[AZ-Observing] Follow up on cold weather underwear
- From: "William R Wood" <wmrwood@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 14:07:01 -0700
Having spent a few hours poking around REI and searching the internet for
new thermal underwear (and cold weather gear in general) I am reporting what
I found out as a follow up to the earlier thread in case others might be
interested.
It looks like there are two forms of new thermal underwear: (1)
polypropylene microfleece such as Capilene, sold by Patagonia
http://www.patagonia.com/ , and various clones and (2) polyester fleece
(more velour like) such as Polartec's, Power Dry and Power Stretch,
http://www.polartec.com/mm/ , which are sold by various retailers in
different forms. Both types come in different weights and have wicking and
fast drying qualities. Polartec's website has links to many retailers who
sell their fabrics including Patagonia which is certainly at or near the top
in quality and price. I have not actually seen the Polartec fabrics but
from the descriptions they sound heavier than the thin smooth Capilene type.
From reading reviews and ads it seems that my old ideas on underwear (I am
used to cotton, acrylic and wool) are out of date. Cotton is universally
condemned and almost everyone had negative things to say about wool too
including Merino wool (not as warm or dry or light as the new synthetics and
looses its shape after washing). I don't know about that since I used to
hunt in the Northeast and wool pants and top saved the day many times
because it works when wet and it wore like iron. The prices for the new
synthetics run from about $20 per top or bottom on up to $130 or more for a
Patagonia lightweight Polartec top.
REI has Patagonia products and their own line of microfleece underwear.
Both look and feel very similar. Problem is they only have lightweight and
medium. I want to try heavy weight since astro-work means standing still
and I almost froze at the All AZ Star Party way back in early Oct. Several
reviewers of Capilene underwear noted that it retained body odors to an
annoying degree; yuk. Since folks discussing the Sentinel trip are talking
about a 2-3 day outing that nasty feature does not sound good!! Thus I am
going to try the Polartec underwear from Cabelas which has the heavyweight
versions at prices way below Patagonia. [FYI one of the Cabela's tech
people recommended their military weight polypropylene underware as the
warmest available. Campmor sells this item as Duofold Expedition Weight and
Cabelas sells the same outfit under their own name for about $20 for the top
or bottom.]
The best websites I saw besides the above were http://www.cabelas.com/ ,
http://www.llbean.com and http://www.campmor.com/ plus several of the sites
linked to Polartec's webpage.
Regards,
Bill Wood
Fountain Hills, AZ
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