Clothing
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Hats

Grrrrrrrr!!! VIKING!!!
Most hats work fine. Warm thing on head, sort of woolly or fleecy, = warm head.
Good hats are probably the easiest gear item to scrounge. We have a few tips:
- More Hats = Better.
Hats are the only piece of clothing we all agree its good to have
MULTIPLES of. Make sure you can stack them. Especially for sleeping,
wearing 2-3 hats is very warm, but you don't want a compressed head.
- Layer for Effect. If
it's wet or windy out, wear a waterproof or windproof hat or hood over dry
hats beneath. No matter how much an advertisement claims something is warm
when wet, water - unless it's hot water - always makes things colder.
- Choose the Right Material.
A hat should be made of fleece, wool, or a similar fabric that is
warm-when-wet and has vertical loft. Polypro hats may be problematic in very
wet environments.
- Secure your Sleeping Hats.
When sleeping with hats on, the topmost hat should have a chin strap of
some sort, or your hats may migrate off your head in the night. Being a
hot blooded species, most hats will seek the big puddle above your head
for a cooling bath.
- Decorative Patches = Bad.
Many sewn-on patches and embroideries hold water. The worst are cotton
embroidered patches, which will stay wet and cold long after the rest of
your hat is dry.
- More Coverage = Better.
Low brims, ear covers, and even full balaclavas ("ski masks")
are great. A big hat can be rolled down over your upper face when you
sleep. A full balaclava should provide the option of leaving your mouth
and/or nose exposed, or your breath will saturate it with water as you
breath through it.
- A Hat should be
Comfortable.
BEYOND SPEC'S FAVORITE SPECIALTY HATS:
The Fisherman's Sou'Wester. For REALLY wet places, this hat moves
water off your head like nothing else.
The Home-Knit Big Wool Hat. Knit and/or get someone who loves you to knit a big wool hat that hangs down to your eyes and has earflaps. It will make you life good. Even better, make it spacious enough to wear a balaclava underneath it.
The Polypro Balaclava. This hat is a balaclava at its most minimal: a
thin poly "ski mask" with a neck opening and a single large face
opening with an elastic border. As such, it can be worn as a beanie, a neck
warmer, a hood (with the full face exposed), or a mask with only the eyes
exposed. It's very small and lightweight, easily rolling up in a pocket or
purse, yet provides considerable warmth if it's dry. Being poly, when it gets
wet it dries fairly quickly.
The Boonie Hat. The boonie hat is a wide-brim hat, often made of
cotton. It's useful in dry and/or warm tropical climates as sun protection. It
also breaks up the outline of your head. It rolls up, crushes up, and still
works. The chief author found an old army surplus boonie hat at the 1999
Endfest punk/alternative rock festival, after it had been trampled by a drunken
crowd. It's served him well ever since. Look in surplus stores for boonie hats.
Rain-Proof Home-Made Hobo Hats. You can make a rain hat with a brim
easily out of gore-tex or treated nylon.
Other Commercial Rain Hats. Wide-brimmed commercial rain hats are
also available. In wet climates, these can be extremely valuable, keeping
underhats drier and preventing major heat loss through the head.

Beyond Spec's Culinary Icthyologist fishes from an Alpack in the Kenai Fjords, wearing the Magic Hat.
The Magic Hat. This technological wonder was first innovated by
Bretwood Higman with a hot glue gun and closed cell foam. Basically, it is a cap made of closed cell foam and fitted with a chinstrap. It was later determined the duct tape is superior to glue in constructing it. The magic hat is very
warm and completely waterproof and windproof, covering the head with a layer of
foam normally used for sleeping pads. For cheapness, it's unsurpassed. For
style, it's also unsurpassed, but in a different way.
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Gloves
There are more gloves out there than we can shake a stick at, but these are few
of our less conventional favorites:
- Neoprene. For hard
wet-climate travel (think rainforest) these amphibious gloves are great.
