You Don’t Freeze Because It’s Cold | Pro's Guide to Winter Survival

The Finns always seem to have some very functional cold weather gear

Worked out doors for 33 years. Hiked and hunting for 45 years all year around. In the dead of winter, layering is important and shedding layers during levels of high activities prevents sweating and is key in having a chance to stay warm. A good base layer that transfers sweat or dries out easily and quickly is very important. A mesh base wear is great. The next thing is understanding what keeps you warm. Warmth is gained through trapping body warmed air between your skin and the wind blocking outerwear. This is the key principal of downs insulating success. Synthetics can do almost as well. Loft is what gives them both insulating benefits. But once down and synthetics get wet, they collapse and with that all of the insulating properties. Air is a great thermal insulator and the broader the gap the better. When it comes to wearing clothing in the cold, looking cool and sexy in a body forming hunting suit isn't going to work. I don't care how much it cost, the materials....ect. Crushing all those layers together and removing all the gaps where air can be trapped creates very low thermal resistance and the cold transfers easily to your skin. Loose mid and outer layer that block wind and have draw cords will trapped the air your body warms up.

The next important thing after choosing and wearing the clothing properly is your bodies ability to circulate blood. Fitness level and health play a key role here.
If all else fails, battery socks and vest will keep you toasty in the hunting stand all day

Eat some oatmeal.
Robin

I've always been surprised that no one has started coming out with vacuum-sealed clothing. Infinity % improvement over trapped-air insulating.

I mean, I get some of the technical barriers. I just figure someone somewhere would have figured something out to get around them.

Maybe this guy knows something about air gaps:

Polypropylene thermal underwear has saved my butt quite a few times, stuff the military issued was generally too heavy except for the most extreme conditions and if you were ruck marching/movement to contact you would find yourself sweating balls (now the upside is it would usually dry out quick) Good old Wool is damn hard to beat, even a Wool blanket off your Cot draped over like a cloak is a game changer.

OwnTheRide said:

I've always been surprised that no one has started coming out with vacuum-sealed clothing. Infinity % improvement over trapped-air insulating.

I mean, I get some of the technical barriers. I just figure someone somewhere would have figured something out to get around them.

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The problem there is that there is no way to have vacuum and vapor permeable at the same time.

It would be like wearing bubble wrap, you would sweat, then die.

pshift said:

Maybe this guy knows something about air gaps:

View attachment 274843

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What the homosexual is that?

Wear your Mittens!

Being the stubborn dumb-fuck that I am, it took a while to learn that the best socks you can obtain are the ones you should be wearing in snow or colder...Blended Alpaca Wool, Sheep's Wool, and Polypropylene are all excellent. but be ware and read the blend as it varies greatly between makers and even within their offerings.
If I can keep my toes warm, my fingers warm, and my ears warm I can work through everything else...I've zero desire to do it again, but I did spent two weeks in the Field doing Land Navigation when it was -20F at night and not much better during the day...did you know you can empty your bowls and bladder completely in under a minute?