Reply To: Mistakes made by Ranger Dave

[Ranger Bill]

To reinforce Ranger Dave…

A word about waterproof/breathable clothing…Gore-Tex and various PU laminates. Once the exterior wets out…stops beading up, the moisture you are creating inside the jacket or pants cannot escape. It becomes a sauna.

This pass weekend three of us, two wearing Precip jackets and pants the other in Gore-Tex Pro, the latter the latest and greatest from W.L Gore, wet out our jackets and pants and created an atmosphere inside. When we stopped 2 1/2 miles from the trailhead all our baselayers were wet from perspiration, not the rain. One in our group also wet out a Marmot DriClime Windshirt by wetting out the latter, he did not feel he had enough clothing to go forward.

A couple of things you can do are recoat your jacket with a Durable Water Repellent from time to time and between treatment put you jackets and pants in the dryer after a washing with powder detergent to reflow the DWR.