Gear

Hi all

Trying to find t-shirts for the alps trip in summer.

From experience I haven't faired well with Craghoppers Atoll T's - managing to drive away every living organism with the smell produced when using it - my fault of course!

Anyway I fear that Merino t's might be too much in the heat of summer - judging by former expedition photos.

Any recommendations - not a huge fan of 100% polyester, we are trying out Ben Moon's t's but were hoping to try another type

Has anyone tried Montane's Bionic T-shirt?

Thanks for your help.

What about the Berghaus X static ones? supposed to have a silver thread type thingy in them to kill odours.

Bushy

I know Peewiglet has just got back from the TGO Challenge - 2 weeks backpacking across Scotland - with a couple of the Montane Bionic Ts. No idea how she smells yet!! ;-)

But I'd have thought there's a good chance she'll post some comments before long....

Berghaus x-statics are brill. Very lightweight. Used one on a hot (!) week's trip in the Highlands last summer.

You might also like to check out the Sub Zero top. I've been using the T-shirt and found it very good at wicking, very comfortable. I have yet to try it in really hot weather tho, but it looks like it will perform well. I've only used it for a couple of days on the trot, but it didn't get smelly at all, and was a vast improvement on my old berghaus polyester things (NOT x-static). I think this is because the sub-zero clothing uses polyamide rather than polyester, and the bacteria don't like it as much for some reason.

I got this because I thought my merino would be too hot for summer as well. But 3 weeks ago I was walking in the welsh borders with a full pack in merino baselayers. We had a period of 3 days of fine sunny weather, and I found I did not overheat at all. (This is the really thin icebreaker stuff). So I now suspect the merino will work rather better in the hot weather than I had previously thought. So the next really hot day I can get out walking I intent to use my merino and see how warm I actually get.

I've given all my Berghaus and Crag Hoppers stuff with this and they don't smell any more. Not sure how well it lasts yet, or if it'll kill me eventually.

Merino is nice in warm climates for much the same reason cotton can be, it creates a microenvironment next to your skin and keeps the right amount of moisture and humidity that your skins actually wants (ok, so actually it's the moisture and humidity that a sheeps skin wants - but they're the same). However, also like cotton, if you run really warm, or are doing very vigorous activities, it will not wick nearly as well as the synthetic bicomponent alternatives (small holes inside, big holes outside, draws water out and spreads it out to dry), as they do not work on a mechanical basis, but rather simple diffusion of water/sweat through the fabic. So a thin merino garment will dry out, and even still be pretty comfortable when wet, just not as well as synthetic.

That said, I love merino with all my heart.

Consider Paramo..

Hi osbie,

As Matt C mentioned above, I took a couple of Montane Bionic Ts to Scotland recently, but in the end I didn't use them for actual walking because I love my Icebreaker merino wool baselayer so much that I wore it every day for a fortnight (and only washed it once - great stuff!).

I can say that the Bionic Ts are very light, and dry very quickly - I used them when I was in the pub in the evening, and washed them a couple of times - but that's probably not what you need to know.

I may wear one in the Lakes next weekend, though, and if I do then I'll report back.

p.s. it's possible to get some pretty light merino wool T shirts, you know. It really is fabulous stuff. I've only used Icebreaker, but I'm going to get a Smartwool one too at some stage. It really does go on for a week or more without getting pongy.

Thanks guys for all the links and recs.

I think I'm one of the rare few that merino just doesn't work well on me - I took it for a 5 hour hike and came back sweltering and smelling awful - it's the icebreaker contour crew that I have but then my OH thinks I walk like a freight train lol so I guess that's half of it.

Sub zero looks interesting, and thanks for all the Berghaus recs as well - Peewiglet, thanks for the info on bionic - and I'm glad you mentioned they dry fast as we are only taking 2 t shirts and will be washing and drying them overnight for next day use.

Thanks John for the conditioning spray link - interesting thought too.

I've bought OH a Bionic tee to try out and I'll get him to take it for a spin next week and will come back with a review on it.

Thank you guys for all your help, invaluable info as always :)

Rohan's xstatic tshirts from last year are on clearance - worked well for me, smell-wise, or at least no one complained.

They may not have them in stock in shops, but they are available on the web.

On another forum I read a tip on how to freshen up t shirts that tend to pong a bit very quickly with little wear.

The advice was to soak the garment in water and distilled malt vinegar (the clear type, 47p approx, bottle) rinse the garment and then wash it as normal.

I have tried it on a suspect t shirt that I was going to stop wearing for that reason and my first impressions are that it seems to have done the trick.

I can only presume that the vinegar kills the bacteria. No vinegar smell either after a good rinse and wash (or are my friends just too nice to tell me).

If only I'd known about this for my old type Helly's before I got rid of them.

get the Mountain hardware ones half price on cotswolds website (£25) can't beat them they rock!!!

Lifesystems have Ax antibacterial fabric protector. It uses Healthguard* protection... whatever that is. It is said to guard against bacterial odours for 2 years or 35 washes. I have a bottle, but have not tried it..... saving it for a trek later in the year. Was thinking about spraying the pits of all my non-Xstatic, non-Icebreaker T-shirts

I second Danny's post - Merino (long sleeve, zip neck)

Multiple use. One carry weight. And they don't smell after repeated wear with no washing facilities

Neil - thank you - just for info - Lowe Alpine are pre-treating some of their t-shirts with the Lifesystems Antibacterial fabric protector this year.
John Bailey (see above) has tried the spray it and says it works, though I don't know if it has killed him yet.

Totally agree with above comments about merino.

The Icebreaker Superfine Summer 190 t-shirt is a great t-shirt, the slightly heavier 200 long sleeve shirt is also excellent. They seem work over a much wider temperature range than synthetics.

I'd go for the t-shirt for the alps - it has worked well for me in the recent Scottish heatwave.

another vote for berghaus x-static tee's ive got a couple and think they are the mutts nuts, can be picked up pretty cheap at www.postfreeoutdoorgear.com i think it was about £25 for the short sleeve ones

Icebreaker have a lighter weight baselayer fabric coming out i the future, from memory it's a 140 as opposed to the 190 which is their current lightweight. That's off the top of my head, more on the site soon.