They're also tough enough to negotiate brush and rock.
- Atlas Semi-Rubberized Work
Gloves. These are a good poor man's brush glove. The rubberized palm
and fingers provide protection and a decent grip, while the pourous
backside fabric allows the glove to breath. We don't know what the
backside fabric is, but provides insulation even when it's muddy and
soaking wet. Although nothing we've found matches bare hands for a good
grip, we'd climb trees in these before any other glove. They lack the
insulation and wind-proofing for skiing and other cold, high-wind
endevours.
- Fingerless Woolies.
These are great for keeping your hands warm and working with them at the
same time.
- Fleece Gloves. Normal
fleece gloves are warm, not too spendy, and easy to wring out when they
get soaked. The fleece tends to flatten out if you're handling wet
objects, and it's not windproof.
- Sox. For shear
convenience, sometimes the old sock-on-hand method is king. If you don't
need to use your thumbs, a fluffy sock may be the warmest hand covering
there is, pound for pound.
Some of our less successful experiments include:
- Vaseline-doped Pigskin
Driving Gloves. This experiment was extremely unsuccessful for
temperate rainforest travel. The old pigskin gloves were too thin to
insulate and protect well. The vaseline impregnation, intended to make
them water resistant, was marginally successful at best. They just got
cold and clammy, all the time.
- Cut-Down Heavy Leather
Gloves. In Alaska once, we tried cutting the fingers and backs out of
some old leather gloves to make brush gloves. Silly us. Going fingerless
is great for warmth, but who really needs an armored palm?
- Home-Made Fleece Mittens.
Don't get us wrong, these are great for snuggling in bed with, but we
tried to use them for things like bushwacking and crossing exposed,
wind-swept moors in Southern Alaska. They were wind-transparent and were
more of a grip impediment than a hand guard.
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Socks
The most consistent rule we've found for socks is that it's good to have two
pair: one for the day, one for sleeping in. In a cold climate, feet can lose a
lot of heat at night. No matter what our socks are made of, they're warmer when
they're dry.
- Wool Socks. Wool (or
even better, blended wool-sythetic socks like Smartwool) are KING in most
applications. They're passably warm when wet, and very warm when dry. If
the environment is moderately wet, then the porosity of wool sox, when
combined with well-draining shoes, periodically flushes your feet, too.
This, in our experience, helps with foot health.
- Neoprene Socks.
Neoprene socks are superb in very wet environments, where you're fording
and wading a lot. In these places, the warmth is unrivaled. Neoprene socks
are also fairly tough. We've walked around in just neoprene socks on rock
and gravel. The chief author climbed to 17,000 feet in the Himalaya
wearing just Teva sandals and neoprene socks on his feet, traversing
scrub, rock, and snow-covered talus in driving wind and snow. When drying
neoprene socks by a fire, be careful: neoprene burns easily, leading to
very unfortunate holes. Keep in mind, also, that neoprene is an
impermeable barrier: when wearing neoprene socks for long trips, we like
to turn them inside out regularly. This puts a "clean" surface
against our feet, and gives water and abrasion a chance to celan off the
other side. Regularly drying them in the sun also helps, since foot-eating
microbes don't like to be dried out and microwaved by the sun's UV light.
- Fleece Socks. Fleece
socks look good on paper, but in actual use, the the fleece on the bottom
compresses and forms a strangely unpleasant surface. They're fine as
sleeping socks, but no better than wool, so we don't really see the point.
- Cotton Socks. Cotton
socks are great in dry, civilized places, but they when they get wet, they
get cold and they bunch up in a most unpleasant way.
- High Tech Snazzy
Waterproof Socks. In our experience, super-swanky socks with things
like gore-tex in them are a headache. When they're waterproof, we
inevitably get water inside them, where it stays. Our feet sweat too much
in them. They don't have the amphibious wonder-power of Neoprene. Since water
doesn't flush through them, stuff starts to grow on our feet. Soon, thanks
to the sand and grit in our shoes, they break down, and are no longer
waterproof. Then they're REALLY great.
