Colin Haley’s Cerro Torre Winter Layering System

Photos by Colin Haley

This is an in-depth description of the exact clothing system I recently used to make the first solo winter ascent of Cerro Torre in Southern Patagonia. While this is about the clothes used on one specific climb, and includes several prototype pieces of clothing, the general principles are applicable to all alpine climbing and certainly other high-mountain activities. Let’s begin with the four most important parts of the layering system.

Mobility is by far the most overlooked aspect of clothing for alpine climbing. The community and industry focus way too much on the technical details of fabric innovation, and way too little on simply designing patterns that don’t hinder a climber’s movement.

Primary Functions and General Concepts

Insulation

The most basic and critical function of a clothing system for the high mountains is to keep you sufficiently insulated. The environment is typically much colder than our body temperature, so we need well-insulated clothes to survive. It is not difficult to achieve enough total insulation. You could easily walk into a budget department store and walk out with enough clothing to keep you warm even in very cold, below-freezing temperatures. The trick is creating a clothing system that’s warm enough but also lightweight and doesn’t hinder your mobility.

Weather Protection

The high mountains are often windy, and since you are often in contact with very cold or frozen water, your clothes must protect you from wind, snow and sometimes even rain. Again, this isn’t difficult to achieve—fabrics have been widely available for a very long time that can do this. (Cheap, rubberized rainwear offers complete protection from wind and water, for instance.) Fabrics that provide this protection but are lightweight and also have decent breathability are more recent advancements.

Mobility

For some high-mountain activities, like lift-serviced skiing, clothing mobility is not super important because the physical activity doesn’t require a lot of mobility. For climbing, however, mobility is very important. This is most obvious for highly technical climbing, where you might be stemming and are often reaching high above your head. But even for relatively nontechnical climbing, like breaking trail up a 50-degree snow slope, mobility makes a big difference. If you have just a little bit of resistance from your pants when raising your leg in front of you, it may not seem like a big deal, but considering that motion might be repeated 5,000 times over the course of an alpine climb, that slight resistance can add up to a lot of wasted energy.

I think that mobility is by far the most overlooked aspect of clothing for alpine climbing. The ­community and industry focus way too much on the technical details of fabric innovation, and way too little on simply designing patterns that don’t hinder a climber’s movement. A well-patterned article of clothing made of fabrics that were available in 1975 is way more functional than a poorly patterned article of clothing that was sewn using the latest, greatest fabrics.

Weight

In alpine climbing, we carry our backpacks over huge distances, ascending and descending huge amounts of difficult terrain. Alpine climbers are right to be very weight-­conscious and limit equipment weight whenever possible. If all other factors or qualities are equal, less weight is always better. However, it is important to keep in mind that there is often some trade-off with something being more lightweight. In the case of clothing, the most obvious trade-off is that it is difficult to achieve enough insulation with very little weight. It’s for this reason that I often talk about the warmth-to-weight ratio of clothing. It is not hard to make an extremely warm jacket that is really heavy, or a superlightweight jacket that is not very warm. The exceptional jacket is the one with a particularly high warmth-to-weight ratio. The other big weight trade-off in clothing is durability—ultralightweight clothing will almost always be less durable than heavier options.

My Mobility Test

When I try on pants for the first time, I raise a knee up in front of me to simulate high-stepping and raise a straight leg out to the side to simulate stemming. Most pants, even pants built for climbing, fail these two tests straightaway, and then I know that I am not interested in wearing them for any sort of climbing.

When I try on upper-body clothing, I raise my arms above my head and cross my arms in front of me, to see if the basic design or pattern of the clothing allows these movements without restriction. For me, if there is restriction in upper-body clothing, it’s almost always in the shoulders and sometimes in the forearms.

My Kit for Cerro Torre

Upper Body

[1]  Capilene® Cool Ultra Shirt

[2]  Capilene® Thermal Weight Zip-Neck

[3]  Custom Fleece Vest

[4]  Custom Midweight Synthetic Puffy

[5]  Houdini® Jacket

[6]  Encapsil Down Belay Parka

Lower Body

[1]  Custom Fleece Pants

[2]  Custom Fleece Pants, Again!

