3-layer or 4-layer system for early high country hunt

[rhendrix]

Long as the weight is the same or less and the features are better than your hoodie, I can't see how you'd go wrong.

 

[luke moffat]

Hey Luke, what do you wear when you don't need the puffy or the rain jacket.......just your merino top?

Yes sir!!! Which really if its not raining I'm good down to the mid 40s in just a t-shirt merino so long as I'm hiking.

 

[Becca]

Yes sir!!! Which really if its not raining I'm good down to the mid 40s in just a t-shirt merino so long as I'm hiking.

He runs warm! While I typically use a pretty similar layering system to Luke's, when it's breezy or below 50 deg I usually wear a lightweight wind shirt over my long sleeved merino baselayer, even while I hike. It cuts the chill down so I don't get chilled, packs down to the size of my (very small even for a woman) fist and weights next to nothing.

 

[Rizzy]

does anyone run a light weight soft shell as a mid layer?

i just received the Kuiu Guide jacket and it weighs about as much as a regular hoodie. In fact its lighter than my UnderArmor hoody that i normally wear as a second layer, and the guide is much more wind resistant and the DWR is ridiculously good. With a base layer merino set on, the jacket fits very well. My FL Puffy fits OVER that perfectly. So i think I'm going to use this "soft shell" as a mid layer, does anyone else do this?

It would probably work when your sitting and glassing, but then all the wear and tear will be on your puffy instead of your guide, which is made for that. So if your going to carry the guide, might as well use it as it's designed for. Personally my puffy will not really even fit over my guide, so I've never considered it.

I've used my guide jacket as an outer layer a lot in the past and it's not very wind resistant and it soaks out fast. I mainly used it as an outer layer because it's more durable than my puffy, more breathable than my rain shell, and the spindrift isn't the warmest puffy so I always needed to supplement while sitting and glassing. There are a lot of really warm puffys available and some rain shells that are breathable and fairly durable. Really from here on out 3 layers is all that is probably going to be needed most of the time. You get a lot more warmth from the loft a puffy provides versus 2 base layers and this warmth is usually only needed while stationary. If I'm moving a base layer is all I use most of the time, the guide jacket gets too hot. The wind is what chills me the most and a rain shell takes care of that both stationary and on the move.

 

[littlebuf]

Early sept I'm barely wearing 1 layer

 

[realunlucky]

Early sept I'm barely wearing 1 layer

And that's just to hold all the woolly hair in!

 

[littlebuf]

And that's just to hold all the woolly hair in!

dont wanna catch a arrow myself up there after all

 

[rhendrix]

dont wanna catch a arrow myself up there after all

Haha. Nice.