- Plastic Baggies.
There's nothing shameful about wrapping your sock-clad feet in plastic
bags and slipping them into you shoes, boots, etc., if you want to keep
your feet dry for a not-so-intrepid adventure. Be forewarned that the
plastic baggies suffer the same downsides as High Tech Snazzy Waterproof
Socks, but if you're wearing cotton socks, it may be well worth using
baggies and a little agility to stay warmer and drier.
- Wool and Neoprene
Combination. When things get gnarly, wearing wool and neoprene socks
together can be a wicked combination. We're still debating the merits of
wool-under-neoprene (the lined wetsuit concept) or wool over neoprene
(draining insulation over the wetsuit). We need to test it more. If you
don't have neoprene and foresee a lot of time standing in cold water, you
can try plastic baggies over wool socks. The plastic provides the
impermeable barrier, and the wool provides the loft that neoprene normally
would, albeit water-filled, in this case.
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Footwear

Two pairs of otherwise identical Montrail Vitesse shoes.
We wear shoes and sandals, not boots, except for serious mountaineering,
skiing, and firefighting. Why?
- Load Size. Even on
long trips, we seldom carry more than 40-50 pounds, including food and water.
- Agility. You are more
agile in shoes. With the proper ankle conditioning, we believe this makes
us less prone to hurt ourselves than if we wore boots.
- Weight. An old rule of
thumb is that one pound on your feet is the equivalent of four pounds on your
back. If you want to go far, or do it fast, lighter footwear seems to be
easier on the body.
- Comfort. Shoes are
more fun. Boots definitely have a place, but companies would have us
believe that we MUST wear big boots always or we will DIE. We have yet to
personaly experience these consequences.
We try to consider weight, durability, and comfort when
looking at shoes. We also often use stability inserts, such as Superfeet,
which minimize pronation (side-to-side rolling of the feet that can lead, among
other things, to knee problems). You can find such inserts at any good running
shoe store.
We haven't used most of the shoes out there. For that reason, the only
actual models we discuss are our favorites, but we try to explain why we
like them, so you can take our experience and assess the goods yourself.
Besides, all our feet are different. Don't take our word for nuthin'.
Avia 2050 Running Shoes. The Avia 2050 is now discontinued, but
exemplifies a good off-terrain shoe, suitable for alpine rock, snow, heavy
brush, and river crossings. It featured an aggressive sole, a lot of torsional
stability (resistance to twisting), and good, strong side edges, which were
useful for kicking into snow and steep earth, and for edging on rock. The heal
counter was similarly stout and sharp-edged along the sole, making it good for
plunge steps on steep snow. Like almost all shoes, it had a flexible toe box,
which wasn't much good for front-kicking up snow or standing on rock nubs. This
failing, however, is the modest price of having an agile shoe that's pleasant
to run and scramble in. Like almost all running shoes, the toe box also
offered minimal protection to the toes. Either watch out for this, or accept
that you'll toughen your toes. These are all usefull criteria to think about
when evaluating any off-trail shoe.
Montrail Vitesse The Montrail Vitesse is of that new breed, the
"trail runner." The Vitesse is a shockingly durable shoe compared to
most of its brethren. It's unusually light and drains well. Like most trail
runners, it offers more toe protection than running shoes, but at a slight cost
in agility and speed. The big flaw of the Vitesse is that the cloth shoelace
grommets can be abraided through if you're walking in a lot of dirt and muck.
This is easily fixed by punching new grommet-holes in the top of the shoe.
Teva and Chaco Style Sandals. Many are the nice sandals out there,
and we can't review them too much. Suffice to say that the chief author has
used these sandals extensively in the desert and summer mountains, and got to
17,000 feet off trail in Asia wearing old Tevas. (We are not claiming he is
bright, just stubborn.) The big weaknesses? Four:
- Some sandals secure via
velcro. This velcro has a tendency to wear out too soon.
