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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 ...

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 ...

As others have said, wool is the best of the easily available natural materials. It's main advantages are: Somewhat hydrophobic, in other words is a little bit water repellent. This is due to wool fibers being hollow with some fat inside. This fat inside is also the reason you should never wash wool in ordinary detergent. It will wash out the fat, which ...