I like saying that, “The” Base Layer, like there’s only one.  Plus it feels like a subtle way to make fun of The North Face.

I learned about wicking many years ago, when I lived in San Francisco, and spent half my life on a bike.  Despite my incredulity, I decided to try a short-sleeved wool tee-shirt.  It was scratchy, but it pulled the sweat away from my skin like a greedy sponge, so that after I overheated climbing a hill, I wouldn’t freeze in my sweat and the wind.  And it was good.

These days, doing backcountry hiking in the mountain snow, cycling at northern latitudes, kayaking, etc, and fighting the start, stop, start syndrome ( working up a sweat, and then stopping, can be uncomfortable ) has sent me back to give wool another shot.  This time, I tried merino wool.

I went with an Arc’teryx top and bottom, along with a neck gaiter and glove liners, so that when I head out into the wild, my body is covered in wool.  This is comfortable under the goretex hard shell I wear, as long as I’m doing some amount of exercise, or have been recently.  I’ll get a little cold dressed this way if I bike by the Sound at night sometimes – the breeze coming off the 40 degree sea water chills to the bone.  Otherwise, however, this is an excellent setup.

Because of wool’s temperature regulation, slight water resistance, and ability to stay warm while wet, if there’s no wind, I’ll take short walks ( up to an hour and a few miles ) with no jacket.  It’s been about 40 degrees lately in the evenings, and this is very comfortable, even in the rain.

Best of all, wool doesn’t stink.  I’ve had mine for a month, worn it every day while exercising and once a week to the office, and have yet to wash it.

A base layer is the most important layer you’ll wear, as it sits immediately next to your skin, keeping you dry.  My recent experience has shown this to be true in spades.  If you’re just getting into winter outdoor sports, I can’t recommend merino enough as a first base layer.  Skip past the synthetics.

I was going to order a second shirt, as I sweat more from my torso than legs, and found this.  If you’re in the market for the top to a base layer, BackCountry.com has a long sleeve merino tee on sale for $40, which is a tempting enough price that I just ordered one.  The shirt goes down to almost half this for ladies;  just the shirt was $99 from Arc’teryx.  I haven’t received mine yet, but assume that since it’s made from the same grade of the same fabric, so I’m assuming this is a deal.

Merino Wool - Base Layer Top