- In wet, muddy environments,
the footbed can become VERY slick.
- Gravel likes to get in there,
too.
- If you have heavily calloused
or scarred heels, your heel can abraid through the webbing strap,
necessitating repairs.
A sandals-and-neoprene-socks combination works well as a substitute
for shoes.
Flip-Flops. With proper conditioning, we find flip-flops to be great
for trail hiking. Flip-flops are light and flexible enough to allow the foot to
move in a fairly natural fashion, conforming to the terrain and using small
muscles. Plus, sun and fresh air feels good on our feet. It was Nepali farmers
and porters who turned us onto this, wearing flip-flops while negotiating
steep, slippery slopes in the monsoon with loads of 90 pounds our more. If they
can do it, so can you. Rough off-trail travel, river crossings, and snowfields
are not ideal places for flip-flops.
Wrestling Shoes. Wrestling shoes offer ground-feel with a modicum of
foot protection. We were turned onto wrestling shoes by the folks at Tom
Brown's Tracker School. For those who like to photograph, hunt, or just watch
animals, wrestlings shoes offer much of the silence of mocassins.
Heavy Sox. Heavy sox can be great for easy terrain or trail hiking
when it's cold out. 2 pair can provide
significant insulation.
Mocassins We have yet to try mocassins ourselves.
A NOTE ON KEVLAR LACES: In a world without dirt (such as Los
Angeles?), Kevlar laces are a great idea. Kevlar is vulnerable to abrasion,
falling apart when ground upon by grit. Those who live in a world
with dirt are advised to steer clear of laces that disintegrate after 300
miles.
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Pants
Traditionally, "pants" and "rain pants" are separate
categories. Bollocks, we say! How often have you worn your so-called "rain
pants" on a dry day? How long have you froliced in the rain in *gasp* non-rain
pants? Free yourself from the tyranny! We hold true that they're ALL
trousers, meant to provide the protection to the legs. A few general rules about pants:
- Seams Rip Out. Seams are the weakest point of your pants. Especially on rainpants, Seam-seal all the
stitch lines our rainpaints with SeamGrip or a similar urethane sealant. The
crotch is a particularly weak point. Look for gusseted crotches if you have to
do a lot of climbing, bushwacking, or other gymnastic moves.
- Less Seam Lines = Better. The
fewer seems your pants have, the fewer weak points they have. This is
especially true on the front of the pants, where they take more abuse.
- Consider the Waist Cinch. Is
it a tie-off waist, requiring dextrous fingers. Its it a simple toggle-cinch, which is easier, but can grind into
your stomach over time, especially if worn under a harness or waist belt? If velcro holds the waist band tight, will
you spend large amounts of time in muddy environments, where that velcro might
foul? Or does it accommodate a belt,
and thus sit more securely on your waist, and also introduce a buckle that
might be a real problem?
- Rivers Grab Loose Material.
The more loose material is on your lower legs, the more force a flowing
river will exert on you during a crossing.
Furthermore, any opening (such as a baggy cuff) or irregularity creates
more surface for water friction. Rough
fabrics (such as wool) create more water friction than smooth fabrics (such as
nylon.)
- Droopy Cuffs are Doom, Doom, Doom!
A droopy cuff of city pants is easy to roll up, or just fray under your
heel. With a brush pant, it can be a
lot worse. It invites snagging on brush
and impaling by crampons, which can happening at extremely unfortunate
moments.
- Leg Zippers are a Wild Card. Full
length leg zippers can be handy for donning pants without removing your
footwear, but they better be durable and water-resistant. These make the pants heavier, and – if they
do fail – leave you with a real mess.
Some people like shorty calf-high zippers, which open the lower leg just
enough to let you put the pants on over boots.
