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Sweat soaked your back on the approach, and now it’s trickling through your base layers like little ice cubes as the howling wind steals your warmth. Your lips are so cold that you can only talk in vowels, but that doesn’t matter since your teeth are chattering so hard that you can’t string together more than a few words. You’re wearing every stitch of clothing that you brought, but it doesn’t seem to be enough. Sitting next to you, your partner has a smile on his face, color to his lips (not the blue in yours), and genuinely seems to be enjoying the day. Why is he so comfortable while you’re so miserable? It’s because he has his layering system dialed.

Rest break on Mt. Rainier

When most skiers, hikers, and climbers think about winter in the mountains, they conjure images of cold misery. Freezing temperatures, howling wind, and sweat-soaked insulating layers ensuring a level of suffering so deep that they’d cut off one of their own fingers for five minutes in a hot shower. Though many people view this misery as unavoidable and some tend to see it as a rite of passage, it’s unnecessary. Being cold in the mountains is the result of a poorly planned layering system or a lack of knowledge. With the right materials used in right conditions, even the coldest, harshest winter weather won’t get in the way of an enjoyable day in the mountains.

The layers

Base layers:

With all of the warm, light, fast-drying fabrics available it’s pretty hard to go wrong these days, but a surprising amount of people still do. First things first: cotton (a.k.a. Death Cloth) has no place in the mountains. Absolutely nothing on your body, not even your underwear, should be made of cotton. I’ve seen a woman become hypothermic on a rafting trip during an 85° day because she was wearing a cotton bra under her fleece and $200 splash jacket. After I convinced her to remove the bra (a hard task for most guides to accomplish without getting slapped, she’s lucky I’m such a smooth talker), she warmed up immediately. Merino wool is gaining popularity because it’s warm when wet, less itchy than old-school wool, and doesn’t stink as much as polyester. However, it takes a long time for wool to dry, so many people avoid it for winter use. Polyester fabrics (Capilene, VaporWick, ThermaDry, etc) and fleece weigh very little, dry extremely quickly, and pull moisture away from your skin when you sweat. The thickness of your base layer depends on how cold the weather will be and how much energy you’ll be expending. I might have a midweight polyester top and heavy fleece under my shell for a hiking with my dogs on a 15° day, but I usually wear nothing more than the midweight polyester under the shell if I’m backcountry skiing or ice climbing.

Kevin Nibir wearing only a base layer to keep from sweating while he breaks trail

Shell:

A few years ago, you just grabbed your big, burly, three-layer waterproof jacket and put it on over the top of everything else. These days we’re able to choose between a variety of waterproof breathable hardshells and water-resistant, but more breathable, softshells. I wear softshells on about 90% of my winter trips. They’re water-resistant enough to keep me dry when I’m backcountry skiing or ice climbing. They also breathe better, so I don’t sweat too much when I’m working hard to break trail. The only times I put on a hardshell jacket made from Gore-Tex, HyVent, PreCip, or another waterproof breathable fabric is when it’s warm enough that wet snow or rain threatens to soak me more than the extra sweating that these shells cause. I do, however, tend to wear less-breathable, more-waterproof fabrics on my legs, because legs don’t sweat as much and they spend more time trudging through the snow and soaking up moisture than the upper body does. It’s also a lot harder to add or remove layers on your legs, so you’re pretty much stuck with what you put on at the trailhead unless you stop for a significant period of time.

The author wearing a softshell to keep from sweating under his too-heavy load

Insulated jacket:

This is a big puffy jacket that’s large enough to be worn over all your other clothes and warm enough to keep you from getting cold while standing still in freezing weather. There are, as usual, decisions to be made about materials. Down jackets are lighter, more compressible, and warmer than synthetic jackets with the same amount of fill. Unfortunately, down jackets lose their insulation value when wet, and they dry very slowly. Some down jackets have a waterproof shell to keep the down protected from precipitation, but they can still get wet as your base layers dry and transport moisture away from your skin. Synthetic jackets, though heavier and bulkier, retain their insulating value when wet, and they dry out more quickly. Usually, I take a down jacket on single-day trips when the weather is really cold and reserve the synthetic insulation for multi-day alpine excursions where pretty much everything is guaranteed to get soaked at one time or another.

The author dressed for a rest after a particularly scary lead

Staying warm in the stop-and-go alpine world: How the laying system works

Whether you’re backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, or ice climbing, there are only two actions in the mountains when it comes to warmth: moving and not moving—generating heat or losing it. What you need is a way to accommodate both actions with your clothing system. Here’s how it goes: Gear up at the trailhead wearing your big insulated jacket to keep warm. When it’s time to get moving, strip down to the outfit you’ll be wearing on the go. For a bluebird day of backcountry skiing in the Wasatch this may be nothing more than light base layer with a shell over it. Ice climbing in the Canadian Rockies during January calls for anywhere from two to four layers of polyester and fleece insulation under a shell. This, of course, depends on whether it’s cold enough for your spit to freeze before it hits the ground.

Either way, you should be a little chilled when you start the day and after you leave each rest break. The first few minutes of hiking, skiing, or climbing should warm you up to the right temperature. If you’re wearing too many layers, you’ll start out warm but begin sweating after the first few minutes; sweating will soak your clothes and cause evaporative heat loss and you’ll freeze when you stop for a break.

After an hour on the go it’s time for a break. You take off your pack and put on your belay jacket over everything else. This keeps you warm while resting, and you won’t have to strip off your shell and add layers. When it’s time to start moving again, take off this puffy jacket and cram it in the top of your pack. If you follow this system all day, and resist the temptation to dress too heavily for the times you’re moving, this system keeps you warm and reasonably dry in nearly any winter weather conditions you’ll encounter during a day in the mountains. See, wasn’t that easy?

Packing away the belay jackets before another stretch at 1:00am