By Will Rietveld, Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador

A high-end air permeable Gore-Tex or eVent waterproof-breathable jacket costs $350 or more, and it’s not ultralight; the lightest one is the Montane Spektr at 8 ounces. A polyurethane laminate rain jacket costs $150-$200 and is lightweight (down to about 6 ounces) and durable but not very breathable. Propore jackets are cheap but not very durable. In this article I will describe how to make a hooded Tyvek jacket plus chaps for under ten dollars, in a few minutes using a pair of scissors.

The finished Tyvek hooded rain jacket is extra long and weighs just 5.25 ounces. The chaps weigh 2.6 ounces. You may get some comments about the white color (like “where did you park your space ship?”), but it is actually quite functional because it stays cooler compared to a dark color.

Tyvek is a spunbonded  nonwoven olefin fabric that is made up of millions of polyethylene fibers. “Disposable” Tyvek clothing”, made of type 1443R soft Tyvek is cheap, waterproof, somewhat breathable, lightweight, and highly resistant to tears and punctures. The fabric weight is about the same as silnylon (1.3 ounces per square yard).

You can use an available Tyvek lab coat as a rain jacket or windshirt, but it has snaps on the front closure and no hood, which make it less than ideal. So, the only way to get a hooded jacket with a front zipper is to purchase Tyvek coveralls and cut them off below the zipper.

The ideal Tyvek coveralls are DuPont “white disposable coveralls with hood”, style number TY127SWH. These are made of soft 1443R Tyvek without extra coatings, so it’s lighter weight and more breathable. Disposable ProShield Tyvek (and similar Tyvek from other companies) coveralls have a smooth coating on the outside, which makes it look like DriDucks fabric, and it weighs a little more. The challenge is purchasing a single coverall or two; most cleaning supply stores sell them by the case of 25. The easiest way to purchase a single coverall is from Home Depot, but they are the slightly heavier ones with a smooth outside coating.

Sizing is important; to get a jacket and chaps with long enough sleeves and legs, and enough room to layer over other clothing, you need to use coveralls that are two sizes larger than your normal size. I normally wear a size Large, so I get a 2XL Tyvek coverall. The larger size also provides extra length so the jacket and chaps overlap. If you only want to make a jacket you can go with your normal size or one size larger; note that the sleeves run a little short for a taller person.

The tailoring is so simple that anyone (including me!) can do it. Here’s the stepwise process:

1. Lay the coveralls out flat on a table, front side up.
2. Make a mark about 2 inches below the bottom of the zipper.
3. Use a pin or other sharp object to puncture the coveralls all the way through to the backside.
4. Carefully turn the coverall over and mark the exit point on the backside seam.
5. Put the coveralls on and make a mark on one side about 4-5 inches below your waist.
6. Take the coveralls off, fold them over, and mark the other side so the two sides are even.
7. Draw a smooth concave curve from the center point to side marks on both sides of the coveralls (see photo below, four places total). This will give you a dropped front and tail for the jacket, and raised sides for the chaps.
8. Use a sharp scissors to cut on the line all the way around. No hemming is needed since Tyvek does not unravel.
9. To make the chaps, cut two pieces of lightweight flat braided cord 30 inches long, then sew the middle of each cord under the folded top edge of each leg of the chaps.

After making marks on the coverall for the bottom and sides as described above, draw a smooth line and cut on the line with scissors. This yields a tall jacket and a pair of chaps. My wife added tie cords at the top of the chaps to tie them to belt loops, and a couple of pleats on the backside to make them fit better.

Note that since the front zipper does not separate at the bottom, the rain jacket needs to be put on as a pullover. To make the garments completely waterproof, coat the seams with Roo Glue or diluted silicone. If you wish, you can add a storm flap over the front zipper.

