Stay warm

My highly individualized solution to a happy frosty face

Happy winter adventurers are all alike, while every unhappy winter adventurer is unhappy in their own way — so says Tolstoy, who doubtlessly froze his fingers a time or two during hunting trips in his native Russia. To clarify, all happy winter adventurers are warm, while all unhappy winter adventurers are not warm due to mistakes, mishaps, and miscalculations with their clothing and gear.

And here’s the rub: Each unhappy winter adventurer is unhappy for their own reasons. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to any of this. I’ve spent nearly two decades making mistakes and changing my mind about winter gear. It started with wearing three pairs of cotton socks tightly wedged in my hiking boots to go biking at 9 degrees when I moved to Alaska in 2005. It’s arrived at the point where I don’t cower when I see -50F in a forecast.

I’m cautious to be sure. I understand the margin for error in extreme cold is near zero. But I’ve also gained confidence through experience. I have hiked all day in 50 below, crawled into a sleeping bag at 45 below, slept soundly and woke up safely at 45 below, packed up and got going again without incident at 45 below. I trust the gear I’ve chosen so completely that I’ve been unwilling to change much since my 1,000-mile bicycle ride to Nome in 2016, despite the ongoing discontinuation of my favorite products. My husband, Beat — who has even more cold-weather experience than I do — also knows what works best for him, and many of his choices are different than mine.

I often receive questions about my winter gear — gear, after all, is the favorite topic of outdoorsy people. I thought it would be fun to talk a bit about my current favorite pieces of gear.

But first, the evolution. This is a photo of all of the gear I packed for the 2007 Susitna 100, a 100-mile winter bike race on dog mushing and snowmobile trails in Alaska’s Susitna Valley:

Neoprene socks? With waterproof liner socks? A Burton snowboarding shell? Are there three pairs of tights in there? And three base layers? Are you really going to need those big mittens and neoprene gloves and liner gloves and heavy snowmobile pogies? (These were the only type of pogies on the market back then.) At least your cat is cute. Oh, Cady. How I miss Cady. RIP Cady.

There’s also this post from my old blog that I wrote in 2009 about my layering system for a 350-mile bike race on Alaska’s Iditarod Trail. This arrives at a much closer approximation to what I use today — synthetic base layers, softshell jacket and pants as an outer layer, windproof hat and vapor barrier socks, an “oh shit” puffy parka and vapor barrier mittens, and Wiggy’s Waders — lightweight nylon waders for possible open water crossings. It’s also wild to me that not many advancements have been made in 15 years. I don’t understand why outdoor gear companies aren’t clamoring to update items like lightweight nylon waders that are mainly only useful to folks on human-powered winter expeditions. Aren’t there millions of us?

Yes, I mourn the items that were made exactly for me that are no longer made for me. The first is this Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man *Airshield* jacket — the airshield part is key — shown in this photo my friend Dan took when the jacket was still relatively new (with matching mittens) in March 2014. As far as I can tell, Mountain Hardwear has not manufactured any version of this jacket since 2013. The newer versions are just fluffy polyester with no wind-proof lining. By the late 2010s, all “furry” fleece jackets seemed to go out of style.

The polyester “fur” is not for cuteness. This fabric design is impressively effective at wicking sweat in extreme cold. Here’s the way sweating works in the cold: Regardless of how cold it is, you will sweat. You tell yourself you will not, but you will. Your syntenic or wool base layer will wick the sweat to your mid-layer, where it will continue to rise to the outer layer. Removed from your body heat, these droplets of sweat will almost certainly freeze somewhere on your outer layer. “Wicking” into the air is not going to happen at 0 degrees, I promise you that. The more sweat freezes into your outer layer, the less effective that layer will become.

On the Monkey fleece, frozen sweat collects at the ends of the hairs, where it can easily be brushed off. I sometimes find myself gasping up a hill with my heart rate near 160, knowing I am pouring sweat into my base layer. And yet just beyond the top of the hill, my torso will already feel dry. I vent excess body heat by lowering the zipper. This does a lot to extend the jacket’s comfort range, and I often use it in “warm” temperatures. With a few exceptions, you will find me wearing this jacket in anything from 25 above to 50 below.

The aspect that makes this coat priceless is the “airshield” layer. I have met some wicked winds — over 60 mph — in this coat and felt no effect. The fabric is amazing at blocking wind — even better than Gore-tex shells I’ve tried, and yet this coat can vent sweat.

I owe much to the Monkey Man and will cry big tears when it’s gone. As it is, this medium blue coat is mostly worn out — there are holes where backpacks have rubbed over the years. Beat found a lightly used coat, size large, color black, on Poshmark four years ago and this has become my primary layer. I continue to troll used clothing sites and eBay regularly, hoping for rare finds. Earlier this year I bought a size small that does not fit me; I don’t know what I was thinking. And yet I still can’t part with it. Just yesterday I found a white coat, size large, on Poshmark. It’s unclear that this coat is exactly what I’m looking for, but I am hopeful. It was worth $34.99 to find out!

