Sweat soaked your back on the hike, and now it’s trickling through your base layers like little ice cubes as the howling wind steals your warmth. Your lips are so cold that you can only talk in vowels, but that doesn’t matter since your teeth are chattering so hard that you can’t string together more than a few words. You’re wearing every stitch of clothing that you brought, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Sitting next to you, your partner has a smile on his face, colour to his lips (not the blue in yours), and genuinely seems to be enjoying the day. Why is he so comfortable while you’re so miserable? It’s because he has his layering system dialled. This is something that we should all know and do instinctively...
The "Next to Skin" or Base Layer:
With all of the warm, light, fast-drying fabrics available it’s pretty hard to go wrong these days, but a surprising amount of people still do.
First things first: cotton (a.k.a. Death Cloth) has no place in the outdoors. Absolutely nothing on your body, not even your underwear,
should be made of cotton. Merino wool is gaining popularity because it’s warm when wet, less itchy than old-school wool, and doesn’t stink like some synthetics. However, it takes a long time for wool to dry, so many people avoid it for active winter use. Polyester fabrics like Powder Dry weigh very little, dry extremely quickly, and pull moisture away from your skin when you sweat. Making them an ideal next to skin layer if you are being active and going from hot to standstill during the day. Polypropylene is a good economical option but will retain odour faster than Powder Dry or Merino.
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