response yo tuesday article

A RESPONSE TO YESTERDAYS ARTICLE

Hi Jerry! Your most recent blog post made me laugh out loud. It didn't take any beer or dope either.

Me, age 13, 1980, getting WAY into backpacking in Colorado thanks to an incredible Jr High math teacher, 10-24 day backpack trips in the most remote parts of Colorado learning surveying and orienteering (remember that pre-GPS?). The Boulder Holubar (remember them?) store a quick bike ride right down the street. Nice gear! I needed nice raingear and a nice tent.

I have a very dear friend who ran the Holubar production until they were sold to TNF. TNF put them out of business.

All this expensive "Early Winters" brand gear arriving. The guy there told my Dad and me....don't buy it. You'll get soaked, from the inside and the outside. Gore-tex tent with no rainfly won't work, despite the hype. (Hah! still doesn't work). Dad bought me a nice little Holubar tent with rainfly. Used for years, wind ripped the rainfly and by then North Face had bought them out and they gave a free repair.

Bill Nickoli (spelling of his last name is probably wrong) once bought an ultra-light bag from me and used it for a month camping journey and told me it was the flattest bag he ever used and the warmest. However he never bought any to put in his catalog. Maybe if he did he would still be in business.

Holubar sales guy also told us, Gore-tex rain gear doesn't work, it's scientifically impossible. Check out this raincoat and rain pants from Patagonia....and catalog with Yvon Chou nard himself saying (I paraphrase, wish I still had the catalog) "The design of the clothing is what matters, not the material as long as it is waterproof. It must pump out the water vapor you produce with your every step and movement, through the vents." I think the rain shell was $40 and the pants $30. And they did exactly that. And I just gave them to a neighbor last year (They no longer fit me, but they fit her) and it still works! It's waterproof!

The Holubar sales guy was right. Yvon also said that goretex does not work but in later years the adopted their own version as well as use goretex. But as Yvon said years ago it doesn’t work and that hold s true today, but a sucker is born every day so his company like many, many more will keep pumping the garbage out.

I really wish I had saved that old catalog for that precious quote, considering what PataGucci has become, darn I hope you save old outdoor gear catalogs Jerry.

In any case, I think that venting is why folks expound about how great their new $500 fly fishing jackets are....zip up all those vents, and you'll find the truth about Gore-Tex, steam cooking yourself sous vide. And when the water stops beading up on the outer shell, wet from the outside in, too.

Thanks for refusing to live a lie, Jerry! Your gear rocks!

DAN

Dan,

Thanks for the support!

Venting is most assuredly the best way to stay dry. However when you wear waterproof exterior garments you still accumulate moisture from your body that stays inside the garments!

The reality is that once again the truth about goretex and the like has never worked but an individual or group of individuals employed in the outdoor industry has the guts to walk away from the concept. They refuse to tell the goretex sales representative you are full of it. The outdoor retailer trade show will be opening in Denver in early November and they will all be drinking beer and who knows what else at a goretex party not giving a damn that they are going to be once again offering bogus products to the retail stores who will in turn offer bogus products to the general public. The public be damned!!!