexibility with very little extra weight or volume – it’s more pleasant than a hard shell when it’s dry but windy, and you can save your expensive shell for when its wet.

Personally I like to keep it simple and have a very minimal quiver of stuff, but it you want to get a bit more nuanced here’s a comprehensive discussion of layering by Chris Townsend, the doyen of gear testers:

http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com/2016/07/outdoor-clothing-layering.html

Thanks again for the reply MR. CAPLAN, I have been researching garments that are made with polartec alpha and alpha direct for a while now but there doesnt seem to be that many products on the market that use it but i am considering the alpha flash that you have and the alpha direct jacket. I have never heard of a brynje but definitly sounds interesting and will look into that also, thanks for the link to chris townsend layering guide found it very helpful. Thanks again sir.

If I’m carrying a midlayer, its almost certainly going to be a 100 fleece. It checks all the boxes: relatively light, moderately warm, very breathable for active use. I rarely have the need for something different,  unless it’s no midlayer at all.

As a mid layer while traveling it needs to be synthetic due to sweat buildup in the insulation.

300 weight fleece is too heavy and bulky.

That leaves synthetic quilt fill. For my money the fill has to be a form of Climashield. Primaloft is less durable. In the Army’s Nautick lab tests Climashield proved to retain the most loft of all synthetic fills after repeated stuffings. That’s why the military now uses it.

Yes, the military uses 300 weight fleece “ECWCS” jacket and pants but remember, troops seldom actually backpack. Special Ops units that do backpack get their pick of the best civilian clothing. True story.

It’s hard to beat he utility and cheap price of LW fleece in any circumstance, the trick is [ in my experience anyway] making sure that each layer is sized appropriately and is easy to put on/take off. You need to size each layer to fit over with enough room to give that important airgap between layers, the ease of use makes a couple of ounces for an extra windshirt worthwhile in my opinion if using fleece and not a shelled synthetic.

I’ve not yet had a chance to wear and use my new shelled ALPHA jacket so I can’t comment there

Bruce, I’m curious as to your Ibex Indie  “150 micron wook” base layer. My Ibex Indie is 190 weight (that would be 190 grams/sq. meter). Was the “wook” a special edition version?

See, I like my OR Nimbus Ascendent Hoody (REI special, slightly more denier and water resistant but less breathable.)  I don’t know how your seatbelt abraded the one you had but you may want to check that out. I like to wear mine in 50F to 25F with An OR echo ls and ss.

The RAB Alpha Flash is a decent jacket but too bad they don’t make a hooded Version but I guess you can pair it with an OR Ascendent balaclava.    A good fleece is the Mountain Hardwear Microfleece Lite full zip hoody.  Pair either of those two with an epic shell and you have something close to a light version of Paramo/Buffalo.

Brett

Personally I don’t like too many hoods flapping around – I use one on my insulation layer and my hard shell – otherwise I’ll rely on a hat.

But if Ryan fancies an Alpha direct hoody, there is one by the Norwegian brand Norrona. Premium price, as with most Norwegian gear, but I’ve never seen one so can’t speak to the quality. So far as I know, these are the only two products using the fabric.

https://www.norrona.com/en-GB/products/lofoten/lofoten-alpha-raw-zip-hoodie-men/?color=2295&amp;

@ Gary
I was intending to type wool. I was guessing at the micron weight.
I have two of them. The first one is a bit less stretchy and the wool feels hard. The one I bought two years later, is more stretchy and the wool feels softer, and got it’s first hole sooner. I use them in winter for snow camping and skiing and for bicycling.

BTW I always felt Ibex would have done better as a company sticking to cycling and outdoor wear and staying away from multiple items of streetwear that appeared not to sell. At the end of every year, all the clothes on sale were the streetwear I was not interested in.

At the end of every year, all the clothes on sale were the streetwear
The cycle continues. We met this 40+ years ago in Australia: the wool streetwear was just too $$ compared to synthetics. But hopefuls keep trying to reinvent the wheel.

Plus, of course, synthetics wash and dry infinitely more easily than wool. The consumer is not totally stupid.

Cheers

@ Roger
Agreed. Ibex also went down the path of taking out loans and building bricks and mortar stores….

loans and building bricks and mortar stores
That era is past. So much for smart business leaders …

Cheers

Wool does have a place tho, but if you desire a woollen midlayer the best value and the cheapest is an old fashioned pullover. Even better if you have an aunt or grannie who can knit to your particular size.

This is one area where there are some real bargains to be had, I don’t like disposable fashion but I bought a couple of jumpers on sale from Uniqlo a while ago, one in UL merino which is a nice summer weight sweater or decent base layer and the other I bought for downhill skiing and is in cashmere. I paid less than $80- for both including postage. An alternative is mohair, can’t be worn against the skin so no good as a base layer and twice as heavy as fleece but often found cheap S/H and because the fibres are not water absorbent in the same way wool is, quite practical if you can accept the weight penalty. But if you are considering a wool layer that is 190GSM you have already done that.

I would suggest changing your base layer to a Marmot Driclime. Its amazing in that capacity for winter over a large variety of temperatures. Keep the 100 wt fleece and shakedry if the temps plummet and you are still cold while moving. Get a nice warm down or synthetic puffy for the stops.

Yes, there are only 2 piece that use the 120 Alpha Direct but about a dozen that use the 90/95 Alpha Direct.  It would be nice if a company could pair either with some Epic in one jacket.

Again thanks for all the replies.