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Review: Le Bent Baselayers and Socks

Key keep-you-warm items for tourers.

By

Gavin Hess

Effective and stylish Baselayers: Le Bent.

Effective and stylish Baselayers: Le Bent.

With all the time I spend thinking about ski gear, there remain some bits that slip through the cracks. Baselayers broadly fall into that category. I’ve mostly just used what is available, cost-effective, or free. Most often, this has meant something along the lines of Patagonia Capilene Midweight bottoms, a basic lightweight T-shirt (most often…

Responses

  1. Slim

    Baselayer pockets are nice for 2 situations:
    1 for keeping things warm and secure. As long as you don’t need to acces it continuously. Things like spare batteries, certain foods or meds.
    2 Conversely, when it’s hot and you are only wearing your baselayer, then a pocket on the there serves the same function as any other garments pocket.
    Dig up a copy of Al and Mike’s backcountry ski book, and they actually suggest sewing pockets on to your baselayers!

    I love my PT Alpha direct pants. Very light and breathable. Soft and fuzzy for sleeping in. A nice extra leg layer for multi day trips, whether hut or tent based, that doesn’t weigh much.

  2. Robertson Pearce

    Best warm and breathable base layers I’ve used are the Beringia diomede wool. They’re basically a thicker version of the Brynje mesh ones many use (which I’ve found to work well for me as more lightweight bottoms). However here in the PNW it’s very rare to be cold enough that I need long johns for touring and am typically in long leg (down to the knee) boxers under softshell or softshell with membrane pants/bibs unless its low 20s and down. For the top I use a sun hoody basically all the time as I like a hood I can throw up to fend off wind/sun/snow, with various vests/shells/etc over top depending on temp. I’ve tried the Le Bent mentioned above and didn’t get along with it well, the arms were quite short and the cuff openings very voluminous which let wind through and didn’t stay up well if pushed up my arms. My favorite sun hoodies are made from Polartec Powerwool in the 100 wt fabric. A few “cottage” clothing companies, mostly focused around hiking, make these here. Two good ones are Mola Hoods and Farpointe Outdoor Gear.

    1. Gavin Hess

      Those Beringia layers look sweet! Hopefully they restock the bottoms before winter. I’ve also been oogling their Octa anorak – looks like a sweet active insulation piece.

      Slim – Ive been thinking of sewing up some alpha pants one of these days. Your endorsement is further encouragement.

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