Head gear weight vs clothing weight.

[JAK]

How inaccurate yet useful are sayings like "60% of your heat loss is through your head"?
What is the best strategy for balancing body clothing weight vs head clothing weight?

Bear in mind that you don't need to optimize your clothing for your average hiking conditions on a given trip, so you don't need to wear a hat just so you can take a sweater off and put it in your pack.

So how do you choose your head and neck gear for the most extreme conditions you might encounter during your planned hike, while at the same time have something comfortable and practical for thermal regulation and keeping the rain and sun and wind off when neccessary duiring more average conditions?

[Alligator]

Wind block hat with ear flaps and a neck gaiter. Also fleece gloves. I keep a balaclava in the pack. Down to fairly cold conditions I just wear a polypro long sleeve. If very windy or cold, a gore-tex shell. It has a hood, pit zips, and chest zips, although the chest zips do very little. I don't tend to get cold hiking, one might say a "warm"" hiker.

I keep my core and legs warm enough to not sweat at a regular pace. Then hat, gloves, gaiter, shell get added as needed.

[hopefulhiker]

I had a fleece cap with ear flaps. a fleece beanie, along with a hood for the frog toggs.

[hammock engineer]

I windproof fleece hat and a face shield that covered my neck does a good job for me in the cold. Add in my rain jackethood and that will get me through any conditions I hike in. If that does't work I have no business hiking.

[take-a-knee]

How inaccurate yet useful are sayings like "60% of your heat loss is through your head"?
What is the best strategy for balancing body clothing weight vs head clothing weight?

Bear in mind that you don't need to optimize your clothing for your average hiking conditions on a given trip, so you don't need to wear a hat just so you can take a sweater off and put it in your pack.

So how do you choose your head and neck gear for the most extreme conditions you might encounter during your planned hike, while at the same time have something comfortable and practical for thermal regulation and keeping the rain and sun and wind off when neccessary duiring more average conditions?

The colder the conditions, the more heat you lose through your head. The US Army's studies (Natick Labs) concluded that you can be dressed for arctic conditions (4 inches of lost) with a bare head, and you'll be near death in four hours of inactivity. This is why a lot of guys have trouble staying warm with a sleeping quilt, their heads aren't properly covered. Jardine addressed this with his gorget, the Backpacking Light guys came up with the Bozeman Mountain Works balaclava.

[take-a-knee]

The colder the conditions, the more heat you lose through your head. The US Army's studies (Natick Labs) concluded that you can be dressed for arctic conditions (4 inches of lost) with a bare head, and you'll be near death in four hours of inactivity. This is why a lot of guys have trouble staying warm with a sleeping quilt, their heads aren't properly covered. Jardine addressed this with his gorget, the Backpacking Light guys came up with the Bozeman Mountain Works balaclava.

At minus forty F I should add for that lab test (brass man)

[johnny quest]

bald men know all about it. but i would suggest there is a common sense balance to the idea of beefing up head gear at the cost of less clothing. you still need a good wind barrier on your extremities.
perhaps the thing to look at is body parts where blood is near the surface. keep your blood warm!

[Tipi Walter]

I go with a Patagonia balaclava as my basic load(pic one). In severe cold I'll take my homemade rabbit fur hat(used 3 hides-pic two). My current setup will make ULers weep(pic three).

[BR360]

Look at where the most blood vessels are, and the least fat and muscle: Head, neck, feet, hands. These are the areas that need protection. (I don't buy that "60% heat-loss from the head" concept, though. Can't be that high, can it?)

Frostnip gets ears and noses readily (at least on me...must have big ones:rolleyes:. No muscles there to generate heat, and no fat to protect them. Also more susceptible to windchill.

Depending on conditions, I use balaclava, hat with ear flaps, sometimes fleece scarf to keep my chin warm. My feet rarely get cold, unless they get wet, as long as I'm moving. But when I stop, they get cold. I carry down booties, or just get in my sleeping bag at camp.

