Layering
As you begin building your collection of insulating clothing, think in terms of layers, a concept for which we are indebted to the late Benjamin Thompson, a.k.a. Count Rumford. Rumford, to quote one biographer, was an "unprincipled opportunist, a ruthless self-promoter and overbearingly arrogant." He was also, history tells us, the discoverer in the 1780s that the insulating property of clothing comes primarily from trapped air. From this he concluded that several thin layers of clothing were warmer than one thick one because they trapped air in between the layers as well as within the layers themselves. Carrying several thin layers, rather than one thick layer, has an additional advantage: it gives you the flexibility to fine-tune the amount of clothing you're wearing to exactly match your heat output and the current temperature. If you bring just a heavy parka and a T-shirt, for example, you might have the same total amount of insulation available to you as if you brought a T-shirt, a midweight underwear top and a sweater, but in a very inconvenient form. With no ability to have just a medium amount of insulation, you'll probably be too hot wearing the parka or too cold wearing just the T-shirt.

For summer use in the mountains of the Lower 48, one layer of synthetic underwear for your legs is usually plenty while hiking. For lounging around camp, a second layer of synthetic underwear can be nice, or you can layer your mosquito pants or rain pants (or both) over your long johns for a surprising amount of additional warmth. For my torso, I like to bring a synthetic turtleneck with a neck zipper for ventilation, a hooded fleece sweatshirt and a fleece sweater to provide some versatility in layering. If you can't find a synthetic sweatshirt, I suggest bringing a second turtleneck shirt plus a neck gaiter—a fabric tube made of fleece that you pull over your head and wear around your neck. The hood on my sweatshirt and the neck gaiter serve the same purpose: insulating your neck, which is well supplied with blood vessels that run near the surface. These vessels, with their cargo of warm blood, provide a large escape hatch for heat. In cold weather, it pays to insulate them well. To insulate my head, I usually carry a fleece ski hat as well. Lately I've also begun carrying a waterproof/breathable baseball cap with ear flaps to keep my hair dry in the rain.

Fleece today comes in many varieties, including fabrics made largely from recycled soda bottles. Fortunately, the performance in terms of drying speed and resiliency when wet doesn't vary a whole lot. Warmth does vary with thickness. After deciding on what thickness you need, choose your pile jacket based on fit and overall attractiveness. Look for a full-length front zipper that lets you ventilate easily. Hand-warmer pockets are welcome on cool mornings, and a zippered pocket or two is handy for keeping small valuables accessible. If you're really cold-blooded, like Cora, you should consider adding pile pants to your summer layering system. Look for a pair that has full-length zippers along the outside of the pant legs. Better yet, look for a pair with side zippers that separate at the top next to the waistband, so in the wintertime you can put them on without taking off your skis or snowshoes.

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