America’s Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures
By Michael Lanza
There’s one thing we can confidently say about the clothing layers we use in winter: We get our money’s worth out of them. While a rain shell or puffy jacket may rarely come out of our pack on a summer hike or climb, we almost invariably wear every article of clothing we carry when Nordic, downhill, or backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, trail running, or climbing in winter. That’s money spent wisely to make us more comfortable and safer.
Hooded, Breathable Insulated Jacket
Black Diamond First Light Stretch Hoody
$349, 14 oz./397g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
blackdiamondequipment.com
Campsite temperatures below freezing in Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness in October and around 40° F in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains in August proved the warmth of BD’s First Light Stretch Hoody. But this jacket’s versatility goes well beyond warmth, owing to synthetic stretch insulation that’s breathable, packable, and warm for its weight, and traps heat even when wet—making it potentially the only insulated jacket you need for a variety of activities year-round.
Hooded Fleece Jacket
Beyond Clothing Alpha Aura Jacket
$180, 12 oz./340g (men’s medium)
beyondclothing.com
On days of resort and backcountry skiing ranging from relatively mild winter temperatures just below freezing to a frigid day ski touring that dropped to 10° F by the time I finished, Beyond Clothing’s hooded Alpha Aura Jacket demonstrated its versatility as a supremely breathable middle and outer layer for cool- to cold-weather activities year-round, with unique design features that improve its weather protection and durability under a backpack.
Hooded Fleece Jacket
Himali Limitless Grid Fleece Hoodie
$180, 9.2 oz./261g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL
himali.com
The evolution of fleece has traced an arc toward efficiency and versatility that now seems to be reaching its apex in lightweight fleece hoodies, perfectly exemplified by Himali’s Limitless Grid Fleece Hoodie. The breadth of activities, conditions, and environments where I’ve worn it speak to my point, including a six-day September hike through the Wind River Range, where I wore it on cool mornings on the trail and in my bag every night, with lows from the high 30s Fahrenheit to freezing; and four October adventures: a four-day backpacking trip with temps often in the 30s and 40s and plenty of cold wind, mostly on the Uinta Highline Trail in Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness; a 13-hour, four-summit dayhike in Utah’s Wasatch Range; backpacking in southern Utah’s Escalante region; and a raw, rainy hike in southern New Hampshire; plus a local trail run in the chilly, fading daylight of a November afternoon.
Hybrid Insulated Jacket
Arc’teryx Cerium Hoody
$400, 12 oz./340g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXXL, women’s XXS-XXL
rei.com
Who expected the overnight temp would drop nearly to freezing and the wind would blow 30 mph through our campsite on our first morning in southern Arizona’s Aravaipa Canyon… in April? Well, I didn’t when I reserved that permit months earlier—but we all did when we saw the forecast immediately before the trip. So I packed my new Cerium Hoody and it proved the perfect antidote to unseasonably cold mornings.