Hot answers tagged clothing
19
Your legs aren't as sensitive to temperture extremes. Right now it's winter here and I'm walking around outside with a regular shirt, a wool sweater, and a wind breaker on my torso. Inside I take off the windbreaker an sweater. However, inside or outside, I'm wearing the same single-layer pants and it's not a problem. My legs don't feel hot inside or ...
13
There's a reason desert cultures almost all wear coverings from head to toe.
Three main things to consider:
Protection from the sun's harmful rays.
Air flow for convection cooling
Moisture retention (you heard that right) for evaporative cooling.
Despite the convention, "cotton kills," in the desert those same properties (slow drying, water retention) ...
13
To be honest I was dubious about getting something that I thought was gimmicky, but my son’s Scout troop was selling custom Buffs to raise group funds so I ended up buying one.
A Buff is just a tube of lightweight, stretchy material.
I’ve found them useful in three particular situations:
They are thin, so can be worn like a hat under a bicycle helmet for ...
11
The short answer is, it varies. The three factors that most influence the UV transmission factor of clothing are kind of obvious:
Material: Some materials are better at absorbing UV than others; for example, the paper cited below suggests that polyester absorbs more UV light (particularly UVB) than cotton.
Weave: The thicker and more tightly woven a piece ...
11
Don't use cotton socks for hiking.
When your feet sweat, the socks become wet, and take forever to dry out. Good socks remove the bacteria and moisture that thrive in the environment created by sweating feet and help to prevent blisters. Cotton retains moisture, thus cotton socks will not do the job properly.
Rather, buy non-itching ("merino") wool, ...
10
I strongly recommend you purchase, borrow, or possibly rent a proper ski jacket and pants.
Given that you don't have a ski jacket I'm guessing that you are a relative beginner. It is likely that you might be falling down quite a bit. One thing to consider is does your jacket give you good mobility? If it does not, you could very easily expose your waist ...
10
When washing rain coats and fleeces I use Nikwax tech wash and reproofer (millets link), on the bottle these say reconmended for Goretex so I assume it's the same. In general with waterproof clothing do not use normal washing powders as these remove the waterproof coating.
9
Correct size. That might sound obvious, but consider also width and height (of the instep). Each make is a bit different, so there's a need to try on many before you find one that fits really good. For all-day trips get boots one size larger than your usual office shoes are.
Vibram sole
If properly maintained, leather upper is much more waterproof and ...
9
I'm not sure why pants don't receive the same attention but the layers are available.
You can easily find base, insulating, and shell layers.
Olin's answer gives some good reasons layering pants may not seem as common. In reply:
(2) There are full-side-zip pants for mountaineers (crampons) and wide-opening pants for skiers/boarders and regular boots.
...
8
My experience in this field is quite limited, but this is what I'd look for:
Light - Hiking boots should be as light as possible. Believe me when I say that walking around when carrying a ton sucks.
A proper sole - and by proper I mean one that isn't too hard or too soft. Too hard will provide little to no traction on slippery surfaces, and one that is too ...
7
According to one study of one species of mosquito, "attractiveness was found to vary inversely with their reflectivity or brightness, although the different textures represented in the series tended to obscure the generalised relationship" (Brown 1954).
Meaning the brighter the clothing, the less attractive for one species of mosquito found in Canada... I ...
7
Despite the convention, "cotton kills," in the desert those same properties (slow drying, water retention) are useful for keeping you cool by slowing down the near instant evaporation experienced at such high heat and low humidity. Your goal is to make that moisture work as long for you as possible.
Since "water is 24.5 times more conductive than air," ...
6
The wikipedia article on sun protective clothing is very informative. A summary of the relevant parts:
Apart from clothing specifically marketed as protecting against the sun most clothing will not block all sun to fully protect you against sunburn depending on circumstances.
Some general rules of thumb:
Darker clothes provide more protection than ...
6
There are many excellent natural fabrics for winter hiking:
Merino wool is often used as a baselayer but I have also found silk and bamboo to be very good.
I have a knitted raw silk midlayer but also like cashmere, which is warm, light, doesn't smell and releases moisture pretty well.
In colder conditions I wear sweaters made of untreated wool (Black ...
6
Nylon, among other synthetics, is an ideal material for clothing for most outdoor pursuits for several reasons. I will use the example of cotton as the traditional fabric for comparison:
Durability: Nylon itself can come in several varieties, some of which are more durable than others due to different weights and weaves. The fabric can handle abrasion, ...
