How to Сhoose Сlothes For Tourism

Everyday wardrobe on a hike does not work well. A cozy sweatshirt made of the footer is wet all the time and does not warm well, jeans rub and restrict movement, a cotton T-shirt dries for a long time and starts to smell very bad on the second or third day. An urban windbreaker gets wet instantly, a polyethylene raincoat quickly tears, and a familiar demi-season jacket takes up a third of the backpack. Therefore, if you want to have fun on a hike, and not count the minutes before the halt and the days before leaving the route, we advise you to pack your hiking wardrobe. In the article, we explain how clothing for tourism compares favorably with urban clothing, how to choose equipment for routes at any time of the year so as not to freeze in the cold and not sweat in the heat. Let’s start with the basic principle: you need to assemble a set of clothes for tourism in layers.

Why should a tourist dress in layers?

In tourism, movement is constantly replaced by stops. While you are moving, you are warm and even hot, and your back and shoulders sweat under the backpack. But at a halt, you will quickly cool down and freeze. This is also superimposed by a change in the weather, which is difficult to predict in the mountains. Such throws of the body from heat to cold are fraught with colds,
therefore, in order to prevent overheating and hypothermia, tourists dress in layers. There are three main ones:

● The base layer – thermal underwear – removes moisture from the surface of the skin to reduce the risk of overheating during exercise and the risk of hypothermia after a stop.

● The warming layer – fleeces and puffs – does not allow the body to cool down. Moreover, you can wear a fleece and a puff both separately and at the same time, when you need to warm up to the maximum.

● The protective layer – membrane and windproof jackets and trousers – protects against rain and piercing wind.

By combining these layers of clothing, you can “tune” them to your physical activity and changing weather: wear something when it’s cold, or take it off when it’s hot. So you will always be dressed according to the weather, you will not be too hot or, on the contrary, cold.

Do I need ultra-light travel clothing?

For 20 years now, the trend in the tourism industry has been to reduce the weight of equipment. It is clear that the lighter the clothing and equipment, the easier it is to move forward along the route. With a light backpack, a hiker can go further and be less tired. Does this mean that you need to consider the weight of each item in your camping wardrobe?

If you’re just getting into the world of hiking, you don’t have to, and here’s why:

When you want to significantly lighten your backpack, you should start with the “big three”: a tent, a backpack and a sleeping system – a sleeping bag and a rug. By investing in them, you will get a greater gain in weight than by giving money for lighter clothes. For example, the difference in weight between modern sleeping bags at 0°C is more than 1 kg. Budget models on synthetics weigh about 1.5 or even 2 kg. And the lightest downy – a little less than 0.5 kg. Now compare: the average weight of an inexpensive membrane jacket for tourism is about 350 grams, but an ultra-light membrane anorak weighs about 130-150 grams. The gain in weight is only 200 grams. On an ultra-light down sleeping bag, you will not only gain 5 times more weight
than on a jacket, but it will also last much longer.

If you find it difficult to understand whether you will go hiking in the future, then you should buy clothes for tourism with an eye on their use in everyday life. This way, your expenses won’t go to waste, even if you never go camping again. Ultra-light items are usually expensive, but they are not suitable for the role of everyday clothes: they lack durability and practicality due to
lightweight materials and a very ascetic design.

Who needs lightweight clothing for tourism? Experienced tourists who know how to handle equipment carefully understand the strength limits of a particular fabric. For the sake of reducing the weight of the equipment, they are ready for the fact that the jacket can be torn on the route. Also, light walkers put up with the asceticism of light clothing – short zippers, a minimum of
pockets, a shortened length, a concise hood and other features.

Collect a set of clothes for hiking all year round

It may seem that tourism requires a lot of clothing. However, the advantage of the layer system is that it is enough to purchase just a few items of clothing and combine them to be comfortable on both summer and winter trips. That being said, almost every piece of clothing on our list is highly versatile and can be worn not only on hikes but also on travel, skiing, snowboarding, cycling, and everyday city life.
So, our basic kit for hiking in the summer and in the off-season – until the first serious cold weather – requires four layers of clothing, which include only 10-12 things, not counting underwear and socks:

● Women’s fleece jacket and coats
● Hiking trousers.
● Membrane jacket.
● Membrane trousers.
● Downy sweater.
● Headwear – hat, cap / panama, buff.
● Thin gloves.
And only those who run the risk of colliding with temperatures below -5 … -10 ° C in parking lots
will need an additional couple of things in their hiking wardrobe:
● Bivouac down jacket
● Jacket.

● Bivy insulated pants or shorts.

Thermal underwear for tourism

The task of thermal underwear is to remove sweat from the surface of the skin to the outside and quickly evaporate it. Otherwise, moisture lingers on the skin or adjacent clothing, and the body cools too quickly. For example, even from a weak wind during halts.

• For hiking in your wardrobe, it is optimal to have two sets of thermal underwear: Running. It will keep you moving throughout the day. The thermal T-shirt is worn almost constantly. And pants will be needed only in cold weather – in winter, in the off-season or in the highlands.
• For sleep. A sleeping set of linen is needed by a tourist in cool and cold weather for additional thermal insulation. The clothes you’ve been wearing all day may be damp and not clean enough to slip into a sleeping bag in the evening.
  

In total, for the first trips, the following set will be optimal: two long-sleeve thermal T-shirts and one pair of underpants. It is better to take T-shirts of medium density – 150-200 g / m², since in a temperate climate they are neither hot nor cold.