Continuing on the subject of the miracle of fuzzy fleece, I want to talk about these buffs. If you’ve seen any of the winter selfies I’ve taken in the past eight years, I am likely wearing one of these. It starts as a neck warmer and inches up my face as temperatures become colder. When it comes to facial protection, everyone is — again — different. Some people struggle the most with cold noses (which folks remedy by covering the bridge of their nose with KT tape or buying one of these funny nose hats.) Others have problems with their eyes and must wear clear lenses or goggles at all times.

My big issue is breathing. If don’t keep my neck warm and breathe pre-warmed air, my lungs become irritated and my asthma flares up. Many people with similar issues swear by an air-recirculating mask called the Cold Avenger. I’ve tried this piece of gear and do not like it. It feels too obstructive. I often feel like I can’t breathe because snot is streaming out of my nose and the mask is blocking the flow of air. I pull it away from my face so often that it ends up having a negative effect.

What I can tolerate on my face is this warm, soft, fuzzy tube of fleece fabric that warms the air in front of my mouth and sends that warm air toward my nose and eyes, keeping those warm as well. You may ask: Jill, doesn’t all of this moisture just freeze to your headgear and form an ice helmet? Yes. Yes, it does. This doesn’t bother me. Even covered in frost, these items remain warm. Eventually, the buff freezes enough that I can shape it into a sort of mouth cup, keeping the ice away from my face but still circulating warm air. I will also shift the icy part of the buff from front to back so I can feel nice warm fleece on my face while my hoods thaw the frozen part. I also carry spares.

Between the buff, a single hat, and a jacket hood, I can be comfortable in most temperatures. If I do start to feel cold, I carry a fleece balaclava to pull over the top of the hat and buff. And I do carry goggles and a neoprene “emergency” face mask for extreme headwinds.

Where do I buy these miracle buffs? Nowhere. Beat makes them for me. He buys this blue fuzzy fabric in bulk, cuts rectangular pieces out of it, and sews two ends together. It takes him about three minutes. I must have 20 of these by now. I won’t part with them either even though they only cost about 40 cents a piece.

My go-to mid-layer is a Skinfit Caldo Hybrid Jacket that also is not manufactured anymore (sniff) but there are still a few floating around on the used market, mostly on European sites. Here I am wearing the jacket in Unalakleet, Alaska, during my 2016 ride to Nome. The softshell material is light, robust, and vents well. The front of the jacket features a primaloft shield that helps retain a lot of heat where it’s needed most. (Also note Monkey Man jacket tied around my waist because my bike had become such a junk show at that point, I couldn’t find anywhere else to store it.)

So what do I wear on my hands? For the most part — just pogies. I have large Revelate Designs pogies (which I don’t think they make anymore?) for my bicycle. For my trekking poles, I used special Beat-made pogies for years but recently acquired these Fairbanks-made Dogwood Design Polefish ski pole pogies that are incredible. (And sadly also seem to be difficult to find online.)

With these, I can go bare-handed in nearly every kind of weather imaginable. If it’s calm, I will be happily bare-handed down to 30 below. When I’m hungry, I reach into my chalk bag for a snack. I’m free to take photos, fiddle around with my music player, whatever. I do not like gloves. I will go to great lengths to not use them — to the point where I don’t even bother bringing liner gloves on big trips anymore. My extra hand layers are two pairs of mittens — a PrimaLoft mitten and a thick vapor barrier “oh shit” mitten that I’ve only very rarely even broken out during a trip, but I never leave behind.

To reiterate the point: We are all different. I have the frostiest feet and have to insulate those to an extreme, even when I am walking or running. But my hands are their own furnace. If any other part of my body is hot, I will expose my hands to the cold until my torso or thighs cool down. I use my hands to vent heat. That’s how hot they are. It’s a gift.

Pogies are great because they block wind and precipitation, they’re incredibly warm, but they can vent so well that they don’t collect moisture. I vent the heat by holding onto my trekking poles or handlebars outside the pogies.

When mittens are required, I reach for these Skinfit Schröcken Mittens. As the excellent ad copy on this site states, “These warm mittens are super useful.” And they are warm — if I am doing actual running or another activity where I don’t use poles or pogies, they are all I ever need. The convertible palm makes it easy to access snacks, camera, water valve … you get the picture. Are they sold in the United States anymore? I don’t even know. I apologize for the inaccessibility of all of these items. This is what happens when you are sponsored by no one and come to all of your gear decisions organically.

My “oh shit” mittens are the RBH Designs Vapor Mitt — a vapor barrier in a thickly insulated mitten to stave off the worst chill. If I was trapped on sea ice of the Norton Sound and the wind blew my bike away, I would count on these mittens to save my life. They are expensive and I have probably worn them twice in my entire ownership of them, but I still consider them worth it.

This is the coldest temperature I have experienced so far — 50 below zero in Alaska’s White Mountains in December 2019. Note that the zipper is lowered on my fuzzy fleece jacket because I still need to vent heat. The ice on my face I often don’t feel because I wear Dermatone to protect my skin. The frost is clinging to little hairs beyond the Dermatone layer. The frostlashes are annoying and I use my figures to thaw those from time to time.

This post has already gone on fairly long. It’s close to my bedtime and I haven’t even gotten to my lower body gear yet. I will probably do that in a future post. Do you have any questions? Ask me anything! (about winter gear.)

Thanks for reading.