6
It's not clear what you think the layer principle, is but you don't have to dress in layers. It's the performance of the complete stackup that matters. In cold weather, this could be achieved, for example, by a polypro sweater then wool sweater then wind breaker, or with a single "winter" jacket. Both can be made to keep you warm equally well, and the ...
5
As long as you are washing with a front-loader, then putting in your water-proofs and washing on a low temperature with reproofer (instructions should be on the bottle) will get your get clean and waterproof.
Top-loaders batter the hell out of your clothes, and can damage the waterproofing.
Also - do not but them in a dryer... hang them out (you probably ...
5
I trust Arc'teryx: http://www.arcteryx.com/product-care.aspx?EN
There's a video to take you through the whole process.
And you actually DO want to use the dryer because the heat reactivates the durable water repellant (DWR). DWR is the actual substance/layer that does the water repelling.
You can also follow the instructions recommended on the actual ...
5
As a rough guide to waterproofness - 5000mm is generally rainproof but won't necessarily stand up well to torrential rain. Around 15000 should be fine in that context. If you go higher than that then you're looking at fabric that can be immersed in water and still stay waterproof for a while, but should be ample for any rain shower that might come along!
...
5
Expedition weight relates to the temperature rating and level of activity. It usually means cold and low activity.
According to REI expert-advice section.
For cool conditions, thermal underwear is available in light-, mid- and expedition-weights. Choose the weight that best matches your activity and the temperature.
[...]
Like thermal underwear, ...
4
There are a variety of important features that your leather jacket will lack compared to a ski jacket. Borrowing or buying a ski jacket from a thrift shop would definitely be worth it.
Skiing is pretty physically intense. If it's not very cold (above 20?), you'll sweat, and most ski jackets don't actually have much insulation as they're designed to block as ...
4
It really depends on a lot of different factors. If it is a warm winter day I go sometimes skiing without any jacket just wearing a thick pullover. But during the same winter and at the same ski resort it can also be very cold. E.g. -20 degrees and a lot of wind so that the wind chill factor also plays an important role. When it is this cold I'm even ...
4
You probably want wool. Wool has a fairly good warmth to weight ratio, and keeps most of its warmth when its wet. You can get wool products for both base layers and insulating middle layers. "Merino wool" is the style of wool that seems to be popular for high end outdoor wear now.
They can be expensive, but the following companies make very high quality ...
4
a two layer winter hat to protect your ears
a good winter jacket (long enough) supporting -40ºC (-40ºF)
winter boots
a two layer gloves
a scarf
For the intermediate layer: The key point is to not sweat. Depending on your body, you should choose the appropriate "heat level" intermediate layer. Some shops will have different categories from very cool to ...
4
A rain jacket is a good windbreaker as well. The main downside, as you pointed out, is that it will not breathe as well as other fabrics.
This shouldn't be an issue as long as you aren't doing a lot of high-output activities (ex: climbing, hiking uphill with a heavy pack for hours). Regular hiking and the likes should be fine.
4
My experience tells me it is primarily about keeping the sun off my skin, with a hat (not your question I know), and a long sleeve, synthetic, wicking running/cycling shirt, and one with a small collar. (For what it's worth, I've also worn long baggy pants at times for the same reason, but am unsure about this still.)
The first little while is actually ...
3
Are you sure you need boots? I absolutely love my trail running shoes (La Sportiva Wildcats). They are much lighter than boots, and while they aren't water proof, they dry out very quickly due to being mostly mesh uppers. On hot days, you can literally feel the breeze through the uppers. It is very nice for me as my feet tend to sweat a lot in boots.
3
In my experience, machines and gore-tex don't play well together. And, despite the optimistic fountain-of-youth promises found on most re-proofing solutions (Nikwax), I've never met one that worked.
Your safest bet for washing dirty gear is to hand-wash it in water only and hang-dry. It might not return to that day-glo yellow it was when you bought it - but ...
3
If it doesn't need to be pretty, a cost effective option is spinnaker repair tape (nylon cloth tape, for example, see products on this page). It is designed for repairs to yacht sails so it is durable, weatherproof and should survive a machine wash (but it wont be breathable). Stick a piece over the hole on the front and back of the fabric.
3
I give this with the heavy qualification that it depends on the exact brands of clothes and products involved.
Your waterproof jacket is probably fine if it is water-proof and not water-resistant. The waterproof fabrics out there tend to not be as sensitive to detergents. However, if it is water-resistant, you will probably need to refresh it. Nikwax ...
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