*Clothes to Keep YouWarm & Dry
*Camping Gear Guide
*Choosing Winter Tires
*Winter Driving Tips
Family Camping Guide
Warm& Dry!
Personal Gear for Winter 'Wheeling & CampingNothing takes the fun out of winter trekking faster than when that bone-numbing chill seeps into your boots, gloves, pants, or jacket. Actually, having the fun taken out is probably the least of your worries when you're cold and wet in near-freezing weather. Conditions can quickly change from uncomfortable to miserable to life-threatening, especially after the sun goes down.
Staving off the danger means having the right gear for your camp and for your body. The camping stuff we'll cover elsewhere-here we're going to talk about the kinds of clothes you need to stay warm and dry when you stray from your truck's cab.
The fact that we 'wheelers and hunters use 4x4s as our primary means of transportation changes our winter gear needs-in our favor. We don't have the backpacker's worry about having to travel light or compact. We have plenty of room in our trucks for huge four-season tents, lofty sleeping bags, and extra clothes to replace wet ones. What we do share with other winter sportsmen (and women) is the need to layer our clothes so we don't get overheated after climbing back into the truck, and so bulky parkas and mittens don't restrict our access to the steering wheel, shift lever, and other controls.
Here's a collection of some of the latest winter-weather apparel to keep the cold at bay.
On The Cover:
Cabela's, the "World's Foremost Outfitter," provided the photography for our cover. The tent pictured is Cabela's Alaskan Guide Model; more information on this tent is in our "Camping Gear Guide" article. The Suburban in the snow is outfitted with Husky front and rear floor liners and a cargo liner, which are also available from Cabela's.
Garment Glossary
If you're not familiar with winter apparel construction, some of the fabrics, liners, and insulation mentioned in this guide may be as alien to you as "ramp travel index" is to the average snowboarder. Here's a thumbnail description of the most popular features, courtesy of The North Face, Columbia Sportswear, and other apparel makers.
Down: A somewhat misleading term, because "down" filler in a jacket or sleeping bag usually refers to a mix of actual down (the light, fluffy filaments, without a quill, that form the undercoating of waterfowl) and feathers (which include both down and the quill). The mix is typically represented in a ratio of down to feathers, like 80/20 or 60/40. The insulation quality of some bags and garments is indicated by a "fill power" number. That number corresponds to how many cubic inches of space an ounce of down would fill after it has been compressed and released. The higher the fill power number, the higher the quality of down. A fill power number in the high 500s is good; 650 is better.
Fleece: The fleece mentioned in this article isn't wool from sheep, but a synthetic material (like polyester) that provides greater warmth with less weight than cotton or wool, dries quicker, and is very breathable. Fleece generally comes in varying weights, so you can choose the level of insulation you need to suit conditions.
Gore-Tex: The big daddy of outdoor fabrics, Gore-Tex is so popular because of its combination of waterproof, yet breathable protection. (If a fabric doesn't breathe, you'll sweat yourself silly-and cold-in a matter of minutes.) Gore-Tex is actually a membrane, permanently bonded to outerwear shell fabrics, that contains billions of microscopic pores. Each pore is 20,000 times smaller than a raindrop, but 700 times larger than a molecule of water vapor, so perspiration can pass through the membrane whereas water can't.