LAST EDITED ON Jun-25-08 AT 08:10PM (MST)[p]Marley,
I appreciate what you are saying but I have been taught by the best and have in turn been teaching this stuff for a very long time. There is a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way doesn't always result in a death or injury because the good lord takes care of fools and little children most of the time but it is still technically wrong. We all have our pet peeves but the parameters in which the human body can effectively operate are pretty much the same for all of us and they are narrow and rigid. Exceed them and somebody will have to come and get you. Hopefully they will be as kind, compassionate and sensitive as I am with my patients. Ha!
I got one of the first Gore-Tex mountain parkas ever made in 1976 from Synergy Works and have been testing gear in the worst conditions I could find ever since. I look for bad weather and purposely head into it so I can test, evaluate and improve my gear and my system. When it storms here it storms big and I spend hours, and sometimes entire nights walking/running the neighborhood and our local mountain preserve testing gear from the biggest names in the business. And when it snows I am in the truck and on my way. Boots, packs, base, insulation, shell layers, socks, GPS units, stoves, sleeping bags, lights, radios, knives, optics. You name it. If it is touted to be best in class, it is either on my list to test, I am testing it now or I have already tested it. Why? Because I want the best. Not OK, not satifactory, not 90%. I want the very best there is and I want it to be as light as possible. OCD? You have no idea.
I also bring a unique perspective to the subject. I am a backpacker, fast packer, trail runner, trail rider, hunter, mountaineer, climber, skier, ATVer and then on top of all that add the SAR specialites and wilderness emergency medical training. I do not know of another gear tester, evaluator, critic, or promoter that brings that kind of experience and skill set to one place for this purpose. And what is most interesting to me is that amongst all of those genres, the basic gear systems are the same. It is really only the color and noise factor that distinguishes them.
People do not read my articles in magazines or on my site for discussion or evquivocation, they want decisive information, my opinions and expert advice and I deliver day in and day out. Take it for what it is worth, it cost you nothing but the time it took you to read it. Love it, hate it, wipe your ass with it I don't care, just don't try to get me to buy into and agree to something that I know is flawed. At the end of the day, this does not have to work out to a neat tiddy ending. We do not have to agree. The real progress is made privately. There are a lot of people reading these threads that never join the fight but my PM and email is filled with them. The message gets out there and it is making a difference and I am happy with that.
And we are not talking about fit except as it relates to too many layers. Too many layers results in compression of your insulation which makes it less effective. Too many layers results in constriction or restriction of blood flow which retards your heat generation mechanisms. This is basic Winter Emergency Care stuff from Ski Patrol School guys. There is no right or wrong there. You compress, restrict, constrict in cold weather and you are going to get cold and get hurt. And getting wet in cool or cold weather is not just bad it is deadly. You do not want to have to dry out or wick dry, you want to avoid getting wet from precipitation or perspiration from the very first step. Too many layers do not breathe and are difficult to ventilate and that makes you retain perspiration which makes you cold. I am not talking about UFOs here folks, this is straight out of the basic Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician book. I don't understand why some of you fight this information. I got news for you , the earth is not flat!
People are entitled to do and say and think what ever they want, that is what is great about this forum, but I just cannot sit back and let some of this stuff go by. It's like a coyote crossing the road in front of me. It's is just to big a target to pass up. Coyotes must die.
Wade
www.HardcoreOutdoor.com