[appophylite]

My Carhartt's Heavy Jackets have never failed me yet through an Alaskan Winter. I live in Fairbanks and work outside of Deadhorse and Fairbanks hits -55 in the dead of winter and Deadhorse can hit -80 with wind chill. But no jacket is going to keep you warm without making sure to layer up below it.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Vegan? Hmm. If you're into DIY, I can send you humanely harvested cat hair.

I have a lot of it.

They leave it all over the furniture. Usually while laying on their backs and purring.

(Not unsympathetic - I'm vegetarian five or six days a week and the feline beasties are quite spoiled. But there's sure a lot of hair. Sometimes, I wonder if they violate the laws of physics in generating the amount of hair they have. Output seems to outpace input.)

 

[Currawong]

Holy crap at those Wiggy's jackets.  Serious stuff.

 

[5aces]

http://www.taigaworks.ca

Good site to view the latest cold weather gear to help you help get some ideas.
I do not care for a lot of bulk either and tend to be on the warm side,sweating easily if the gear is overdone.
Always preferred a sleeveless insulated vest too.

Lots of people go for The North Face clothing as well,I see this logo all over:

 

[music_man]

ugh. all the suggestions are down. synthetics just don't perform the same apparently. i will just have to layer the synthetics. i am thinking-underarmor/sweater/r4/gortex. i wanted all one piece but it appears it does not exist in synthetics. unless i do a columbia/northface (zizo). i don't know how warm those are.
 
uncle eric i am sure you saw me in the cat thread. i have multiple animals indoors and out(farm). the amount of fur seems sort of impossible. combing a himalayan/birman produces 3 to 5 cups of hair lol. they need to be combed twice a day to. yes, it would seem input does not equal output lol.
 
indeed i am a serious vegan. that means i won't own any down or wool products. there are some animal products i have when they cannot be avoided and i feel really bad about that. i certainly will not ingest any!

 

[music_man]

actually something just dawned on me duh. i had a columbia bugaboo that was mostly warm enough and sort of one piece. problem is it soaked through. i think i will look at their better jackets. north face looks promising too. it looks like there is not a single piece synthetic jacket that is super warm. most of those technical jackets are meant for low weight above all else. fine when doing heavy activity though.
 
thank you for the interest in this thread guys.

 

[Currawong]

The Wiggy's site is interesting as they talk about the waterproof abilities of some of their synthetic and cotton jackets.
 
IMO not using wool is going a bit far, as it doesn't require the animal dying. Personally I try and avoid leather though, except in shoes that I never intend to through out for the rest of my life.

 

[music_man]

if you wish, read about what is done in wool production on peta's website. quite frankly mistreating a live animal is even worse than killing them "imo". we don't need a discussion on that. it is just my personal feeling everyone is entitled to their own. i am not preaching anything to anyone. i just live my own life how i wish.
 
as with your shoes, i own a leather belt and wallet. the only way i justified this is that they are of the quality that generations beyond me will have them.
 
i did not see syntehtic on wiggy. i will look again. that stuff looks like the real deal. nonetheless i am sure the down is warmer. i am just really surprised i do not find the fission sv warmer. some people said it it good with a sweatshirt to -50f. i can't use it like that below like +15f. i have almost no fat though maybe that is why. all i eat is raw salad. i saw some guys were like 6'2" 240lbs. i am just guessing those guys are naturally better at cold weather. it is just stupid do be concentrating on work with my teeth chattering.
 
i have so many really high quality layers. i figure i am just going to have to put them to use already instead of freezing. i am going to recheck wiggy though. i'd  prefer one piece. or a "zizo". wiggy looks way more hardcore than northface/columbia. oh, i think there is so called human wool but i don't know anything about it. what is done is done, i am not crazy. i just don't like to support it personally.
 
edit: holy smokes! wiggy is synthetic! i don't know why i thought it was down. thanks guys! this is all taken care of now. when i finish this msg. i will order one! good to -100f that should do the trick in -10f lol. i know you are thinking it will be too warm but i doubt it. i am naturally very cold. i use the heat in my car when it is 75 out! ok, so i am weird but this is perfect i think. i think my whole problem is i was always buyig technical outerware for working. that stuff is made for aerobic activity to keep warm. the wiggy is apparently made for people that work in sub-arctic temps. not ice climbing. you guys never fail with a solution to anything. thanks.

 

[Pudu]

Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man and a down jacket on top?

Said poster is a vegan apparently...

That's just a name, it's not made from real monkey, silly.


Not sure how much man goes into it though.



But I concur with what has been said above. After growing up in the middle of Saskatchewan - if you don't have a decent base layer, the warmest jacket in the world will not work properly. Even astronauts have a good base layer, and their jackets seal really well as I understand it.

 

[music_man]

most animals are fair game but apparently not monkeys lol. anyways i did not find that jacket so warm. it is standard ski stuff. i rethought the wiggy. it is mostly in the teens here. after talking to wiggy they told me i will be way too hot in that. then i talked to my brother. he said i am not one known as lazy so what is the issue with layering? quite frankly i am sure under armour/t-shirt/r4/gortex shell is plenty warm for here. my mistake was to just wear the r4 with a t-shirt all last winter. that by itself is really only good down to 30. however the big thing it does is stop wind. so the joke is everything i need is already in my closet and then some. i still have zizo jackets if i am just running to the filling station or whatever. the wiggy looks super neat but overheated is worse than too cold so i am told. ahh, sorry i did a complete 360 on this. you guys did help plenty though. i just had one question: is it ok to wear a cotton t-shirt as a layer or does it have to be polypro? i am just doing farm work not ice climbing. really most of the other farmers just wear a cotton sweat shirt and a carhartt. they are much more burly than i admittedly though.