I'm short, so I can pull my hands into my sleeves for hand cover. Doesn't work with hiking poles, though. Then I use fleece mitten-flapped fingerless gloves. I like to make pictures, so I want the ready dexterity of being able to pull off the flap, but keep my gloves on. Sometimes when really cold in camp, I put socks on over the gloves.

I sleep with a thin wool cap. If it's really cold (say sub 20dF) then I may use my down coat's hood as a balaclava. I always do some jumping jacks before getting in the bag, and I use a hot water bottle to help warm up the bag.

[johnny quest]

i have a marine corps wool watchcap and something called a sleeping hood, also usmc.

[BR360]

Sorry, I really didn't answer your questions JAK.

While for me there is not a technical answer (reducing things to numbers) I always am thinking "options" depending on the weather and my exertion level.

Headgear is ALWAYS something I take, if no more than a fleece hat, even on day hikes. Backpacking, I go from there. Add a bandanna as a scarf. Put rainshell with hood on. Add a balaclava. The most protection is being in my sleeping bag under shelter, drinking hot drinks.

[10-K]

I have always thought that losing (pick your very high percentage... it seems to vary between 50-80%) through your head can't be true. It just makes no sense.

And finally, someone looked into it a bit further and lo.... http://wildernessmedicinenewsletter.wordpress.com/2007/02/14/heat-loss-through-the-head-and-hypothermia/


Thomas

[JAK]

Thanks for all the feedback and wisdom. Interesting article tbradnc. If I'm reading it right it says that if you have an equal amount of insulation on all parts of the body the head and neck area with 10% of the surface area loses 10% of the heat. That must not include transpiration, which is fair enough, though transpiration becomes increasingly significant at colder temperatures and can be controlled by the right head and neck clothing. I'm still inclined to think head loses a little more because the skin temperature of some other parts of the body can be more safely reduced, at least temporarily, to varying degrees. But compared to -20F outside the difference is probably very little. I think underneath your clothing some parts are warmer than others however, so it might make sense in extreme cold to have clothing that is just loose enough to allows a little bit of movement underneath, but not too much. Hoods for example, and a loose overlap at the hips and waist and neck maybe, and ankles also. Anyhow, good to know. Its amazing how much just an 1" of clothing will do if it covers everything by that amount, and its done in layers with some beef to them, like wool, with a light wind layer over top.

No doubt you would lose 40% through your head, at least, if you left it bare and had everything else well covered. You always have to expose a little bit of face for seeing and breathing but fur hoods help with the wind, and scarves or balaclavas help with the transpiration losses. Just gotta make sure you don't get all wet.

The combination I used this morning worked very well. Fleece balaclava with a long neck that folds back up, so you get a double layer everywhere up to the ears, except a single layer over the mouth and nose, if you want it. Only a single layer on the top of the head but then I had a wool hat which came down from above, so that made three on top of the head really. My wind jacket didn't have a hood, but that would be a nice final touch if it did.

I really liked that homemade rabbit fur hat. They are wicked warm and surprising light for their warmth when built right. That looked great. Three rabbits eh. Cool. Snowshoe hare I presume. I read a book about how they used to make blankets by weaving rabbit furs, using 100 pelts, and they were considerably warmer and lighter than hudson bay blankets. Only lasted one season however. Not really an option for us, but a three pelt hat every season could be very doable.

[russb]

Thanks for the article. I was intrigued at the results since it seemed to contradict my personal experience so I did some additional searching (for about 5 minutes LOL). What I found is that the article is correct, and supported by other sources. I also found that there is a significant difference between surface heat loss and cooling of the core temperature.

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/101/2/669

"... the head does not contribute relatively more than the rest of the body to surface heat loss; however, a cold-induced reduction of perfused body mass may allow this small increase in heat loss to cause a relatively larger cooling of the body core."

This is consistent with my own personal experiences where I regulate temperature via head covering more effectively than with other clothing.

In other words it appears the adage is wrong about "heat loss through the head" but what seems to be correct is that non-insulating of the head can account for a greater reduction in core body temperature... which would be what we "feel" as opposed to measuring surface heat loss. I am interested in reading more, so I will probably research for more than the original 5 minutes.