Although these haven’t caused us any woe, we don’t find ourselves using
them much, either.
- Rough Material Sticks; Smooth Material Slides. Pants of wool and other rough material will
not slide as easily on steep snow, grass, mud, and other slippery
surfaces. This can be an asset or a
weakness, depending on your application.
BEYOND SEPC'S SPECIFIC PANT THOUGHTS:
Rainpaints. There are a lot of super-spiffy rain pants and/or
waterproof ski pants out there, made of everything from treated nylon to the
latest waterproof-breathable fabric. We adhere to some general rules:
- You Sweat when Walking.
The harder you walk, the more your legs have to dump excess metabolic
heat. Any sweat trapped gets cold and clammy once you stop. It also
saturates anything you have on underneath your pants. Consider
waterproof-breathable pants if you walk hard and then stay out there.
Alternately, wear very little under your treated nylon rainpants, then
switch into insulated pants once you stop walking.
- Layering is Better than
Integrated Insulation. Unless
you plan on buying multiple pairs of wet-weather pants, stear clear of
ski-style pants with integrated insulation. You can get just as much warmth by layering fleece or wool
pants under your rainpaints, plus greater versatility and ease of repair.
- Brush Shreds Rainpants.
Heavy bushwacking will eventually destroy your rainpaints unless they're
foul-weather-gear weight. No matter how many reinforced cuffs, knees,
etc., you have, the devil's club and himalayan blackberry will eventually
win. Consider buying cheaper pants.
- Gaiters are “Disposable”
Lower Leg Armor. You can wear
gaiters over your lower legs, especially if you bushwack a lot. Gaiters are easier to fix and cheaper
to buy than whole rainpants. Use
them to absorb the punishment.
- Rain Pants are Slick. Rain paints will slide on steep snow
and vegetation, whereas fabrics like wool are stickier. Consider whether this is a problem.
- Rain Pants are Loud. Most rain paints have some sort of
nylon exterior, which makes a loud, distinctive whistling or sliding
sound.
Brush Britches. A pair of
rainpants (or any other pants) can also be transformed into "brush britches," for those
who face lots of river crossings in open terrain, or simply have a callous
disregard for their own shins and calves. To make brush britches, just cut off
an old pair of rainpants at mid-calf. Even when kneeling, they should still
protect your knees. This creates a well-ventilated, agile pair of britches that
drain quickly, don't get soaked in shallow streams, and don't snag at the cuffs
on brush.

Classified CIA archival photograph of brush britches during amphibious operations in the San Juan Islands, or possibly
Turkmenistan. Note the duct tape patching, heavy wool sox, trail shoes, PFD, raingear, and hat-over-balaclava.
Foul Weather Gear. "Foul Weather Gear" is used here in the
nautical sense, refering to VERY heavy, totally impermeable rain bibs. These
are great if you're in a storm at sea, but we find their heaviness, stiffness,
and resulting spacious fit unsuitable for trekking, bushwacking, and climbing.
Of particular note: the fit results in poor insulation.
BDUs (a.k.a. Army Pants). We are still collating data on BDUs.
Fleece Pants. Fleece pants can be great, but they don't offer nearly
as much protection as they offer warmth. We discuss insulation under Body Insulation, below.
Woolies. Wool pants are great. They're fire-resistant, quiet, and
warm even when wet. They can also be scratchy. Army-Navy Surplus stores can be
a good place to look for wool pants. King of the Mountain makes great
wool products, including pants, but they're also EXTREMELY expensive.
We don't have as much experience with wool pants as we'd like.
Nomex. Nomex-treated forestry pants are lightweight, tough, slightly
warm, and dry fairly quickly. They're available in dark green, and some
versions have large cargo pockets as well. They're fire resistant, but also
slightly abrasive. If you're doing a lot of fire-camping in a hot, dry climate,
nomex can be great. They can also be expensive: up to $80, or - for the tan
ripstop kevlar ones - $120 or more. Note, also, that the Kevlar ones will break
down much more quickly, due to Kevlar's abrasion vulnerability.
