By Michael Lanza
There are only three guarantees in life: death, taxes, and at some point, getting rained on when dayhiking or backpacking. As we all know, wet clothing conducts heat away from your body, making you colder. Staying as dry as possible while on the trail or in camp is key to staying warm in the backcountry when the weather turns wet—especially in temperatures below around 60° F and in wind, which swiftly chills your body. This article will help you enjoy a much more comfortable and pleasant backcountry adventure—even when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
Many hikers mistakenly assume that all one needs to do when caught hiking in the rain is don a rain jacket—and sometimes, that is all you have to do. But in mild temperatures, even a high-quality waterproof-breathable shell can cause you to overheat and sweat a lot—especially when walking uphill and carrying a pack—making you wet from the inside rather than the outside.
The key to staying as warm and dry as possible while hiking is learning the strategies for balancing your body’s heat production with the ambient weather conditions and your clothing layers.
I’ve walked through countless downpours and long days of rain over three decades of dayhiking, backpacking, and climbing from the rainforests of the North Cascades and Olympic National Park to the Wind River Range (lead photo at top of story), High Sierra, New England, the Tour du Mont Blanc, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand and many other places—formerly as the Northwest Editor of Backpacker magazine for 10 years and even longer running this blog.
After that many trail miles in miserably wet weather, you either learn some tricks for staying dry or you give this stuff up, and I couldn’t give it up.
The 10 simple tips below will help you stay dry and warm through the wettest adventures. Please share any tips of your own or your questions in the comments section at the bottom of this story; I try to respond to all comments.
Click on any photo in this story to read about that trip.
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1. Carry an Umbrella
Seems obvious, doesn’t it? So why don’t more hikers and backpackers carry one when they expect rain (as my daughter is in this photo from Italy’s Dolomite Mountains)?
A lightweight, backcountry umbrella can be very effective at keeping rain off you, as long as it’s not so windy that the umbrella keeps getting inverted or the wind snaps its arms. I recommend the Six Moon Designs Silver Shadow carbon umbrella ($45, 6.8 oz.) or another Six Moon Designs umbrella, Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Trekking Umbrella ($50, 8.5 oz.), and the Gossamer Gear Lightrek Hiking (Chrome) Umbrella ($39, 6.6 oz.). The Six Moon Designs Hands Free Umbrella Kit ($10, 0.35 oz.), allows you to attach an umbrella to a pack’s shoulder strap, keeping both hands free.
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2. Eat and Drink
People hiking in rain commonly just put their head down and keep plodding forward without thinking about hydration and nutrition needs. It’s easy to do: You may not feel hot or thirsty—until a dry mouth and other sensations of thirst hit you, typically long past you becoming dehydrated—and you just want to get where you’re headed. You don’t want to stop in the rain to get food out or treat and refill your water.
But hydration and food provide the fuel critical to the body’s ability to generate energy and heat and for all cells to function normally. Just as when hiking under a hot sun, drink frequently—every 15 minutes or so—and eat something every hour. Keep snacks that are easy to eat on the move in pockets within reach so you don’t have to stop. When hiking in a place with frequent water sources, carry a water filter bottle, like the Katadyn BeFree, that you can simply dip and drink from without having to stop, drop your pack, and pull out a filter to fill a bladder or bottle; see the water filters I recommend in this review.
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3. Ventilate Your Jacket
Waterproof-breathable rain jackets have a membrane or coating that enables some moisture on the inside to pass through to the outside, while preventing rain from penetrating inside. But most are better at keeping rain out than releasing moisture and heat from your body that builds up inside. That’s why, when hiking in rain and warm temperatures, we can overheat and get very wet from perspiration.
Some rain jackets made for hiking have zippers under the arms that allow ventilating; open them when needed and unzip the front of the jacket partly to release heat and moisture.
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4. Don’t Wear Pants
Rain pants, that is. I rarely carry rain pants backpacking, especially when the forecast calls for mild temps and little or no chance of rain. In moderate rain and warm temps, just wear quick-drying soft-shell or nylon shorts with either high or low gaiters to help keep your feet dry. (Low gaiters I like: the Kahtoola Renagaiter Mid and Low.) In cooler temps and steady rain, wear soft-shell pants (I like the Outdoor Research Ferrosi Convertible Pants)—which will eventually get wet in a hard rain, but trap heat reasonably well, keep you warm enough in mild temps, and dry quickly on your body once the rain abates.
5. … Unless You Need Pants
By the afternoon of our second straight day of steady rain and cool wind on a September backpacking trip in the rugged Bailey Range in the Olympic Mountains, my soft-shell pants had become steadily soaked and the wind was blowing hard. I realized I had slowly become hypothermic—it can come on that slowly. Only by continuing to hike at a rigorous pace did I finally warm back up again over the next hour.
In cool temps, steady wind, and persistent rain, hiking in shorts or soft-shell pants will not keep you adequately warm and dry— you need shell layers top and bottom. Have waterproof-breathable rain pants, like to can pull on over whatever bottoms you’re wearing, like the Outdoor Research Helium Rain Pant or Black Diamond Stormline Stretch Rain Pant.
When wearing rain pants with gaiters, layer the pant cuffs over the gaiters, rather than tucking pant legs inside the gaiters, so water drains over rather than inside the gaiters.
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6. Slow Down or Speed Up
Use your pace, or exertion level, to stay warm without overheating. If you’re sweating under a rain jacket on a long uphill climb, but the rain is too heavy to take off your jacket, slow down until your body’s producing enough heat to remain comfortable but reduce how much you’re perspiring; you may even actually dry out the jacket on the inside, which feels more comfortable than when it’s clammy.
Similarly, 20 or 30 minutes before reaching camp, slow your pace to where you’re warm but not perspiring. This can dry out your base layer and the inside of your jacket—and you’ll be more much comfortable and happy putting on your hiking layers the next morning if they’re dry.
Are these tips helpful? See also “7 Pro Tips For Keeping Your Backpacking Gear Dry”
and “How to Prevent Hypothermia While Hiking and Backpacking.”
Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned backpacker, you’ll learn new tricks for making all of your trips go better in my “How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips,” “A Practical Guide to Lightweight and Ultralight Backpacking,” and “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be.” With a paid subscription to The Big Outside, you can read all of those three stories for free; if you don’t have a subscription, you can download the e-guide versions of “How to Plan a Backpacking Trip—12 Expert Tips,” the lightweight and ultralight backpacking guide, and “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be.”
