How to Dress for Cool-Weather Hiking

Video Transcript

"Hi, I’m Kate I’m here with Zoar Outdoor on behalf of Expert Village and we’re going to talk about hiking today. We’re going to be talking about dressing for cold weather in the spring or the fall when it’s about 40 degrees not necessarily winter but like this morning it’s pretty chilly. So when I go out hiking for a cooler day I make sure I layer, I start off with some thin long underwear and this can be used if it gets later and warmer in the day, I can just use these but on top of those I like to wear Gore-Tex pants. They’re very thin, they’re water proof and they’re breathable, this makes a great layer for hiking in cooler weather. They breathe, they keep the water off of you and they’re warm, they are windproof. On my upper body I stick with thin layers still, usually long sleeve thin layers, on top of the thin layers I like to have a couple options because I’m going to get cold if I stopped. So I wear a fleece, a long sleeve fleece that can be put on and off pretty quickly and has nice vents on the sides cause your armpits are going to sweat. Then if I get colder I also have a vest, these are really easy to pack, they’re lightweight and it keeps your core pretty warm, which is where you’re going to loose most of your body temperature and if you get cooler when you stop. I like to bring a synthetic puff jacket, like I have right now because this is really easy to put on when you stop and most importantly another hat. This is going to keep most of your body temperature inside your body. If you stop and it’s raining and you can’t wear synthetic, you always have your raincoat to put on top of everything. This is a pretty bomber layer system, this is windproof, this is insulation and you have very thin layers on underneath it. The more thin layers you have, the better you’re going to be, the warmer you’re going to be, the happier you’re going to be when you’re out in 40 degree weather. I also bring a neck warmer just in case it’s windy and freezing at the top. These days can happen, if you’re at the summit it can be very cold, it can be 90 degrees at the bottom, so it’s good to have layers and options to wear when you go up."