How do you layer?

Hello, everyone, my first post here, but I've been lurking for a little while.

Well, I'm looking to see what everyone does for there jacket layer. So post your layers, what works for you?

Right now I'm looking at the Mountain Hardware Compressor hooded jacket. I've borrowed the non hooded one from a friend and really liked it.

If I get it, these are my layers.

Torso:
*Thermal shirt
*long sleeve synthetic tee
*short sleeve synthetic tee
*Compressor jacket?
*Rain shell

Legs:
*thermal pants
*zip of hiking pants
*rain pants


So far I've been comfortable lounging at camp in the high 30's F, with all my torso layers, except the thermals, and only my hiking pants, so I'm thinking with all my layers I can go quite low.


So, list your layers, and how low can you go comfortably. I'm talking about being in camp at night and morning, 'cause when I'm hiking, I'm naked at 40F, lol.


P.S. I'd like to hear from the women too, 'cause I'm pretty much setting up my wife with the same system.

Base, synthetic MEC long johns, top and bottom. thermal fleece pants and british navy wool watch pants with suspenders. two merino wool shirts, a 100 wt fleece, cashemere sweater, 300 weight fleece, and a denim anorak.. liner socks wool socks, and felt pack boots with double insoles. ragg wool glove, wool mitten, and nylon overmitt. cashemere scarf and fleece toque or wool hat with earflaps. When sitting around ditch the outer 300 wt fleece and anorak to dry and pull the down frobisher parka out of the bag..

That's how you layer

Oh wait. you meant summer.. Seriously look at the gear list I link in my signature. I wear up to everything in that pack layered depending how cold it is. usually I sleep in the long johns and merino's with a toque on. if it's too cold to sit around camp in that, I get in my sleeping bag Typically in non-winter/summer I don't wear my long johns until getting in bed, but I'll layer up over a synth shirt with the merinos, and a fleece + windshirt and/or the MEC northern lite primaloft pullover (now sadly unobtainium in it's good format)

I put on my long johns when getting in bed. I'll typically throw pants back on over them when getting up in the morning and put everything on while doing breakfast and morning ablutions. I then change back to shirt and pants with the jacket on to pack up, then pull the fleece or jacket off to start hiking in the shirt again.

Where you layer is also part of this. Living and camping in the Ohio River valley, and pretty much avoiding deep winter camping, I probably don't layer the same as others. My coldest anticipated temperatures are usually a low around freezing (32F); any colder than that, and I stay home.

On a chilly day, I hike with just my base layer: midweight Smartwool longjohns, top and bottom. I wear shorts over the bottoms and, depending on how chilly it is, may wear a lightweight Smartwool T (my usual hiking shirt) under the midweight (usually a zip-T.) I usually wear a Smartwool beanie or a Marmot Precip hat, depending on my mood, and a pair of OR shelled fleece mittens.

If I need a little more warmth, or if it's snowy or wet, I'll add my rain gear (Marmot Precip jacket and pants.)

When I set up camp in the evening, I'll add any or all of the following over the base layer: Montbell UL Down Inner pants, Montbell UL Down Inner parka or Alpine Light Down Parka (depends on temperature), and Sierra Designs down mittens. I also wear Smarwool glove liners for camp chores, and add a Smartwool balaclava if I feel the need.

I also carry a pair of Sierra Design down booties (soleless), but don't wear them for walking around in camp; I'll leave my trail shoes on for that. The main reason for the booties is my feet tend to get cold; I wear them often in the sleeping bag. Since my bag (WM Megalite) is rated to 30F, I usually wear only the long johns to sleep in. However, the insulating down layer provides backup warmth in case the temperature takes an unanticipated dip. (The system does work; I intentionally planned a cold night of car camping, and during the night I added the down pants, down booties, down mittens, and UL Down Inner parka as I got chilly. This kept me warm all the way down to 19F, well below the bag's intended weight.)

One other caveat: I use a lot of down, but I also tend to stay home when it's going to rain all weekend. When I was younger, and did a lot of foul weather winter camping, I used midweight or heavy weight synthetic long johns and midweight pile insulating garments. (I also used a synthetic sleeping bag.) Since I don't have to prove I can camp in the rain any more, I switched to down to save some weight.

For temps ranging between 20 and 60F, which is what I think you are asking about, I wear pair of polyester stretch sport pants (predecessor to soft shells), a poly 1/2 zip t-neck, heavy wool socks, and GTX trail runners. I take capiline mid weight top and bottoms, a wool hat and fleece gloves. Depending on the anticipated temps, I will add either a windpro fleece jacket and/or a climb high down sweater, and I always have rain gear I can layer on top.

Welp, here's what I do.

Top:
Polypro silkweight or heavyweight(temperature dictates),
Then a fleece or light jacket,
Then a thicker jacket,
Then something to block the wind, usually something fore-tex or something along those lines

Bottom:
Polypro silkweight or heavyweight(same reason as above),
Fleece pants or something warm, wool works fine if you've got it,
Then snow pants

Feet:
A thin dress sock, then something thick for a second layer

I usually layer my gloves too. As far as my head goes, something on my neck and can pull up over my face if need be and something on the head of course, usually a fleece cap.

But of course, with all of this temperature is always the deciding factor. The only time I wear all of that is when it is really cold out. So if it is warmer, like around freezing, for me I usually wear less top layers. But that is just me, everyone is different. I tend to adjust quick to temperatures so when it's cold, I'm usually not so cold and will wear less, though I'll still bring the stuff along.

