Combining wind and rain layers for weight savings

Please direct me to conversations where that topic has been covered. Plan B is a poncho tarp with chaps. The use is in the higher parts of the Southwest so mostly dry with daily thunderstorms in late summer or days of drizzle in the winter. Garment preferences include pit zips and an interior that feels okay against bare skin. I expect to have to choose between weight, durability, and waterproofness. Others with more experience have been on this path before me, so I'm asking for your opinions.

My deal with that Region was I would just make camp when it looked like a banger was heading in. Saty as long as i needed to miss the worst of it under a poncho tarp, and move out. Or I could just stay and camp the night. No leg irons as I used to call chaps <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Well, not the desert southwest, but I deal with bangers interspersed with occasional rainy days and sunshine in the rockies up here.

I'm not fond of chaps, but then again, I'm generally ok (in the summer) wearing quick drying nylon pants on my bottom. if it really gets cold and horrible I make camp or pitch my tarp and hammock and warm up - but it's pretty rare for me to need/want to do that even
in the worst of weather as long as I am moving. So, my general stuff for this is a windshirt,
treated with nikwax. this is enough to repel most light rain and stuff. I then carry an integral designs SilPoncho, which if it gets foul comes out and goes over me and my pack, with the shockcord then looped around me to snug it up - Open arms, so no need for pit zips, but good protection.

To me the best wind/rain combo would be an eVent suit. It breathes very well but is still quite wind resistant. But...eVent is pricey stuff. About like a pair of Prada shoes or a Max Mara purse for an eVent suit, according to my fashonista youngest yuppie daughter. (Yeah, I have two yuppie daughters - both attorneys.)

On my budget I use a Gore-Tex PacLite Rainy River rainsuit from Cabela's at $89. for each item, parka and pants. They are lightwight but still very tough and breathe better than other GTX fabric. I use the suit here in the Mojave Desert, Yosemite, the Rockies, Nevada's Ruby Mountains, etc.

Uh-huh, I haven't been able to talk my daughters into gifting me with eVent stuff.

Eric