A Lightweight Guide to Backpacking in Sustained, Cold Rain

elizabeth,
This company
"Filson"sells a lot of different and really nice products made with wool. They are a Mens store but when growing up I had 3 sisters who wore my stuff all the time. They have a few things with Merino in them and a lot of stuff that looks like it would be good to wear bushwacking.

They sell their products through a lot of different stores such as Sportsman's Warehouse.

I love my Ibex stuff as well. I've been wondering for some time about adding lanolin to wool to increase water repellence and have not heard anything definitive yet. I'm reluctant to experiment on my expensive Ibex stuff. I will contact Ibex directly. I did so in the past without getting the answer I was looking for but I think they recently did a simple test and may have more information.

There is a lanolin wash for wool diapers I was thinking about, rather than traditional DWR treatments.

I received a answer from Ibex about adding lanolin to wool. I will quote the relevant portion below.

With regard to your question on lanolin, I don’t have any scientific research that directly deals with such an issue, but having said that, the following factors would need to be considered:

The physical ability of adding lanolin to improve water resistance and decrease absorption: Yes it could potentially improve water resistance and absorption. With regard to absorption though it would need to be an even coating over the entire garment – would need to be soaked in lanolin, and then I wouldn’t guarantee its effectiveness.

The ‘stickability’ of the lanolin to the fibre: In the Chlorine Hercosett shrink resist process the chemical and physical properties of the fibre are altered. This is likely to affect the ability of lanolin to stick to the fibre. This includes at the time of application and during wear and laundering – it is likely that common laundering detergents would remove the lanolin quite quickly as the initial chemical bond between lanolin and the fiber has been removed.

The smell: When wet, an ibex garment coated in lanolin is likely to smell like a wet sheep!

Jeff,

We all have different styles, but I always eat first.

Sometimes I stop on the trail and eat then walk some more before sleeping. Long term you will benefit from separating eating and sleeping.

When using the poncho/tarp bivy combination I also carry a DriDucks jacket. I can go UL, but mostly opt for lightweight.

I rig my bear bag quickly after selecting a site, but leave the cord hanging. The quilt is lofting in the bivy pushed to the side of the poncho while cooking. After dinner the kitchen is bagged and hoisted.

Living in Seattle and hiking in the Washington Cascades and Olympics, I get a lot of rainy days. Two things to add to this thread:

1. After reading Ray Jardine's Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook, I started experimenting with an umbrella in the backcountry. One of the biggest joys of the umbrella is using it in camp to keep dry while cooking, bear bagging, middle-of-the-night toilet runs, etc. I also found it useful as an adjunct to a tarp to block off windblown rain at the foot or head of the tarp. Would really complement a bivy sack to keep rain from hitting your face. I think this addresses some of the questions presented in the comments.

On the trail, when rain is falling vertically rather than horizontally, I much prefer an umbrella plus a windshirt to any poncho or WB jacket. With brush or wind, though, it gets dicey.

2. I often cross-country ski in the rain (sick, I know, but I have a great time, really!). Snoqualmie Pass is only 1 hour from Seattle but it's only 3,000' elevation so it gets as much rain as snow. But here's the thing: although it's raining, the temperature is usually right around freezing, and you're surrounded by snow which chills the air, so it's about the worst possible conditions for hypothermia.

I used to wear GoreTex jacket and pants but it never worked well (too hot then too cold from perspiration). I finally settled on winter bicycling tights with a windproof WR front and stretchy super-breathable back of the legs.

The shocking breakthrough was just how incredible my Marmot DriClime windbreaker is! I can ski in the rain all day in that thing and be totally comfortable. Due to my ignorance and/or negligence, I have never re-treated its DWR, and it STILL works fantastically even though it totally wets out on the outside. I am just blown away. All I wear under it is a thin mid-weight merino wool shirt, with a sweater in my fanny pack for rest breaks. Somehow the DriClime moves moisture out so fast that it doesn't matter that the outside is barely even WR. Truly astounding.

BUT –and this is a big one– I would absolutely NOT be comfortable sitting around in camp with that thing on after hiking in it all day in the rain. Its exceptional performance XC skiing in rain seems to depend on my body heat from aerobic activity. So for rainy backpacking, while I would be happy to hike in the DriClime, I'd want to put on something waterPROOF and dry for sitting around in camp. Sometimes I think a non-breathable ultra-ultralight something-or-other for camp, such as a garbage bag with sleeves? 1oz? The next morning, put on the wet DriClime again and start hiking.

…David Longwalker

Hi Jeremy

Chuckle!
The blue tent is my 3-pole single-skin summer tunnel tent. The 'yellow tent' is the inside of my (3 or 4)-pole double-skin winter tunnel tent, with my wife drinking soup.
(Possibly my older 3-pole winter tent, now I think about it. That was superceded by my newer 4-pole version.)
I must have given the pictures to the author when he was writing the article.

Cheers

From my experience of walking and fell running in Britain I would find it dangerously cold wearing the minimal items listed in the article on our hills, though I appreciate that they would be perfect for many situations. Even when fell running in cold and wet winter conditions I find that synthetic leggings such as Ron Hill's (rather than shorts), sythetic shirt (my favourite has a thin waffle pile on the inside), hat, gloves and waterproof outer layer may be barely enough to stay warm. This being partly due to wind chill. However, I find that I can take the outer waterproofs off and wear the rest in the tent to get them dry, adding dry socks – my only spare clothing.
Less effort would leave me colder. On the other hand, people with a more active metabolism would be warmer.
When walking I find that Sealskinz socks don't keep my feet completely dry but do keep them much warmer when splashing through streams in mesh shoes. I like them.
I suspect that the wetting out of air permeable DWR fabrics is due to vapour condensing on the water chilled outer fabric. This may explain the observation that eVent, FurTech and Paramo outers seem to lose their DWR faster than less breathable fabrics. In a similar vein I would contest the notion that the cause of condensation is the blocking of pores in a fabric: wouldn't a water vapour molecule pass through the pore and condense on the drop, increasing its volume, its surface tension keeping it from filling the pore? I think that an alternative explanation is that cold rain chills the outer fabric of whatever you are wearing to below the dew point conditions and you get condensation on the fabric. It doesn't matter how breathable the fabric is, if it's below the dew point it'll suffer condensation. Witness the dew on a spiders web.
The impregnation of silicone into Epic fabrics seems to me to fill some of the voids and not just coat the fibers. You can see this if you find their cross sectional magnified image. This may account for the reduced breathability I've experienced, in comparison to a wind shirt. I like Epic fabrics but I usually get wet on the front of the thigh in prolonged or heavy rain. They do dry quickly though, if you shake the drops off. Epic fabrics start life with a DWR and I would recommend you maintain it, just like any other piece of water resistant kit.
Thanks for a really interesting article and comments.