Nomex pants may be useful in warm climates if you’re working with fire a
LOT. Otherwise, there’s not much reason
to wear them. If you want nomex, we
recommend the "Crew Boss" pants. Avoid "wrangler" style at
all cost if you're a man.
Jeans & Carharts. Denim or canvas work pants can be great in hot,
dry climates as long as you take care not to get them wet when it's cold. In
situations where we might have to bivouac or might endure a thundersquall or
river-crawl followed by cold, we avoid these pants like the plague.
Return to top.
Raingear
We think if very general terms about raingear, even though we wear it a
lot. There are roughly 10.7 Billion different raincoats out there, and in our
collective experiences, the differences between the Super-Gonzo Zazzagucci Tech
X-9000 Anti-Water System and Honest Bob's Nylon Slicker aren't as big as the
$400 price difference would have us believe. If you're traversing mountains,
forests, and sub-arctic plains in driving wind and rain, no matter what you
wear you WILL get at least a little WET.

Raingear Arrangements. Left: Beyond Spec's Bioweapons Expert in the traditional coat-pants combo.
Right: Two Beyond Spec Operatives (Identities Confidential) in home-made unibody rainsuits.
BEYOND SPEC'S RAINGEAR THOUGHTS
- Super Lightweight
Raingear. Super light stuff-in-your pocket raingear is nice for the
desert (were it serves more often as windbreaker), the city, or mountains
where you *really* don't expect much weather. If you plan on doing any
serious scrambling or bushwacking in it, it probably won't last more than
a few days.
- Waterproof-Breathables vs.
Treated Nylon. Treated nylon is cheap, hardly breathes, and holds up
longer than gore-tex and other waterproof-breathable fabrics. The W-B
fabrics breathe, allowing you to eliminate more moisture from beneath it,
but will wear out more quickly, losing its waterproof qualities. Note,
also that there's a big difference between cheap w-b fabric and expensive
w-b fabric, even under the same brand name (like gore-tex). If you want
to go nylon, go for it. The chief author's only raincoat is treated
nylon. Understand, however, that you'll have to spend a little more energy
on clothing management if you want to avoid sweating up a micro-swamp
under your coat.
- Foul Weather Gear.
Helly Hansen and other companies make some great heavy-duty raingear
that's cheaper than gore-tex and tougher than god, but heavy as hell and
not well suited to hiking at all. This "foul weather gear" may
have a good wilderness role, but we've only found heavy use for the Sou'wester Hats.
- Pit Zips let water in
if you raise your arms a lot.
They’re also a source of heat loss, even when closed.
- Hoods are a more
effective alternative to a rain hat, but they
drasticaly reduce your environmental awareness.
- Length. A raincoat
that rides up above your waist when you raise your arms is a recipe for a
cold, wet crotch and bum.
- Waist Cinch. An
elastic cinch around the waist keeps you much warmer, limiting air
circulation when you move. It also helps prevent water circulation, and -
if you're using your air mattress
as a life preserver, it helps to secure it.
- Wrists Closures.
Velcro tighteners work well, although they do hold some water. Elasticized
wrists can get aggravating if they're too tight. The best option we've
found is to actually sew the sleeves so they're a custom, snug foot over
your wrists. They limit air circulation and water penetration as well as
giving your wrist and forearm a smoother profile.
- Bells & Whistles
Neat-o pockets and vents and such can be pretty cool when we're skiing and
such, but in the middle of nowhere when we've just fallen in the river and
its raining and we're trying to build camp in wet ferns, all we really
care about is having an intact waterproof membrane over our body, keeping
the warm stuff - our body insulation - from exchanging too much air and
water with the outside world. That's what it comes down to. Speaking of which...
- Don't burn holes through
your raingear or impale it with your ice axe. Not that we've done
either. Or both.