[3]  Custom M10® Storm Pants

Heads and Tails

[1]  Arva Balaclava Extreme

[2]  La Sportiva Toque

[3]  Capilene® Boxer Briefs

Hands

[1]  Black Diamond Torque Gloves

[2]  Black Diamond Punisher Gloves

[3]  Showa Temres 282-02 Gloves

Feet

[1]  Wool Socks

Upper Body

Capilene® Cool Ultra Shirt

My upper-body clothing system starts with a thin T-shirt for nearly all of my mountain activities. I prefer a T-shirt to a long-sleeved baselayer mostly because my second layer (Capilene® Thermal Weight Zip-Neck) is also a formfitting baselayer, and during approaches, I often regulate heat by pushing the sleeves up my arms—which doesn’t work as well if the layer underneath has full-length sleeves.

In the most serious scenarios like winter soloing, I use purely synthetic baselayers. I think that baselayers made from wool, or a mix of synthetic fibers and wool, are typically a bit more comfortable than baselayers made purely of synthetic fibers. In addition, they tend to stay much nicer and less smelly if you use them for a while without washing, like on a long expedition. However, wool baselayers are almost always heavier than the lightest, purely synthetic ones, and they are definitely slower to dry.

Capilene® Thermal Weight Zip-Neck

This second layer of my clothing system for the vast majority of my days in the high mountains is a thin, stretchy grid fleece. By opening the front zipper and pushing the sleeves up past my elbows, such as during an approach, I can regulate my temperature quite a lot. I have modified this layer by adding two vertical chest pockets. I use these pockets typically for my phone, lip protection, an energy bar or some other small item that I want to have handy and kept warm.

An alternative option for a layer of roughly the same insulation value is the new Nano-Air® Ultralight. The Nano-Air Ultralight dries noticeably faster and might even have a slightly better warmth-to-weight ratio. However, there are a couple reasons why I typically use the Capilene® Thermal Weight, and they’re related to the fact that the Capilene Thermal Weight fabric is drastically stretchier than the Nano-Air Ultralight. Because the Capilene Thermal Weight fabric is extremely stretchy, the garment can be made formfitting. This is advantageous because an item that I put in the chest pocket, such as my phone, won’t swing around. By contrast, the Nano-Air Ultralight must be made with a looser fit (it would drastically restrict mobility otherwise), so if I put my phone in the chest pocket, it kind of annoyingly swings around while I move. Similarly, the stretchier fabric on the Capilene Thermal Weight allows me to more easily push the sleeves up past my elbows. Having said all that, I think that the Nano-Air Ultralight is a compelling contender for this second layer, and I am staying open-minded to potentially preferring that option.

Custom Fleece Vest

I almost always have at least one vest in my clothing system. I remember very specifically in 2011 when Dörte Pietron, a climbing partner of mine and now a fellow Patagonia ambassador, was climbing in Patagonia with a thick down vest. I took note, started trying vests myself and ­quickly realized how awesome they are.

I love vests because they give you a very noticeable amount of warmth (because they insulate your core) with extremely little feeling of having put on additional clothing. Even clothing that is extremely well designed to not restrict mobility has some effect on our movement, simply by adding volume and mass to our bodies. Because we move our limbs so much more than our core, vests give a bunch of warmth without really affecting our feeling and movement. If you are an avid rock climber, the next time you are climbing a challenging pitch in chilly conditions, try putting a vest on top of your baselayer instead of a long-sleeved insulation layer, and I bet you will have a revelation of how awesome a vest is!

Anyway, I almost always have one vest in my clothing system, and that is most often the Nano-Air® Light Vest. However, the vest I used on Cerro Torre in winter I had made a couple years ago in Patagonia’s R&D department called the Forge, and the vest is made from power-stretch fleece. It’s more formfitting than the Nano-Air Light Vest and provides probably the same amount of warmth. I knew that on this climb I would need to wear a lot of insulation for the entire duration, and I didn’t want that insulation to be super thick because really thick clothing is cumbersome for technical climbing.

