best rain jacket

Breathable is the key...sweat can get out from inside while keeping rain out from outside...yeah, something like that!
Wicking clothing too. You will sweat, need to keep the moisture moving away from your skin, and out through the raingear, otherwise you'll be dry from the rain but soaked from sweat.
 
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  • #4
Thanks for the link to the frog gear....seems like pretty good stuff yet not too expensive. And Bermy thanks for the reminder about a shirt that wicks. Don't think I have one of those. I got some shoppin' to do.
 
If a rain jacket it all you think you need, either you are not really going to be working in rain, or you are not experienced in what working in the rain really means. Rain pants, or much better, bibs are an absolute must as well.

In all my many years in the field, much of it in rainy weather per normal here in the PNWet, I have never found a single bit of "breathable" raingear that was worth a bucket of warm piss. You can spend several hundreds of dollars, and it may well work barely "sort of" if you're not doing much physically, for a year or 2 at most before the magical pores get fouled with body oils and dirt and it leaks under any really wet conditions...but even brand new, if you are working hard, it still will sweat from condensed body heat on the inside enough to make it very little different from having no rain gear on at all.

Less expensive "breathable" options are only somewhat less money wasted, as I have found from many a dollar expended in wishful trials.

So here is my hard learned advice. Buy the best full on waterproof stuff you can afford...offshore fishing gear like Helly Hansen is worth a look. I did better most times with lesser priced heavy waterproof lined nylon bib and coat sets, just because the likelihood of getting damage from abrasion and rips was high in my work in the brush, so a couple or maybe three years was full life expectancy.

Wear synthetic undergarments...nylon, polyester, fleece. Avoid cotton undergarments like the plague. If it is really wet out and you have hard physical demands, take a change of ALL undergarments (not just underwear, I mean everything, all layers) to work and swap out to the dry clothes during lunch break.

Give up the dream of staying really dry. You will not. You can only mitigate the wetness to some small degree.
 
Burn, do you know where they sell a full length raincoat? Like a duster/whatnot? Down past the knee?

All I can find are cheapos. I want top of the line... pure waterproof.
 
I will 2nd Burnhams comments on the rain gear. Think of it more as warm gear, than rain gear. The goal is to stay warm, not dry.

Hurricane was the brand of choice up here.
 
Burnham, I'm glad you posted that like you did. I own oil skin, gore-tex, frogtogs and and the heavy Helly Hansen style bibs with coat and nothing ever seems to keep me dry when I am actually working. There seems to be certain things in life that a person will continue to try to find what works best. It's cheaper to just be satisfied with what works, if that makes sense.
 
A challenge for people is a "cold start". If you're warm and dry when you start work, you're going to be wet from sweat, too soon.

Strip down, then raingear up. Keep moving. Try not to get hot enough to sweat. Thermoregulate with gloves/ no gloves, hat/ no hat, zipped up/ unzipped.

In his later years Paul Petzoldt, a famous mountaineer said, "Let your breath determine your pace, not your pace determine your breath". He would out climb young people well into his years.

He climbed the Grand Teton at 16 (youngest at that time), in cowboy boots and denim jeans. "If hypothermia had been in the dictionary, we would have had it".

Keeping your temperature and dryness/ wetness in check can help.


If you're going to bust ass, warm the truck cab up 10 minutes before you're going to leave. You're going to be sweaty.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Petzoldt
 
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  • #19
If a rain jacket it all you think you need, either you are not really going to be working in rain, or you are not experienced in what working in the rain really means. Rain pants, or much better, bibs are an absolute must as well.

In all my many years in the field, much of it in rainy weather per normal here in the PNWet, I have never found a single bit of "breathable" raingear that was worth a bucket of warm piss. You can spend several hundreds of dollars, and it may well work barely "sort of" if you're not doing much physically, for a year or 2 at most before the magical pores get fouled with body oils and dirt and it leaks under any really wet conditions...but even brand new, if you are working hard, it still will sweat from condensed body heat on the inside enough to make it very little different from having no rain gear on at all.

Less expensive "breathable" options are only less money wasted, as I have found from many a dollar expended in wishful trials.

So here is my hard learned advice. Buy the best full on waterproof stuff you can afford...offshore fishing gear like Helly Hansen is worth a look. I did better most times with lesser priced heavy waterproof lined nylon bib and coat sets, just because the likelihood of getting damage from abrasion and rips was high in my work in the brush, so a couple or maybe three years was full life expectancy.

Wear synthetic undergarments...nylon, polyester, fleece. Avoid cotton undergarments like the plague. If it is really wet out and you have hard physical demands, take a change of ALL undergarments (not just underwear, I mean everything, all layers) to work and swap out to the dry clothes during lunch break.

Give up the dream of staying really dry. You will not. You can only mitigate the wetness to some small degree.

This is great stuff right here, thanks Burnham. I'm glad I haven't bought anything yet, as it appears nothing is the silver bullet to keep you dry and comfortable. Turns out today (my first day as a groundie) was a beautiful, clear sky day. I was in a T shirt by 10am. We did a removal, and man this is pretty hard work, and dangerous. There was this one kid, couldn't have been more than a buck fifty, picking up huge chunks and throwing them like it was nothing.

SeanKroll - fascinating info on Paul Petzoldt....love it.
 
You can make your own tincolth with an old carrhart and parifin wax or beeswax. I've never done it, but i have been meaning to for awhile. I'm sure it's not as nice as Filson stuff, but from everything I've read, it's how it was done for years on old sailing vessels
 
Well at least I got the undergarments part right! My experience with wet is mainly on the sea...and on a moped in thunderstorms. I don't work in the rain if I can help it.
 
Who would? Rain sucks. But if you live pnw you work in the rain or you starve.

Best of luck with the new position Heg.
 
How do you guys out there handle the mud? That's the worst part of the rain, the fact the ground is so soft that even walking tears it up.
 
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