My Tyvek rain jacket made from the Home Depot Tyvek coveralls weighs 4.25 ounces, and the chaps weigh 2.6 ounces. A rain jacket made from the lightest soft Tyvek (style number TY127SWH) in size XL weighs 3.15 ounces. Although you get a pair of chaps from this project, my personal preference is to purchase a pair of Tyvek pants, which I will discuss in a future blog article. You can also wear very lightweight nylon rain pants, like the new Montbell Versalite Pant which weighs only 4 ounces.

You are probably wondering how waterproof and how breathable a Tyvek rainsuit is. I wore the jacket in the shower at home with 30 pounds of water pressure and it only leaked a little through the front zipper. As far as breathability, check out the following graph; I just happen to have that data from a previous project on waterproof-breathable jackets.

Comparative jacket breathability in terms of accumulated humidity inside the jacket during a sustained 2.25 mile steady uphill hike and reverse downhill hike. Jackets were completely zipped up throughout the hike. Note that the Tyvek jacket and DriDucks jacket perform about the same; they both reach 100% humidity inside after about 35 minutes and stay steamed up. The lightweight Marmot Essence Jacket (polyurethane laminate) performed slightly better, about the same as a traditional Gore-Tex jacket (Montbell Thunderhead Jacket). The more breathable eVent Montane Spektr Smock (lowest curve) was clearly more breathable than all of the other jackets.

Overall, a Tyvek rain jacket is very easy to make, very inexpensive, and very durable. Its breathability is about the same as DriDucks, and not that different from Gore-Tex, which is actually not very breathable. The white color actually makes a lot of sense since it will be cooler to wear in the summertime. Happy hiking!

To COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, click on the title and add your wisdom at the bottom of the article.

Since I prefer to eat vegan and hike hard, I’ve been looking for a way to get a little extra protein into my dinners, to help muscle recovery.  What better way than to have a protein bar for dessert?  So I bought a bunch of protein bars from a variety of sources, and tasted them over the last few months.  The main parameters I was interested in were:

1. Caloric Efficiency – since I don’t want to carry any more food weight than necessary.
2. Protein Density – since the goal is to get some extra protein, what percentage of the bar weight is protein?
3. Taste – at the end of a hard day, it has to taste good.

This was a completely unscientific test, and reflects my personal taste, but you are welcome to check out the spreadsheet. A couple of observations:

• The bars I found tastier tended to have a lower % protein
• The bars that were generally more ‘wholesome’ tended to have a lower % protein
• Eating peanuts (or almonds) does a pretty good job in terms of extra protein

Those of you that eat protein bars, do you have a favorite I’ve missed?  Any other supplemental protein strategies not involving animal products?

Steve Burgess helped us put together this poetic and informative short video on our trek poles.  He covers the basics of selection, care and use.  He adds his own flare and we are most grateful for his efforts.  He is an expert on the Wonderland Trail and an innovator of ultralight gear.  If you want to see more, check out his blog.

The most amazing part of this video, is that he had neck surgery just one week before!!  Now this is what  we call a dedicated DIYer.  Thanks Don!  Read more of his post here…

Post by Will Rietveld, Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador

The biggest wear problem I have with hiking shoes and boots is seam failure.

I like to bushwhack and explore, and things like sliderock are hard on boots, especially any exposed seams in the lateral (outside) metatarsal head region. That region is subjected to heavy abrasion, which wears through the stitching, causing the seam to open. The first photo shows what I mean.

Unfortunately, shoes and boots with seams in that region are fairly common. My first piece of advice is to avoid purchasing footwear that has exposed seams on the sides of the shoe or boot. An example is shown in the next photo.

However, we purchase footwear based on fit, support, and traction (mainly fit), so it’s not always possible to find the ideal shoe or boot without exposed outside seams. In that case you can greatly extend the life of hiking footwear by coating the stitching in the exposed area with McNett SeamGrip or FreeSole, which is available in most outdoor stores.

To COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, click on the title and add your wisdom at the bottom of the article. Thanks!!

