by Perry McCarney

Created on: February 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 05, 2010

A backpacking trip through picturesque national parks or wildlife reserves is a fantastic way to get back to nature and relax from the stresses of life. But it can lose some of its shine if we are overheated, shivering with cold or alternating between the two. Before any backpacking trip, it always pays to find out something about the likely conditions. What sort of weather to expect. The topography of the area, which indicates how up and down the trail we intend to take is. And the facilities available to backpackers along the trails, such as the provision of cabins.

While these can give us some idea on what clothing we should wear and carry with us, the practical approach is to wear and carry multiple layers of garments. The advantage of multiple layers is that they enable you to adjust to the current conditions. When you first arise to the brisk chill of the morning you'll need plenty of layers, at least until you've made yourselves a hot breakfast to get your internal fires burning. You may or may not want to take a layer off before you set out, but once the hiking stokes your muscles metabolism you will need to stop and do so. If instead, you are just wearing a shirt and coat, you are likely to find you are too hot in both, but too cold in just the shirt.

Not only can you adjust your clothing requirements more easily and effectively when wearing layered garments, the same weight of clothing will provide more warmth. Because layered clothing traps air between the layers, increasing the insulation provided by your clothes, several garments weighing the same as a coat provide more warmth and a greater resistance to the penetrating power of an icy wind. It's this very reason that quality coats have an inner lining, making the coat a two layer garment. But as they say, "the more the merrier", and this certainly applies to layers of clothing when out in the cold. On the other hand, you can get the same warmth while wearing, and therefore carrying, less weight of clothes. This is ideal on longer trips, when you have to carry everything you will need on your back.

Another advantage of layers is damp protection. Not only can you wear a light-weight waterproof layer on the outside, multiple layers slow the inward penetration of damp or water even if you're not. People can and do have accidents, a slip down a hillside or while cross a stream could plunge you under ice-cold water originating from snow-melt. Layered clothing will protect you a few moments longer, giving you or your companions that little longer to effect your rescue.

It will be important to get out of the wet layers as quickly as possible and dry off vigorously to avoid the possibility of hypothermia. Wet clothing against your skin can suck the warmth from your body faster than your body can generate it, lowering your core body temperature. Hypothermia can kill, so please read the articles under Helium's title "Hypothermia prevention for backpackers" for more information.

The long and the short of it is, for a backpacking trip that is more comfortable, safer and less weighty, take the multi-layer approach to essential backwoods apparel!

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