I think that for this specific climb, done in a very cold and mostly shady environment, this custom vest worked well. However, it is noticeably slower to dry than the Nano-Air Light Vest and more annoying to take on and off because it is formfitting, has no zipper and is “stickier” against the fabric of the Capilene® Thermal Weight underneath. My climb on Cerro Torre was done in cold conditions, and I never had any desire to take off this vest or the layers below it. It was an interesting experiment, and it worked well in this scenario. But in the future, I think I will revert to my usual, the Nano-Air Light Vest.

Custom Midweight Synthetic Puffy

This is a synthetic-insulation puffy jacket that I got several years ago from Patagonia’s R&D department. It is similar in weight and warmth to the DAS® Light Hoody, but the face fabric is more breathable and stretchier. It would be accurate to describe this jacket as a cross between a DAS Light Hoody and a Nano-Air® Hoody.

If used as an outer layer, the DAS Light Hoody is better than my custom jacket (because it blocks the wind and precipitation better), but this jacket made sense on this climb because I was using it underneath my shell jacket. As an interior insulation ­layer, the increased breathability and stretchiness are advantageous, and the decreased wind-resistance doesn’t matter when I am wearing a shell jacket on top of it.

I have made one change to this jacket since I first received it and that was to remove the hood. Hoods are, of course, useful, but they are extremely in fashion at the moment. The whole mountaineering clothing industry seems to be totally obsessed with hoods. I usually like to have a total of two hoods in my clothing system—one on my shell jacket and one on my thickest puffy jacket (“belay parka”). I find it totally impractical to wear more than two hoods at once, especially because it makes it difficult to move your head around freely. Hoods that aren’t on your head are often annoying because they fill with snow, flap in the wind or get tangled in over-the-shoulder slings.

All in all, my custom jacket is comparable to the DAS Light Hoody. As an interior insulation layer it is superior, but as an outermost insulation layer (“belay jacket”) it is inferior. For this specific climb, it was a good choice because the environment was cold enough that I wore this puffy 90 percent of the time, and then it was always inside of my shell ­jacket. I think that the DAS Light Hoody is an exceptionally good puffy jacket … and I also have a DAS Light Hoody from which I have removed the hood! 😉

As an interesting aside, Patagonia has been working on a new synthetic puffy that I have been testing recently. It is also about the same insulation value as a DAS Light Hoody, but with slightly more breathable fabrics. So, it is actually fairly similar to this custom one, and I think as a total coincidence (this custom jacket was made before most of the current designers even worked for Patagonia

Houdini® Jacket

The Houdini® Jacket is the most versatile, universally useful product that Patagonia makes, in my opinion. This ultralight windbreaker is designed with trail running in mind, but is applicable to most outdoor sports or activities.

A “shell jacket” is a pretty standard part of a clothing system for alpine climbing. Although it typically adds only a small amount of insulation, it blocks snow and wind (and blocking the wind drastically increases the insulation value of the layers underneath, if they aren’t themselves windproof). A traditional shell jacket for alpine climbing is made from a three-layer fabric that has a waterproof/breathable membrane in the middle. A traditional shell jacket with a membrane provides good protection from liquid water and that can be very important, ­especially for summer-season alpine climbing. However, in a very cold environment, like the south face of Cerro Torre in winter, there is almost no liquid water, and thus a waterproof shell is superfluous. A shell that is not waterproof but simply blocks the wind and snow, like the Houdini Jacket, is more breathable and drastically more lightweight than a traditional shell jacket with a membrane.

A lot of my alpine climbing is done with a Houdini Jacket as my only shell jacket. It is extremely lightweight, and additionally, the fabric is so supple and slippery that you feel unencumbered while wearing one compared to the relatively stiff fabric of most shell jackets. Occasionally, this tactic proves to be a mistake when conditions are much wetter than anticipated. On this climb of Cerro Torre, there was one section where I spent a couple hours digging through vertical rime ice, and in the process, I got a lot of rime down my jacket, which made my layers underneath quite wet. A more traditional shell jacket would’ve almost surely been better on that specific pitch, but I think even with a traditional shell jacket it would’ve been really hard to avoid snow getting inside, and I would’ve ended up wet anyway, although perhaps less.

