Rain Gear

OK, this might be a bit extreme, but it begs an important question to me: Is there ANY rain gear out there that both breathes AND is truly 100% waterproof? Are we ultimately choosing between one or the other?

Here was my situation. I was blessed to go trekking in India this summer as part of a college trip led by a great friend of mine. He happens to be a Religious Studies professor at a very supportive East Coast college. Well, I got to go along as an assistant leader. He and I have trekked to India before.

Coming down from Ghangaria to Ghovind Ghat in mid-June, we were assaulted by the infamous Indian monsoon. When I say rain (and I know rain from summers in Minnesota and backpacking trips to the Tetons, Wind River and Glacier National Park), I mean rain. Not ONE person in our group did not "wet out." This was not sweating beneath waterproof layers. Absolutely, everyone was soaked.

I might have been one of the drier people with my Kleenex box looking Frogg Toggs (I was teased unmercifully, but creatively....I think I did look a bit like a frog....) But the group leader had on expensive gear from either North Face or Patagonia. We had almost every "famous" brand of gear represented in our 23 member trekking group. And some of these were $250 rain suits.

Know what the Indian trekkers were wearing? Bright colored ponchos. And they seemed to be drier. Granted, I'm sure they were sweating underneath that.

The smartest person in our group might have been "Ally" She had a small umbrella.

When I go to REI this afternoon, I am going to ask them this question, too.

ANYONE have any success stories with gear in heavy rain?

I will admit - no one had the Marmot Pre-Cip system.

Thanks for your helpful replies to come!

Scott S
Minnesota

PS - India absolutely ROCKS for trekking! WOW!

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Scott, Pre-Cip in my experience is very non-breathable. I have gotten wetter with it than any supposedly rainproof system I have tried before or since.

The principle behind waterproof/breathable fabrics will readily explain why it doesn't work in the conditions you encountered during the monsoon, and why a simple poncho works reasonably well. The basic physics of goretex, eVent, and the variations and imitations is the difference in vapor pressure between the two sides of the fabric, with the provision that the pores are open. They work well when the temperature is fairly low, and when the humidity outside is fairly low (such as during desert and high altitude rains, and high altitude snow storms where the water is all frozen as snow flakes). During the Indian monsoon (and some of the rains I was in during my trip the past couple of weeks in Tanzania, trekking through rainforest), the humidity was in the 80-90% range. WP/B fabrics don't work well if the gradient is that low (that is, humidity and hence vapor pressure from inside to outside the jackets is nearly the same). Your Frogg Toggs work on the same principle, except using layered polypropylene instead of the Teflon that Goretex uses - microporous so liquid water can't get through, but water vapor can. Big problem is first, the question of water vapor pressure gradient, but in addition, when the outside gets a film of water (thanks to body oils or just plain old dirt), the pores get blocked, so no breathability. Your sweat can't get out, so you get wet inside - especially in warm to hot conditions like India (or for me in Tanzania).

Ponchos (and umbrellas) allow a fair amount of air circulation, hence cooling. So in a rainstorm of monsoon scale, you can stay drier with a poncho or umbrella (of proper size and shape). The big problem with ponchos and umbrellas is that they tend to blow around. When the poncho tails blow up, the rain gets in. Side snaps that allow for a lot of ventilation partially solve that problem. I really wished that I had brought my old yellow, completely waterproof/nonbreathable poncho with me, and had worn it over my pack as Patrick, my guide, did. I would not have gotten as sweaty, hence wet.

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From AMC Web site:

"A few years ago, the U.S. Army’s Soldier System Center in Natick, Mass., performed breathability tests on some common outdoor fabrics. Leading the pack of tested materials was the eVent laminate which, depending on relative humidity, was between 1.3 and 3 times more breathable than the next best material, Gore-Tex XCR.

"Following this, the results clustered together, with the best-performing materials approximately twice as breathable as the least. In descending order of breathability, the results were: Gore-Tex XCR, Gore-Tex (standard), HydroSeal (The North Face), Membrain (Marmot), Sympatex, Conduit (Mountain Hardwear), and OmniTech (Columbia).
—Matt Heid is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors."

Actually, the Natick data, available with some Web searching, are somewhat more complex than suggested. But grasping the physics may require a relevant four-year degree, which Heid apparently lacks.

Side note: in truly heavy rain, like in monsoon or in summertime Florida, or tornado weather in midwest, isn't raincoat exterior largely coated by running water impervious to vapor and thus not "breathable????"

Personally I wear raincoats as little as possible, hope they'll keep me somewhat dry in the rain, and use breathable non-waterproof windshirts a lot.

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I would suggest either the Cabela's Gore-Tex Paclite Rainy River Parka or the Campmor Storm Sphere Parka.

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=39285255

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0026939922398a

Judging from my experience, both perform very well keeping me dry. They do "breathe". Do use the "vents" though-regardless how "breathable" a laminate or coating may claim to be, I always found I still manage to work up quite a bit of body moisture. The vents do help, believe me. :)

[Edited by Dave: shortened links]

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Thanks Dave! :)

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The Swiss Alpenflage Poncho is the only piece of rain gear that I use. Every one of my friends has one too, about 20 of us. They can also all snap together to make a large shelter. I also consider this one of the most important pieces of gear that I own.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/BH1500-3180-614.html

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