What is the warmest, lightest material now a days? I remember hearing about some wonder material years ago, used by artic divers to keep warm and keep the water out. Last I heard of this they made gloves out of it. Never heard much more. I think a couple years ago the next best thing was Gore-tex™.
I was looking on a outdoor clothing web page and I ran across this list of types they have:
there are many tradeoffs that can be made. Down is a very warm, very light material that usually surpasses synthetics but sucks if it gets wet (making it not the best thing for artic diving).
Well, I don’t plan on doing arctic diving, more along the lines of Mountain hiking, or say an Alaskan expedition or something. Something that is light (to be able to wear full protection, gloves, pants, boots, headgear and a ~80lb backpack), durable (rubbing against rocks by accident), waterproof or water resistant (in case I step in a small creek that was covered by a small layer of ice), and warm. (-20 or lower)
Down seems to be too suseptable to getting wet, which would still be good for underlayers.
That material I was thinking of, that I couldn’t remember what it was called- Neoprene. I remember gloves being made out of them for Paintball. Being very thin, it allowed great manual dexterity for your fingers, while still being warm and dry.
Neoprene is good for diving but not the best for mountianneering (actually pretty bad). Insulation comes from air, not material. Neoprene has air bubbles in the rubber, trapping them. this adds lots of weight and a conductive heat loss path through the solid rubber. fabrics (and down) hold air close and restrice air but don’t prevent air movement (the shell would prevent air movement). this gives you much lighter weight, usually more air, less of a conductive heat loss path (virtually elim\eated).
I have done such hiking and would recommend a gortex outer shell*, fleece liner , fleece sweatshirt, polyprop long johns.
Also not all fleece is the same, but you should be able to see the quality difference - the good stuff (for these purposes) is quite a bit lighter. Also fleece should be rarely washed and never put into the dryer.
as a lighter weight alternative to gortex which is usually an outer shell, gortex fabric, inner shell, you could use a solid single piece waterproof shell with such ithem as pit zips to increase airflow / remove sweet.
For such hiking, IO have brought a down vest and it worked great. Also many times I have taken some risk with a down sleepingbag as it is several pounds lighter then the best synthetic (that was available when I got them). If you are going overnight hiking I would (personally) try to aviod down for the hiking part and for weight savings go with the down sleeping bag. A waterproof stuff sack and a plastic bag should be enough to ensure it is dry untill you open it up inthe tent.
Great Info k2dave! Thanks. I didn’t realize about the layers thing- I will keep that in mind. A friend of mine wants to go to Estes park and hike there. I told him I would prefer to know a bit more about hiking, dressing warm and save up to buy some good equipment first. Putting my life in the hands of equipment I know nothing about scares me.
I’m assuming Colorado (but it could be TX or OK also)
OK, Mountains, Cold, Snow, Wind.
You have to start out with what you have (or can borrow) and what you need. If I assume you don’t have unlimited $ for this trip you must fill the needs before you upgrade what you have.
I strongly suggest making a spreadsheet of want you need for this trip, next to that column put in what you presnetly have that would fit that item (cost if any to use it), weight, next to that put an item you can buy just meet that need, price, weight, next to that the idea item, price, weight - then any spceial; notes:
sleep bag.coleman..$0.......8lbs.....downmumy..$150...5lbs....northface..$320....5.......Down is just as warm but sucks when wet.
This way you can see where you can make you can make the biggest difference for the littlest $. Some people I know have done things like replace a $100 tent that was totally fine for their usage with a $300+ tent to save 2 lbs. Putting the $300 into light weight cloths would have saved them 5 lbs easy.
Well, lithium in its elemental metallic form is lighter than aluminum and when brought into contact with moist human skin provides plenty of warmth. The problem is having to replace the liner of your jacket after each use. On the other hand, you won’t have any problems with depression while the skin grafts are healing.
silk is also an awesome material for under layers. I used to wear silk gloves under my goretex gloves when skiing and my hands would get so hot I would have to take the silk layer off.