Do-It-Yourself Raingear.
Some of us prefer to make our own raingear, or to improvise it.
- To use your spaceblanket as a
quickie poncho, see Space Blankets.
- For garbage bag raingear, see "garbage bags" in the improvised gear
section.
- Rainsuits: At this time, the
Building Gear Section is under construction.
Return to top.
Body Insulation.

Beyond Spec's Runway Diva models this year's "in" unibody fleece suit w/ integrated hood.
Body insulation is the warm clothing on your body extending out to the neck,
wrists, and ankles. Unless we're
someplace very cold, covering our lower legs and forearms is not nearly has
important as insulating our knees, elbows, hands, and feet. For this reason,
"shorty" garmets can be very excellent insulation when negotiating
wet brush.
Note that signficant heat loss occurs wherever clothing separates, such as
at the waist line between coats and pants. For this reason, unibody suits -
such as we sometimes make - are superior insulators to two-piece outfits.
BEYOND SPEC'S BODY INSULATION GUIDELINES:
- Fewer Separations =
Warmer
- Fewer Zippers = Warmer
- Baggy = Too Much Air
Circulation. Baggy clothes require that your body heat more air to
stay warm, and your movement can have a bellows effect, forcing
circulation of that trapped air, thus cooling you.
- Know the Critical
Coverage Areas. Covering the head, neck, torso, armpits, and crotch is
most important.
- Joints Get Cold.
Joints have less blood flow and insulating muscle and fat. For that
reason. If you're making a shorty garmet or cutting something down,
consider ending it just beyond the knees and elbows.
- Pockets are nice if
they're in your outer garmet, but otherwise they're not of much use.
Consider the pocket designs: many are made without much thought to thermal
efficiency. A pocket you never use
is a hole in your clothes with a decorative zipper.
- Windstopper.
Windstopper fleece doesn't do you any extra good if you're wearing a
windbreaker over it, and it holds water like a Beluga whale. Nor does it
do you any good when, after a couple years, it disintegrates and forms
shredded clumps of material along your coat’s hem line.
- Wrists. You can lose
heat out the ends of the sleeves if they aren't snug enought. Consider
button cuffs, elastic, or simply modifying the sleeves so that they're
fairly snug along the wrists and forearm.
- Hem Line. A garmet
that rides up your belly when you lift your arms is going to cost you a
lot of heat loss, especially when it’s raining sideways.
- Little Heat Losses Add
Up. Heat is like weight: One thermal inefficiency isn't much, but when
you add ten of them together, you're losing a lot of heat.
- Wet = Cold. No matter how something is advertised, it is colder when it gets wet. Your body is now heating water as well as the garmet material and the air trapped inside it. Water has about 200 times the heat capacity of air. When you do get wet, thick fleece & wool are the best materials to be wearing. See Understanding Gear Design.
The Capilene Base Layer Question. Conventional wisdom seems to hold
that it's always better to have some sort of thin, "wicking" base
layer of capilene. The idea is that it wicks moisture "away" from
you, and the moisture - a la the magic of wicking - then evaporates
quickly. his is sort of funny, since our experience is that a very thin, wicking
garmet spreads moisture laterally, since it lacks the loft to move it away from
your skin. Then, if you're in a dry climate with good air circulation, the
water evaporates. If you're in, say, a temperate rainforest during a drizzle and you're wearing
raingear over your magic capilene undies and bushwacking through heavy
thickets, capilene underwear doesn't work so well. It wicks water and sweat all
over you, but it doesn't evaporate. No, the garmet stays wet, and makes you
colder.
For this reason, when we're in very wet environments, we prefer to wear
fleece against our skin. Fleece wicks moisture vertically as well as
horizontally, moving it away from our skin. Furthermore, fleece drains well and
has enough loft that, even after full immersion in a river, it's warming us
within minutes.
