Richard Gear's Latest Answers

Q: What are the disadvantages of Gore-Tex Paclite fabric if any? It's obviously very light but is there a trade off?

A: Gear here, Richard Gear. Gore-Tex Paclite fabric has been around for a while and is now in its third incarnation - the first two used little dots to protect the membrane, the current version has a grey, smooth inner surface.

The fabric's designed for use where 'weight and space are critical', in other words, it majors on lightness and packability at the expense of other qualities. That means it's best used as an 'emergency waterproof' to be carried mostly in your pack and brought out only when necessary and preferably for short periods.

Disadvantages? It's not terribly.. '
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Q: What do the different down fill powers mean in real use? Is a sleeping bag with 500g of 850 down warmer than a sleeping bag with 600g of 600 down fill? How do they convert the temperatures across?

A: Gear here, Richard 'Fill Power' Gear, part-time insulation guru and full-time sleeping expert. As you probably could have predicted, there's no simple answer to your question.

Fill power ratings are a laboratory measure of how well a sample of down lofts. Under the same conditions, a higher fill power down will expand to fill more volume and offer greater insulation for its weight. Just to complicate things further, there are different fill power standards in different regions, so you need to make sure you're comparing like with like as EU and US standards differ - for example 750+ EU fill power down is 850+ under the US standard.

So, if you were to take an identical sleeping bag and ...'
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Q: What should I wear for warm weather hiking? I know you shouldn't wear cotton as it gets cold in winter if it gets wet, but it's cooler than technical stuff in summer.... advice please.

A: The name is Gear, Richard 'Hot Weather' Gear and keeping cool is my mission... As far as fabric choice for hotter weather goes, yes, it's tempting to break out the cotton tee-shirt, but unfortunately some of the same drawbacks that make cotton a poor choice in winter also apply in hotter weather.

Cotton tends to absorb water and then hold it, it doesn't really wick. In very hot conditions this can actually be a good thing as it helps to facilitate evaporative cooling, however if you're wearing a pack, the area under it will almost certainly get wet and stay wet, which isn't great. Plus if the weather changes, which it often does on British hills, you're left with a garment with minimal insulation value.

So what are the alternatives? It's true that many synthetic ..
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