Underarmor/Cold Weather "Underlayers"

[Pylon]

All of you who share a snowy and cold climate during these winter months, what have you all found as your best options for undergarments?   There's Underarmor and the endless list of other cold weather, moisture-wicking, technical shirts available from snivel gear purveyors like USCav.

For a guy like me who wears a flight suit and the "winter" green flight jacket in the winter for cockpit wear, and occasionally makes an appearance "in the field" (usually on bivouacs) -- is there any particular shirt you've found to be particularly great in multipurpose applications?   How about thermal pants?

(FYI, I tormented myself for 10 minutes over whether to include this in the uniforms or gear section.  Since it's more of a utilitarian thing for field activities, I figured I'd throw it here.  Plus, more of the snivel gear junkies will likely see it here!    ).

[SJFedor]

I have an under armor thermal set that I wear under my clothes when I go out on my motorcycle. Though it doesn't get too nasty here in TN, it still gets pretty chilly, and the wind gets pretty cold when you've got a 45 degree day at 140mph the speed limit. 

As far as uniforms go though, I have worn my thermal pants underneath my flight suit, though my upper usually stays warm enough with the winter weight NOMEX jacket.

[MIKE]

I wouldn't wear UnderArmor under a bag... or any kind of polypro snivel gear for that matter.

All I have ever used is the military weight brown polypros you can get at Sportsman's Guide.  Have had both the half-zip and mock-neck tops.  Also have a fatigue sweater for an extra layer... tends to rub my neck raw without the half-zip top though.

[Nathan]

I have an UnderArmor turtleneck shirt and pants, and wear them under BDU's when it gets chilly (KS at the coldest generally doesn't get below 0). When I have it on, I usually don't even need a coat. The only thing that I have found UnderArmor doesn't work well against is strong wind, which seems to blow right through the stuff. I've never worn a flight suit, so I don't know exactly what it feels like or anything, but I would imagine if you stay out of the vintage CAP Sopwith Camels, the UnderArmor should keep you pretty warm.

Just remember that it will keep you REALLY warm if it starts... you know... not being cold anymore... and it's kind of a pain to take off in the middle of a day...

[JayT]

The problem with wearing synthetics under the flight suit, is that they melt to your skin in the event of fire.

Debridgment is not a fun thing.

However, this may be a case of some CAPers trying to make up a safety issue that isn't really there, since in the event of a crash, the fuel tanks are located above your head in most of our crates.

[NIN]

I have an under armor thermal set that I wear under my clothes when I go out on my motorcycle. Though it doesn't get too nasty here in TN, it still gets pretty chilly, and the wind gets pretty cold when you've got a 45 degree day at 140mph the speed limit.  >:D

I have some faux UA gear (a long-sleeve "technical" shirt) that I wear under my gear when I'm exceeding the posted limit outside of the vehicle.

Honestly, I tell my folks "Hide it if you can, but if you can't, wear what you can afford under your uniform."  I also then tell them that a hooded sweatshirt sticking out under BDUs isn't exactly what I have in mind, so they should probably avoid that.

Its supposed to be 34 degrees and sunny tomorrow. The runway has been plowed, so I'm putting my stuff together.

1) Cotton long sleeve t-shirt
2) "Technical" fabric long sleeve shirt
3) Long sleeve turtleneck (may swap this for the t-shirt)
4) Long sleeve fleece pullover
5) Poly winter "runner" gloves
6) Outer "batter" gloves (my girlfriend got me some neato gloves for Xmas, I will try those, but I may stick with my tried and true method)
7) UA full-face balaclava
8) Thin fleece pants
9) Wool sox over cotton sox
10) Handwarmers shoved into the shoes
11) Handwarmers in the gloves
12) Fleece head-sock/neck gaiter (sorta fills the gap between helmet and neck, so the balaclava is not doing all the heavy lifting there)
13) Nylon & spandex jumpsuit.

I'm sorta wearing that same thing here, minus the gaiter:


I'm contemplating either my zip-up high tech boots, or my Thinsulate-lined Rockys.   They're just so darn clodhopperish for what I'm doing, though.  Grrrr. 

But the long and the short of it is that no exposed skin to preclude frostbite.  The wind chill calculators won't let me calculate the wind chill for 0F and 120mph.  Hrrmph. Wonder why?

As far as uniforms go though, I have worn my thermal pants underneath my flight suit, though my upper usually stays warm enough with the winter weight NOMEX jacket.

When I was flying, I wore the either the issue wool long-underwear top & bottom, or the 5-button sweater under my flightsuit. Oddly, I preferred NOT to wear the longjohn bottoms, usually, because my lower torso & legs didn't get that cold. 

Then it was either the CWU-45/P or the equivalent Army flight jacket on top, or the N2B "flight jacket parka".  That hood fit over my flight helmet nicely when it was *really* cold. 

Don't let anybody kid you: "hot refueling" really isn't that "hot" when its below-zero and you have to monitor open-port refueling operations.  Which is why I always preferred to work the ramp and use the long comm cord to walk about 30 ft aft where I could see both side of the the refuel operation and bask in the hot exhaust of the engines.   MMmmm, love the smell of burnt JP-4 in the morning..

[Timbo]

^ That is a really awesome picture!!

Very colorful.  I am amazed how small the pack is as well. 

[shorning]

The wind chill calculators won't let me calculate the wind chill for 0F and 120mph.  Hrrmph. Wonder why?

-31.445971182ºF

[Fireball]

I wear these under my bag when flying: http://www.xgotech.com/flame_resistant.asp

[SarDragon]

Slightly, OT, FWIW.

Regarding wind chill, most charts and calculators cut off the changes past 40-60 mph, because there isn't an appreciable change above those speeds.

More here, here, and here.

[jimmydeanno]

Here's a good windchill page with a calculator: http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/wind-chill.php

Calculator is in the bottom right of the page.

From the people who live windchill

[Stonewall]

If you're flying, it's totally different then if you're on the ground as far as under garments for warmth. 

Before adding layers underneath that you can't easily shed off in public (meaning you don't need to excuse yourself to take your drawers off), ask yourself one question:  Will you be mobile or static?

If you're in a plane or on mission base staff, you'll mostly be static; i.e. not sweating.

If you are on a ground team in very cold temperatures, it will depend if you're in a cold wet environment or a cold dry enviornment.

In my experience operating in cold temperatures on the Shenandoah Mountains in the winter while it's dry, I wouldn't even wear long underwear (bottoms), just my BDU pants.  If it got too cold while I was sitting around not moving, I'd throw on some gore-tex pants.  These can slide on over your boots, which is key. 

If you're in cold wet environment, then I'd be moving with my gore-tex pants on, keeping my legs and clothing from getting wet.  Being cold and wet is 10x worse than just being cold.

I never wore the Army issue brown poly pro stuff beause it was too thick.  If I were going to be on a fixed post I would wear the thinsulate stuff that BQM sent me.  I don't much care for underarmor but something along those lines work for general purpose.

My biggest issue is will I have to remove the under-layers when I start moving?  If so, I'd probably just be cold for a while and suck it up rather than have to spend 10 minutes unlacing my boots, getting really cold without pants on, then putting my cold BDU pants back on just to prevent overheating because I wore long underwear to keep warm at mission base.

[NIN]

I was almost too hot today with the fleece.  I actually stood around outside in my gear to "cool off" a bit.  I took the fleece off before I started packing.  I also left off the neck gaiter and the UA balaclava and the fleece collar did just fine picking up the slack.

Wasn't cold at all, really. These new thinsulate lined gloves are the shizzle bomb.  Handwarmers was overkill!