Hi Guys,

My recent drenching has raised another question, what is the best base layer for keeping you warm and dry? When I say dry, I mean dealing with standard perspiration and also dealing with you getting soaked through your Paramo gear and then drying out very quickly.

 I was wearing HH Freeze, which is I believe the top of the range HH base layer and is a 62% merino / 38% synthetic mix. It kept me warm when wet which was awesome, but was a bit slow to dry out (i.e. my paramo's dried a lot faster than my base layer which just enhanced the wet feeling).

Would Superwool or Ice Breaker be any better at this or should I be looking at pure synthetic?

 Many thanks,

 Goat

I use GoreTex so can't help with the getting soaked bit

Based on drying after going through the washing machine I've found the Lowe Alpine ones slightly quicker than HH.

Surely this is completely down to the conditions, other layers in your system and the 'grade' of base layer?

I'd hazard that an ultralight summer base layer will dry far quicker than a 'heavy' thermal garment and similarly a base layer exposed to a gentle breeze will dry quicker than one enclosed in a warm, humid environment (under a waterproof jacket).

As an aside to the question and an addition to Goat's comment it is amazing how these modern systems keep you warm even when soaked through.

Wool will take longer to dry than synthetics, wool mix not quite so long as pure wool, synthetics will dry quickest.  But they'll smell more and not be so warm while wet.

So, as usual, you choose, you lose...

Pete

Goat,

HH Freeze (that used to be known as ProWool & HH Warm) is a very good baselayer in many ways but due to the high wool content it isn't very fast drying.

There are several factors at play in how fast a baselayer will dry:

fibre properties

weave

weight of fabric (per square metre for example)

fabric treatments (and their condition with age)

and also cleanliness of the fabric but this is less of an issue after passing through the washing machine.

I am a little surprised that Dave finds dryflow from LA faster drying than HH. I assume he is talking about HH LIFA (HH Dry) - 100 % polypropylene. If he's talking about HH Warm / Freeze / Prowool or LIFA Versa / Cool I don't find this surprising, however.

The reason I say this is that the fibre properties of polypropylene are such that, all other things being equal, I find it to be the fastest to dry of any baselayer fabric I have tried. Polypro is the least hydrophilic of all the baselayer fabrics, meaning that it holds the lowest percentage of water by weight of fabric. In fact, a decent spin cycle will get LIFA Dry (previously known as LIFA Sport) almost completely dry.

Dave's LA Dryflo might have dried faster if the fabric itself was lighter weight. The thinner the layer, the quicker the water will evaporate. Plus LA use a pretty good fabric coating making their polyester one of the better ones for wicking moisture. A thinly spread layer of moisture will dry faster than the same quantity in a few droplets. I don't own any dryflo stuff so I can say I have tested it.

Purely from my experience, the speed to dry table goes something like this (fastest to slowest)

HH LIFA (Sport / Dry)

SubZero CoolT (Tactel Aquator nylon)

SubZero Factor 1 (Tactel nylon)

HH LIFA Versa (now known as HH Cool) - polypro/polyester hybrid

Patagonia Capilene

Decathlon / Kalenji / Quechua baselayer (polyester)

HH Hybrid (mixture of HH Prowool & HH LIFA Sport)

HH Prowool/Freeze/Warm (polypro & merino in various percentages depending on which model)

pure Merino

P.S. I think HH have been very foolish to have changed the names of their fabrics recently as it is confusing for those that haven't kept a close eye on what they've been up to!

Well basically Merino holds water but stays comfortable and synthetics move moisture outwards then dry. So pure merino would presumably have dried slower than what you were wearing. I'm not totally convinced about it under Paramo because of this.

Not sure what the fastest drying sythetic tops are - some good answers just above though! One more data point - Silkbody (silk + a little merino etc) seems to dry about the same right as thin merino.

If it fits then P****o's own brand stuff would be another logical place to look.  This is more about sweat though of course - hopefully you're not going to get drenched often.

(if you are then it really will be a sign that the jacket is faulty )

Patagonia Capilene

Of course, as with other builders having things in different flavours, there's more than one weight of Capilene to consider... 

Pete.

Peter Clinch wrote (see)

Patagonia Capilene

Of course, as with other builders having things in different flavours, there's more than one weight of Capilene to consider... 

Pete.

I know, Pete. I only have one from when there was only one kind available! It's now retired but was my favourite polyester baselayer.

Goat,

Pete and I were rambling on about something similar, including drying out baselayer on the go, here

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forummessages/mps/dt/1/UTN/24670/V/8/SP/

and of course silk which dries extremely quickly.

i prefer having a dry layer next to me i.e. one that will dry rapidly rather than a warm wet one. not to mention the weight of all that water for the gramme counters.

the fastest drying fabric i have, after silk, is paramo's shirt fabric but that is rather unsuited as a baselayer if you like stretchy stuff.