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I’ve never done winter camping/hiking before despite living in Colorado, so I’ve never given much thought to my layering system since I’m usually in the city where a regular shirt and coat is good enough. Im finally biting the bullet and doing it this winter, splurged some money on a good 4 season tent and near-zero sleeping bag.
I’m probably overthinking this, but if I’m going to do any 9-below hikes/camping this winter, does the following layering system sound okay?
Outermost: Wind/waterproof shell
Midlayer: down jacket
Base later: Merino wool
My biggest concern is that I sweat a lot when moving/hiking and am worried that my sweat would dampen the down jacket and render it useless. Would adding a fourth fleece later in between the down and wool help at all? Should I just buy a synthetic for active parts and swap to the down when I’m ready to hunker down for the night? And how roomy should the jacket be, should it be barely enough for the layer(s) underneath to fit or can I get away with having more room? In particular I tried on a medium and large down jacket from Patagonia, the medium is about right width wise for one layer underneath but doesn’t quite reach my waist when standing, while the large is pretty good length wise but there’s some sizeable dead air in between it and the base layer(s).
