Dressing For Cold Weather

Dressing For Cold Weather

by Quest Outdoors

A good clothing-layering system is one designed to work with the body's heat-regulating mechanisms. By adding or removing layers according to outside conditions or your exertion level, you can adjust to meet your body's requirement to retain or lose body heat.

An effective layering system is made up of layers of components that work together to prevent you from becoming wet from your own sweat and/or precipitation. Such a system is made up of three basic layers: long underwear, insulation and the outer shell.

The design goal of the underwear layer should be to keep moisture away from the skin and to preserve a critical layer of dry air between the skin and clothing. Underwear made of synthetic materials like Patagonia's Capilene are superior to their predecessors, wool and cotton, because they literally wick perspiration away from your skin allowing it to pass to outer layers where evaporation can occur. Your underwear stays dry and you remain comfortable.

In selecting the garments for your insulating layer, choose those that can readily be ventilated, put on or taken off easily and those that provide thickness but are not dense or heavy. High bulk, low weight garments made of synthetics like Patagonia's Synchilla, insulate better than wool and are designed to absorb very little moisture. Layering fleece or pile over synthetic underwear will allow your perspiration to pass through the layers. Goose down deserves mention here because it provides superior insulation at the cost of very little weight and can be compressed into a very small space for packing.

The outer layer is often called a shell because its purpose is to shield your under layers from the wind, rain and snow.

The shell should allow perspiration to escape to the environment, using a closure system that will allow easy ventilation and engineered to keep precipitation out.

Your body's extremities, your head, hands and feet are extremely efficient at dissipating excess heat and can be very difficult to keep warm. This is particularly true of your hands and feet because your body will allow the hands and feet to cool to preserve heat for vital organs. That is why hands and feet get cold first. It's easier to keep your hands and feet warm if you keep them dry. Wear glove liners and sock liners that wick moisture away from your skin. In addition, select gloves and footwear that are both water proof and breathable. The head dissipates heat even better than the other extremities when exposed to the cold. You can regulate heat retention and loss effectively by wearing a hat to retain heat and removing it to lose excess heat.Publication Date: