mdavis
New member
There have been a lot of advances in hiking gear in the past couple of years. I was wondering what people thought of Soft Shell and when to use it. It seems like in the old days we used totally waterproof materials and tried to keep from getting wet in the first place. However my philosophy seemed to change on a backpack in the Adirondacks when it was absolutely impossible to stay dry. We were wading through waist deep water (flooded streams) in late October with huge rainfall and the waterproofs basically turned into a wet suit. Actually they held the water in and seemed to make things worse. I've recently gotten into wearing soft shell like the Arcteryx Gamma and the Cloudveil Switchback. These materials seem to let the water in and out easily. They dry quickly and I find I'm more comfortable even when they're completely soaked.
I was wondering what other people thought. Seems like there is no such thing as waterproof on incredibly wet days. Is the soft shell material actually more useful than the so called waterproof stuff like Goretex?
Thanks
I was wondering what other people thought. Seems like there is no such thing as waterproof on incredibly wet days. Is the soft shell material actually more useful than the so called waterproof stuff like Goretex?
Thanks