From JJ Mathes Post from JERMMs Outside:

I spent a weekend with four traditional backpackers in the woods of North Georgia. I planned for this trip to be an outdoor classroom, no PowerPoint, no whiteboards, no charts, but all hands on. I asked everyone to bring everything they thought they would need and want to be comfortable and learn techniques to lighten their pack weights. Read more…

Post by Will Rietveld, Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador

What you use for a groundsheet under your shelter or under your sleeping bag depends on the ground surface.

If the ground is fairly smooth and you use a groundsheet mainly to keep your gear clean, the Gossamer Gear Polycryo Ground Cloth is ideal because its very tough and very lightweight. No need to look any further.

For a bomber groundsheet, many hikers use conventional Tyvek housewrap, and there are places on the Web where you can purchase it piecemeal. It’s very durable, and will soften with a few trips through the wash machine, but it’s a bit on the heavy side.

A better option is Type 1443R Tyvek, which is a lighter, softer version used in Tyvek clothing. It’s inexpensive, weighs about the same as silnylon, and its waterproof like other Tyvek. It costs about $3.50 a yard (60 inches wide) at stores that sell kite-making supplies, like Into The Wind. Since it’s breathable, some people argue that it’s not waterproof, but I have yet to have a problem with water passing through it, even when camping on wet ground.

The breathability of this Tyvek makes it usable beyond groundsheets. An inexpensive Tyvek bivy works wonderfully for sleeping on the ground under the stars or inside a floorless shelter, and it adds a few degrees of warmth to your sleeping system. It’s very simple to construct a simple bivy by folding a sheet over lengthwise, sewing one end and one side, then turning it inside out. This yields a bivy with a 60-inch girth, which is a bit on the slender side. For a roomier bivy, especially if you put your sleeping pad inside the bivy, you will need to add a strip of Tyvek to the open side.  Adding a 7 inch strip yields a 63-inch girth (the formula is to add 2 inches for each inch of girth you want to add, plus a 1 inch for seam allowances). Type 1443R Tyvek is very easy to sew, or you can tape it with filament or ripstop tape. If you want to seal the seams, use Roo Glue.

It’s no secret, I like fire and I’m always interested in hearing about, trying and using new types of fire starter & tinder, new to me anyway.  Not long ago my friend KP gave me a baggie filled with cotton pads coated with wax that resembled wafers. KP makes and uses them for fire starter or tinder. I had to try them out and was very impressed with the simplicity and effectiveness of these wafers. The wafers can be used in whole, broken in half or quarters depending on the quality of kindling and how dry it is, the larger the piece the longer the burn time and better for damp kindling.  Read more…

From JERRM’S outside:  Blog fueled by JJ Mathes’ genius on the outdoors: tips, stories and lore

I do a lot of off-trail hiking, and I like to wear lightweight liner gloves for summer handwear. However, these two things are not very compatible – I frequently wear holes in the fingers of my liners from grabbing branches and rocks, which gets me in trouble with my wife (who repairs them for me, bless her heart). The solution I found is Gorilla Grip gloves (http://gorillagripgloves.com/), which are super-durable and weigh just 1 ounce per pair in size XL. They are similar to the nitrile-coated gardening gloves you can get at hardware stores, but much better. Besides being lighter, they have a nicer coating that is more compatible with backpacking and camping, they’re fairly warm, and they breathe very well. I got mine at Home Depot for US$5, which is cheap for backpacking gear.

On backpacking trips, I’m amazed with their grip on rocks, their durability, and comfort over a fairly broad temperature range. They’re great for scrambling. No more glove liners worn through on the finger tips. This is a good example of finding off-the-shelf inexpensive gear that works great for ultralight backpacking.

Post Written by Will Rietveld

If you have an inflatable sleep pad and use a tent with a silnylon or other slick floor then you’ve probably experienced the midnight crawl. Waking up during the night only to find yourself crammed against the foot or side of your tent. You reposition your pad go back to sleep…2:37A wake up…reposition…4:19A wake up…reposition…this goes on all night. No wonder you don’t get a good nights sleep when you go backpacking, you’re up repositioning your pad a.k.a. the midnight crawl.  Read more on JJ Mathes’ blog post…