Trusting your Gut
By Gary Elnan
You may wonder about the title. I did. But I trusted my gut.
This article is about the perennial quandary of how to stay comfortable while engaging in winter activities which often start out with me feeling a bit cold, but soon leave me quite warm, then sweaty, then clammy, then hot, then with the inevitable stopping (to talk, figure out my route, take a drink, or sometimes just transition to an easy downhill section), I am chilled and clammy. I didn’t trust my gut.
You may wonder how my gut is supposed to keep me comfortable while skiing or snowshoeing. Great question (darn – where was I going with this?). My gut told me I should never write a CONC newsletter article at 1:14am after only a few hours of sleep. I didn’t pay attention.
Well, I did trust my gut last autumn when “a local outdoor store” was having their autumn sale. This is in no way a plug for that “local outdoor store” – it is just where I discovered these articles of clothing that are now near and dear to my heart. What are they, you may ask? Why are they so expensive? Why are they so thin and yet so expensive? Am I a fool (better not to answer that question – of course – yes)? But I did trust my gut!
I am talking about wool, of course. Not just run of the mill, heavy wool articles of outerwear. Super thin (almost transparent) yet 100% Merino wool inner layers. Quite stylish in bright (but masculine – I am a guy for Pete’s sake) colors. What am I thinking? These are inner layers. Who will see them? Do I want anyone to see them? It is not like ski or snowshoe outings are some Bend pickup activity for us older citizens. They aren’t, are they??? Maybe I have this entirely wrong. Sorry for the digression. But remember, I am a guy and oh-so-easily distracted. And prone to Mansplaining (which I was not so gently) reminded of just a couple of days ago. And why am I spending upwards of $60 for a tissue-thin inner layer? Because I did trust my gut. (Men have a special relationship with their gut! I am sure you have noticed.)
But it didn’t stop there. I purchased 2 of them. But, oh the beautiful rust and orange colors (that most likely no one but me will ever see). In my defense, I had purchased the exact same thing a season earlier and it got holes quite quickly since I used it as an outer layer when doing trail work. Remember, paper thin!!! Oh well, my gut just likes to spend away my hard-earned retirement SS check. Serious doubts about my gut now. Why do guys trust their guts anyway?
If I was going to fork over that much cash, I needed another layer to protect my tissue-thin merino wool inner layer. So, I purchased a slightly thicker 100% merino wool layer to protect my stylish inner layer. This had enough heft and thickness (actually – just a bit) to do the job. But it worked well over my inner layer. Not too bulky. Also not cheap. You know the drill by now. Men don’t have brains – they have guts. Sometimes, substantial. But I digress.
I normally wear a much less expensive synthetic as my most inner layer next to my skin. It holds up to the (required) frequent washings. And it too will protect my expensive, inner wool layer that is now my 2nd layer but 1st wool layer. With my 3rd layer, also an expensive wool layer protecting my stylish inner wool layer. You have this right. My gut has replaced my brain entirely.
But you may ask, when folks say trust your gut, are they not referring to your digestive system gut? With the trillions of beneficial bacteria that help one digest their food and protect us from nasty other species of gut bacteria. And send subliminal messages to our brain, actually quite highly influential. I read an interesting book last spring, “I Contain Multitudes” by Ed Yong. Fascinating!!! Of course, it talked a lot about your body’s microbes. Your gut is home to many of them. Let’s say at least a few trillion. No wonder I am spending hundreds of dollars on a few clothing layers that only weigh 1.5 lbs. All I can say is do not enter a recreational equipment store with your gut in charge.
I hope that you are enjoying this. Quite embarrassing, to be truthful. Do I have to put my name attached to this? Could it just be “by Anonymous”?
So now I am wearing a couple of hundred dollars of inner wear, and I haven’t even put on any warm outer layers yet. I need some sort of jacket. I guess I could just look at GearFix for something used as a jacket. They have reasonable 2nd-hand clothing. I am eating beans and rice for the next month. Take that, gut!!!
But wait! One never goes out in our mountain winters without some windproof and rainproof (snowproof – is that even a word?!) outermost layer. Usually, I have to start with that on too. Three inner layers costing hundreds of dollars but weighing 1.5 lbs will not keep me warm to start. Add a jacket and windproof layer and now you have this right: Five Layers!!!!
Please visualize this. I ski or snowshoe for 5 minutes, get warm fast, and off comes the outer windproof layer. Too warm. I thought this was supposed to be effective and help me stay warm. (And be stylish?) What the heck? I blame my gut. Trust is long, long gone.
Why is this article even in the CONC Newsletter? Of course, I trusted my gut. Well, to be truthful, I was an engineer for my entire professional life. I do have some inkling about how human heat transfer works. And years of practical experience (including plenty of doing it less than optimally – shall we say) with skiing.
With vigorous exercise (skiing uphill fits the bill), the body’s heat output can increase by 10 times compared to its resting rate. This massive heat generation is so effective that it can easily outweigh the heat loss to the cold winter air, protecting the body’s core temperature. This explains what happens in the first 5-15 minutes of winter activity. To be accurate, if you are skiing and skiing downhill at the start, it could take a lot longer before you get to this point. And if you are fast (or it is windy), same thing. But I seldom only ski downhill. It is almost always a loop back to where the car is parked. There are uphill and downhill sections almost always. After the first uphill, I warm up quickly. It is super wise (imperative if you want to stay dryer and not get sweaty in your innermost clothing layers) to not wait, stop for a few minutes, take off that outermost (thin and light windproof) layer and stow it in my pack. And chat a bit with your friends. Okay, stop for at least 10 minutes. To recap, get cold while putting on skis and chatting with your friends. Ski for 5-15 minutes, stop, take off a layer. Eventually continue skiing before you wind up getting cold again. Maybe stop again to unzip that jacket to let the water vapor (sounds much nicer than evaporated sweat) escape. Stay dry!!!! Warm but sweaty is just no fun and will eventually make you cold. Stop again to eat something and chat with friends again. Put layers back on. Repeat for the return trip. My typical ski now includes 4-6 stops to adjust (add, remove, unzip, zip up layers). And don’t wait! Do it sooner and your whole outing will become warmer and drier.
I did discover (what to me and my gut) are a great system of clothing to wear when skiing or snowshoeing. Three inner layers, 2 of thin merino wool. Very light. Not bulky. Not inexpensive either. Just amazing with their unbelievable performance to keep me neither too warm nor too cold with the extreme changes your clothing must accommodate doing these kinds of activities while also being fairly easy to stay dry. I wash the synthetic layer after every winter trip. I only wash the wool inner layers after every 2-5 trips. The best advice I ever received from my gut.
That’s it. Hopefully, the weak attempt at humor got you to read the rest of the analytical narrative (mansplaining?!). It is just my own experience.
What can I say, I trusted my gut!