I mean, the above list of stuff I named in order is what worked quite well for me in Alaska in -60F temperatures, so for me it is tried and true. It might take a bit of playing for you to figure out your ideal layers and what they are, but once you do that is when you'll be comfortable.

I hike in the Canadian Rockies. Here it can snow anytime of the year and can often dip below 0C (30F) at night.
I plan to bring for tops:
Either a long sleeve nylon shirt (6oz) or both a short sleeve and long sleeve nylon shirt (12oz)
A midweight fleece shirt (9oz)
And rain shell (12oz) or if it plans to be nasty a lot of the time, a goretex parka (35 oz) ya, I know it's a whopper! Mil-spec tho.
For bottoms:
Nylon wind pants (10oz)
Midweight fleece pants (11oz)
And if it is really cold and suspecting lots of rain I'll bring goretex pants (19oz) They are mil-spec also and VERY warm.

When I was workin oil patch I'd wear a t-shirt, hoodie, rain jacket, polyester work pants, Gore-tex pants and then covies over everything. I was warm down to -15C (5F) and you stand around outside not doin anything a lot of the time.

My layers--summer northern Rockies (where it can snow in midsummer and nights are often below freezing) or 3-season Pacific NW Cascades:

Sports bra and full panties (I hate low-rise women's panties because the waist is the same place as the pack's hip belt).

Capilene 2 base layer. The top (a long sleeve zip-T) is my hiking shirt. The bottom half travels in my sleeping bag dry bag unless it's really cold; it's worn at night and in the early morning.

Lightweight merino wool T-shirt: an extra layer, either for more warmth (instead of a vest) or instead of the Capilene 2 top at night if the latter is wet or filthy. I get arthritis in the shoulders so a vest won't do the job, and the short sleeve T is lighter.

Wind shirt (lightweight, under 3 oz.). It's great for protection from biting flies as well as drizzle or wind.

Montbell UL Thermawrap jacket, my main insulating layer. I wear it in camp and, in cold weather, during rest stops. I would have to be really, really cold for me to wear it while hiking!

Rain jacket and pants, non-breathable. I wear when it's cold; in warm rain I either wear the wind shirt or just get wet. When it's below freezing I can wear them in the sleeping bag (over the base layer) as a vapor barrier.

Polypropylene fleece balaclava ("When your feet are cold, put on a hat.")

Polypropylene fleece gloves

Mountain Laurel Designs rain mitts to keep the fleece gloves dry when hiking in cold wet weather.

I carry an extra set of hiking socks and rinse my socks nightly. I also carry 200-weight fleece sleeping socks, my luxury item--they're soft and cuddly and my feet sigh with pleasure when I put them on!

EDIT: I find several thin layers far more adjustable to the actual temperature than one thick one. Even in the coldest weather, you don't want to be perspiring while you move (which wets your clothing) or, conversely, getting chilled.

Gosh, after reading everyone else's layering system, I must be extremely warm natured. My set up 20F here in Memphis, TN USA (which by the way is certainly the coldest here)is as follows:
Bottom:
>thermal polyprop pants with convertable hiking pants over them

Top:
>long sleeve Patagonia Capilene 1
>fleece jacket
>if it's very windy/wet: Rain Jacket

For anything warmer than that, I might only wear the fleece jacket or just a homemade insulated vest. I'll leave the thermal pants off if I possibly can. Either they have always been tight and I never noticed or I've gained weight and didn't notice.

I start with Merino wool underwear and long sleeve T shirt, both being of moderately light weight. I use Merino wool for it's unique ability to absolutely not retain odor, even on a 4-5 day trip. Sure if it gets dirty it will need washing but I'm usually home before that.

Merino wool's other advantage is that it has a wide comfort range. I've comfortably hiked in it in 90+ degree F weather with the sleeves rolled up, and down to the 50's with them down.

For pants I wear a nylon cargo/convertable pant. The cargo pockets are great for misc. stuff you want to keep handy, and the zip off legs are great with it gets hot. But they are great for hiking down to the mid 40's.

For warmth, I have a long sleeve fleece shirt and pants (medium weight), a down jacket (seriously fluffy). Also Fleece cap and gloves. For wind and rain gear, I have moderate weight gortex coat and pants.

This keeps me warm down to 25 degrees or so, until I can crawl into my down sleeping bag.

I use fleece to layer, and wind/rain jacket over that. I have a nice poncho if it is really coming down, I carry it always and use as a ground cloth.

My 3 season layers weighs anywhere from < 1lbs to 4lbs, depending on where I am at. Fleece isn't the lightest, but it is light, compresses well and is very cheap.

Layering depends on the person, the activities they will be doing and the weather. There are probably a couple of hundred posts here on layering. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of possible combinations of various brands of clothes. My gear list is in the winter forum somewhere,probably several times over the years. So are a lot of other lists.
A search will turn them up.

My ultimate top layer is a TNF Baltoro Down Parka (now called the Himalaya) and GoLite insulated pants-good to around -20F or so, I would think.

Hey Phat, have you got one of Kevin's Empire Canvas anoraks?

If I remember right, he showed a picture of a hunter orange one made or modified. Not Empire.

Wouldn't be one of Kevin's. His are only white for the Anorak and Black for the Parka. I'm tempted to get one of the Anoraks with the big fur hoodie.

I have thought about buying a bunch of stuff from Kevin at Empire. The anorak, pants, boots, mittens, and shirt. But, man, are they pricey. I went to an army surplus store and bought an Italian wool blanket for $16, then a pattern for a fleece pullover at Walmart. Then I convinced my wife to sew me a wool pullover. I absolutely love the thing.