 

[Pudu]

It really depends on your heat output. If you are working hard enough to work up a sweat cotton is no-go. Any water vapour or sweat will be absorbed by the cotton and quickly cool you down.

Doesn't have to be polypro though. Lighter weight (and cheap) synthetics are fine as base layer. Anything that lets water vapour pass to the surface is fine.

Also Gore-tex will make you wet if your are putting out any kind of heat (or even if you aren't, after a length of time). Better is something that cuts wind but is breathable. Gore-tex is fine for active precipitation, but not brilliant for general activity.

 

[Currawong]

music_man: You might also research "warm foods". I knew a lady here who was wearing sweaters in Summer, but found information about changing her diet to make her body warmer and doesn't need to any longer. It may be tricky as a vegan but I think it may be do-able.

 

[music_man]

thanks guys. i solved this issue albeit in far from the one piece i wished for. i went nike dri-fit t-shirt>under armour cold gear hoodie>patagonia r4>patagonia rainshadow. i asked at the grocery store if i could stand in the freezer for a while lol. they obliged with some strange looks. well, it was like it was 80 in there. which is fine because i like it very warm. in the summer i put the a/c on 84. the warm foods sounds interesting because i am always cold. i am sure it is directly related to eating nothing but raw veggies in fact. i just feel good about what i eat though. other than being cold my doctor says my health is "athletic" at every years checkup. so the jacket issue is solved. anyways quite frankly 4 layers is a lot more versatile than a $400-$600 parka. since you can have exactly the level of warmth you require at any given moment. if i heated up in a heavy parka and that is all i had i'd be out of luck. i just had to get the right layers. as i said, last year i wore a cotton t-shirt and the r4. that was not nearly warm enough for me. i doubled the layers but this is not even nearly as bulky as that wiggy parka looks. rather svelte actually. plus it allows me full freedom of movement. it was honestly due to a number of posts in this thread that lead me to this decision. even though there were several different suggestions. layering won out after all. which i think is what most serious outdoorsman do anyways.

 

[Pudu]

thanks guys. i solved this issue albeit in far from the one piece i wished for. i went nike dri-fit t-shirt>under armour cold gear hoodie>patagonia r4>patagonia rainshadow. i asked at the grocery store if i could stand in the freezer for a while lol. they obliged with some strange looks. well, it was like it was 80 in there. which is fine because i like it very warm. in the summer i put the a/c on 84. the warm foods sounds interesting because i am always cold. i am sure it is directly related to eating nothing but raw veggies in fact. i just feel good about what i eat though. other than being cold my doctor says my health is "athletic" at every years checkup. so the jacket issue is solved. anyways quite frankly 4 layers is a lot more versatile than a $400-$600 parka. since you can have exactly the level of warmth you require at any given moment. if i heated up in a heavy parka and that is all i had i'd be out of luck. i just had to get the right layers. as i said, last year i wore a cotton t-shirt and the r4. that was not nearly warm enough for me. i doubled the layers but this is not even nearly as bulky as that wiggy parka looks. rather svelte actually. plus it allows me full freedom of movement. it was honestly due to a number of posts in this thread that lead me to this decision. even though there were several different suggestions. layering won out after all. which i think is what most serious outdoorsman do anyways.

I would bet it was the cotton t-shirt that caused most of your problems. I pull my kids to school on a sled in the winter (2km). It gets the blood flowing and I'm sweating part way through. If I wear a cotton base layer, I'm freezing on the way home. With a synthetic base layer, I frequently end up wearing just an R2 and with nothing over top - this good down to about -10 C. Gore-tex over top kills me too even at -20C. I have a really nice Arcteryx shell and never wear it. Instead I use a cheap little wind shell that I wear over the R2 or a down sweater when it gets really cold.

The big problem now is what do you get to replace wool socks?

 

[music_man]

i think thorlo synthetic socks are superior anyways. i am miffed i got all this stuff sitting in the closet. if it was the darn cotton t-shirt. according to what you are saying a r4 with a synthetic t-shirt should have been all i needed and them some. a r2 down to -10c? i am amazed. it must be my sweat freezing then. btw, the rainshadow is probably the most breathable shell there is. i don't think it would make one sweat unless they were running a marathon in it. 3 layer gortex is horrible. not only does it hardly breath but it is as stiff as a cardboard box. i think like many other companies gore technology has been surpassed by others already. yet gore is still the most expensive. the only time i'd use goretex is if i was worrying about ripping  the fabric. that, goretex is good at. very sturdy but little else these days. imo of course. well i think patagonia makes great stuff and they have a lifetime no fault warranty. that is unheard of really. i am not a big fan of tnf or columbia though. really just hyped casual wear for the most part. if i can put on a polypro tshirt and the r4 i will be elated. everything i had on in the freezer felt like it was august in there. so i am guessing you are correct. i wish i had known this before.