Merino Wool. We’ve got 2nd-hand testimony
from a couple fellas who climbed Denali (McKinley), and rain into the same
capilene-underwear problem. They also
had lightweight merino wool underwear, and wore that – in great comfort – for the
entire trip. They found it was warm,
even when soaking wet. Wool is, after
all, magic. It’s got that sheep mojo
goin’ on. Nonetheless, we have not verified
this. Merino wool is expensive.
The Fleece Body Suit. The Fleece Bodysuit is the king of wet climate
body insulation, in our somewhat deranged experience. Since the Building Gear
section isn't written, we refer you to Erin
and Hig's Alaska Trekking Page, where Erin showcases last season's stylish
model.
Coats & Shirts. Any coat or shirt of insulating material
obviously adds warmth.

Beyond Spec's Heinousness Epert wears a cotton hoodie on the Colorado in January. As long as he stays dry, cotton's killer!
Vests. A vest adds a great deal of body core insulation at less
weight than a full coat, but often leaves something to be desired at the
armpits and collar. If you want to carry a vest instead of a coat, you may
consider adding short sleeves. Currently, we're looking into fabricating a
short-sleeved, high-collared pullover tunic to fill this role.
Fleece Boxer Shorts. In our demented little world, these are strictly
homemade contraptions, and they're invaluable. Our fleece shorts are short
(think runner shorts), close but not snug (loose fabric wastes warmth), and are
outfitted with a tie-off drawstring at the waist. The important thing is to
have your crotch and high inner thighs insulated. Thanks to this coverage, they
provide much of the effect of full-length fleece pants at a fraction of the
weight. The chief author even skis in fleece shorts and rain pants, only
occasionally adding long underwear beneath them.
IMPROVISED INSULATION.

Warming up on the Alaska Peninsula. Note the sleeping bag around the chest.
Hypothermia is more likely to kill you than sharks, bears, wolves, cougars, wombats, and meteors combined. If times are tight (or cold, as it were), you can employ several quickie insulation solutions:
- Layer All Dry and/or Warm-When-Wet Insulation. More insulation = warmer.
- Stuff Your Shell. Stuff leaves, moss, crumpled newspaper, or other insulating materials inside your outer clothing, creating more loft. Dry stuffing is best. Damp stuffing is usually OK; sodden stuffing = not so good. Experiment.
- Discard Heat Sinks. Stow your ice axe, rifle, or any other metal objects. Remove crampons, which conduct heat right from your feet into the ice. If you have to urinate, etc., do so: bio-waste is a heat sink in your body. Urination in the cold is a survival strategy: your body is dumping liquid to reduce the volume it must heat.
- Eat & Hydrate. This is a balancing act: if you're well fed and hydrated, your body is running at higher performance, and can heat you better. Drinking quart after quart of icewater, however, will cool your core, since your body must heat it.
- Minimize Loft Compression. Loosen belts and harnesses. Take off your pack. Loosen tight shoes. Anything that compresses your loft reduces your insulation.
- Hood Up. Pull your hood over your hats and cinch it, creating your own head-space micro climate.
- Wrap Your Core. Wrap sleeping bags, foam pads, mattresses, empty packs, or other items around your chest or torso to further insulate you. If you're stationary, you can expand this to the rest of your body.
- SHELTER UP!!! Stay out of the wind and rain. Stay off metal or sodden, well-conducting surfaces like wet sand. Hunker down on a duff layer. A rock is usually better than bare soil, and bare soil is better than a puddle. Share body heat. If you have a bivy sack, use it. If not, wrap in a space blanket, stick your legs into your pack, or snuggled up in a garbage bag. If you have a parachute, fold it multiple times over yourself, trapping air in the folds. Real men would rather share a bivy sack with another man than freeze to death.
Beyond Spec's Common Sense Technician hunkers like an intelligent coward
in a light space blanket and an Alpacka Raft on the 2004 Alaska Wilderness Classic.
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