How to Stay Dry Under Your Rain Gear

For some time I have been asked: What should I wear as a rain garment, if the waterproof-breathable variety doesn't work? The answer is multifaceted. We know that the only water we are to be concerned with is that which we produce ourselves. Rain or melting snow can be kept out if you wear a seam-sealed garment that is made with waterproof fabric, such as a urethane-coated nylon. In my experience laminated film materials wet out, and therefore let in water, when the water-repellent coating disappears.

Since we can not get rid of the moisture from the inside, which we are responsible for, the best option is to stabilize it. This would be in one of the layers of clothing we are wearing under the rain garment. Temperature conditions will determine what those layers are.

If for example the temperature is +60 degrees or higher, wear a long-sleeve cotton shirt. The cotton will absorb the moisture, which is going to keep you cool. Remember the purpose of perspiring is to keep the body cool. When the moisture coats the skin surface, it is drawing heat from the body thereby regulating the core temperature. If you wear a short-sleeve shirt, you will find that the garment wants to stick to the skin. This is an uncomfortable feeling, or so it is for me. If the rain garment is properly cut (size-wise), it will be billowy, and if you keep the neckline open, a great deal of the moisture will escape.

If the temperature is below +60 degrees, the first layer should be nylon fishnets. Now you do not want the moisture to collect on the skin surface. If it does, when you stop your activity you will most assuredly experience a chill. That is because the moisture is cooling you faster than you are producing heat. The action of body-cooling occurs regardless of the ambient air temperature. If the temperature is not lower than +32 degrees, wear a cotton sweatshirt. It can be 100 percent cotton or a cotton blend, but not less than 50 percent, if you want water-absorption capability; and, finally, your rain jacket.

The moisture from the body goes through the large holes in the fishnets and is absorbed by the cotton, where it is stabilized. Your skin surface stays dry; therefore, you stay comfortable, warm. Again, keep the collar open and a lot of the moisture as a vapor will escape.

Since I don't believe a fabric, an inanimate material will ever be manufactured with the same functioning characteristics as the human body has stabilizing perspiration is the only option.

Stabilizing, trapping, or confining the moisture is all you can do with it, just so long as it is kept away from the skin surface.

SLEEPING DRY

Many people ask how the Wiggy bags perform when temperatures are above 40 degrees. The biggest problem in warm weather is sweating in a sleeping bag. If you do, you will wake as easily as when you are cold. The reason is simple: you become clammy. This is a very rare occurrence with a Wiggy bag. The vapor permeability of the lining fabric that I use allows the moisture as vapor to easily escape into the fiber. The fiber has shown that it does not restrict this flow of moisture either. Therefore, you stay dry even in warm weather.

Many sleeping bags are made with very tightly woven fabric for the lining as well as the shell. This type of fabric is very necessary if the fill is down or a fine denier, silicone-treated polyester fiber. In some instances the fabric is "calendered." To calender a fabric, you squeeze it between two rollers, one hot and the other cold, or room temperature. The heated roller melts the yarns together to some degree. They are fused. This is commonly done to "down proof" fabric. It is equally necessary to inhibit fiber migration of fine denier fiber. The end result is a fabric that loses its vapor-permeability. Therefore, in warm conditions you are apt to experience clamminess in bags made with these types of fabric.

A QUICK TALE

The following story came to me via e-mail. The writer is Ted. He lives in Northwest Washington State.

"A few years ago my brother and I went hiking too early in the season. We went to one of our favorite lakes in northwest Washington. Our campsite was on the opposite side of the lake. We carried high-tech 2-1/2 pound rafts for fishing and blew them up to raft across the lake. The camp is 2-1/2 miles down the lake in the rafts, and right in the middle of the lake we look towards the outfall end to see clouds piling into the lake; a freak bit of bad weather rolling in. Soon the clouds fill the lake basin and we cannot see 10 yards around us. Then it began to rain. Hard. Really Hard. Temperature dropped from 45 to 35 degrees in a matter of minutes. The wind blew so hard waves washed into the rafts who knows what the wind chill factor was. We rowed around in circles for an hour, then got out a compass and headed for our camp. Another hour goes by, we hit the beach with a few inches of water in the rafts and all gear soaked. All we had brought was hooped bivy sacks for shelter, and Wiggy bags. My brother was so cold he was shaking, borderline hypothermic, and too incoherant to untie his boots. I got his bivy out, wrung out the Wiggy bag and stuffed it into the sack. Then I helped him undress and zipped him into the bag. I got into my bivy and bag after undressing and just listened to the rain come down until I finally went to sleep. Next morning I peeked out of the bivy to see my brother's clothes covered in snow. Our Wiggy bags were dry and we were warm all night. I don't know what would have happened if those bags were down. I don't want to know. I've never used down since then. Not worth it for a few ounces."

Did you ever hear the expression "live and learn"? When I first started making sleeping bags I only knew how to make them and what they were used for. Characteristics such as holding heat when the fiber gets wet were things I have learned about over the years. Did I know how well the Lamilite would perform in conditions such Ted describes? No. I am pleased to say I have learned a lot from my customers, whose information I have passed on to you in product improvements for your comfort in the field.