[pct-l] Another horse to beat: wool vs synthetics?

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, McIntyre,



It's hard to go wrong with good quality wool products made of fabrics milled
for the purpose of high loft and light weight.  I have two garments that
illustrate a great difference:  One is a high-quality Filson jacket that is
a Northwest classic from days gone by.  It is made of durable,
tightly-woven, virgin wool and it weighs just over 3 lbs.  The other is a
14.5 oz. pull-over sweater made in Iceland of long-strand wool.  It is very
loose and fuzzy, looking almost like a down jacket without the fabric, and
it's "loft" is nearly four times the thickness of the Filson in spite of
being less than one third the weight.  It's down-side is the weave is so
open it has almost no resistance to a breeze; I must wear a windshirt over
it most of the time.  Instead I usually pack a somewhat thinner fleece
sweater that weighs around 10 oz.



I've tried various wool blend socks, but they are expensive compared to
synthetics, they don't last me nearly as long, and I can't see much
difference in comfort or moisture control.  I'm not a name-brand person with
socks.  Most cheap, thin or medium weight, pairs seem to do fine.



Most of my warmth garments for the trail are PolarFleece or are knitted
synthetics.  Such are widely available and are inexpensive, particularly
since I get most of my fleece items used from the thrift store.  Some
synthetic items do stink after a little use: Others do not.  I don't know
why offhand but there is some sort of technical difference in the way they
are made.



For gloves I use fleece, or wool Army glove liners.  My favorite is a pair
made of OR "windstopper" fleece due to the wind resistance.  They are only
very slightly heavier than regular fleece.


Steel-Eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye





On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 8:05 AM, mcintyre johnson <
johnson.mcintyre at gmail.com> wrote:

> Likely another long-beaten horse, but would appreciate experience with any
> of the marina wool products compared to synthetics. My experience has been
> very good and I'm in process of swapping out all base layers, gloves and
> watch cap for SmartWool products. Good points: Wet-but-warm is for real;
> the
> cozy feel of wool better than clammy-when-wet best synthetics; and -- huge
> advantage -- wool almost refuses to stink while synthetics reek after two
> days of serious miles. I know synthetics are faster drying but (so far, in
> my experience) this has not seemed very useful. Thoughts please.
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