[at-l] O2 rainwear

[Mara Factor]

Doing without rain gear may work well in certain conditions:  if the
air is warm; if the terrain is easy enough that you can keep moving at
a good pace or just the right difficulty to keep your metabolism
moving; etc.  But there are times when rain gear would absolutely be
necessary:  if it's cold and the terrain keeps you moving too slow to
build up enough body heat; if an injury or other physical limitation
keep you moving too slow; or for some people who just don't have the
metabolism to get warm and stay warm when and if it starts to rain.

For these situations, it is dangerous to be out there without means of
staying warm.

I generally say that rain gear is not meant to keep you dry, it's
meant to keep you warm.  There's nothing wrong with being wet if
you're warm.  There is a problem being wet if you get cold.

I am still able to hike without rain gear in some situations but
between my knees which slow me down and my metabolism which has slowed
down as I've gotten older, I wear my rain gear more and more.

Oh yeah, and this from someone who routinely ended up stripping to a
t-shirt when backcountry skiing.  It's been a few years since I've
been around for ski season so we'll have to see if that still holds
this winter.

Mara
Stitches, AT99

Visit my Travels and Trails web site at: http://friends.backcountry.net/m_factor



On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:46 AM, Tenacious Tanasi
<tenacious_tanasi at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I pretty much do like Felix does and do without raingear.  When I'm hiking
> I'm sweating.  ...