How to Layer Properly and Stay Dry | Rewilding

During the early 2000s, the United States military began fighting a new type of war. Suddenly, units like Navy SEALs and others found themselves tasked with long duration operations in inhospitable, high elevation environments. You know, the kind of places normal folk like you and I play outside. As time went on, they found that they couldn’t stay dry as they went through high-exertion activity in those cold, wet places. That’s where John Barklow came in. Now working as the Big Game Product Manager for Sitka Gear, Barklow was, at the time, tasked with training special operations forces in outdoor survival. Realizing that it was impossible to stay dry outdoors, he and retired Army Ranger Rick Elder set about developing a layering system that instead enabled those soldiers to get dry as fast as possible. And that’s an approach you can benefit from, too.