Encapsil Down Belay Parka

The Encapsil Parka is a lofty down jacket that Patagonia made around 2013. It had top-of-the-line ultralight fabrics and was stuffed with down that had been chemically treated to be water repellent (“hydrophobic down”). In many ways, it was an awesome parka. The only problem is that the water-­repellent treatment of the down ended up causing the down to clump together over time, which reduced the insulation value.

Patagonia’s current Grade VII Down Parka is definitely better than the Encapsil, and has an excellently baffled construction. The only reason that I brought the Encapsil Parka instead of the Grade VII is because it is more lightweight. The Grade VII has an excellent warmth-to-weight ratio, but it is a really warm parka. It would have been appropriate if I didn’t have the midweight synthetic puffy as part of my clothing system, but in addition to the synthetic puffy, it was warmer than needed.

I often like to incorporate two lighter puffy jackets into my clothing system rather than just one really warm parka, like the Grade VII. A single really warm parka provides a better overall warmth-to-weight ratio, and also tends to be nicer to move in. However, I like bringing two lighter puffy jackets simply for greater versatility. With a single really warm parka, there is a huge difference in insulation when you put it on or take it off. With two thinner puffy jackets, I find it easier to always be wearing the right amount of insulation.

Lower Body

Custom Fleece Pants

I am a huge believer in the M10® pants. I think that they are so much better than all other shell pants out there, and after having experienced pants with such good mobility, I can’t go back to normal pants. At this point, I don’t really want to wear any pants that aren’t made with such good mobility. I’m not joking, but if it were up to me, every pair of pants that I wear for the rest of my life, for every scenario, would be made on the same pattern—M10-pattern jeans, M10-pattern ski pants, M10-pattern DAS pants, M10-pattern rock climbing pants … and, of course, M10-pattern interior insulation layers.

While visiting the Forge a few years ago, I managed to convince Eric Noll, lead designer of advanced concepts, to make me a pair of lightweight fleece pants on the M10 pattern. They feel like they have roughly the same insulation value as the Capilene® Thermal Weight Bottoms (which have been my go-to long johns for the past several years), but with the baggy cut of the M10 pants.

The difference isn’t as drastic as with a hard shell, but nonetheless, I really like climbing in these thin fleece pants made on the M10 pattern and definitely prefer them over “normal” long johns. I use them for climbs that are more important to me and wear standard Capilene Thermal Weight Bottoms for more day-in-day-out use (to avoid wearing out my best long johns). I hope that the M10 pattern will be incorporated into other Patagonia pants in the near future.

Custom Fleece Pants, Again!

OK, you might be starting to think that I’m crazy, but I wore a second pair of the exact same thin fleece pants made on the M10 pattern. Actually, they aren’t exactly the same—one pair is slightly baggier than the other so they layer well.

The reason to wear a second pair, obviously, is more total insulation. Most of the time I wouldn’t do this. Normally, I would wear just one pair of thin fleece pants under my shell pants and then have a pair of puffy synthetic over-pants, like the DAS® Light Pants, on top of my shell pants. The advantage of the DAS Light Pants is that they have full side zips, so you can easily take them off or put them on without removing your boots/crampons/skis, and therefore adjust your insulation during the day. In fact, on the approach to Cerro Torre, I did use a pair of DAS Light Pants, but I left them in my camp below the mountain and brought just the two pairs of fleece pants on the climb.

The reason I brought two pairs of fleece pants on the climb, and no DAS Light Pants, is because I knew that the entirety of the climb would be very cold (it was the winter season and I was climbing on an aspect of the mountain that sees very little sun), and I would never feel the need to reduce the amount of insulation on my legs. Considering that I knew I wouldn’t need to adjust my leg insulation during the climb, using two pairs of thin fleece pants and no DAS Light Pants made for a system that was overall less bulky and easier to move in, especially considering that I was wearing my harness on top for the duration of the climb.

I’m not joking, but if it were up to me, every pair of pants that I wear for the rest of my life, for every scenario, would be made on the same pattern—­M10-pattern jeans, M10-pattern ski pants, M10-pattern DAS pants, M10-pattern rock climbing pants.

Heads and Tails

Arva Balaclava Extreme

I don’t like to have more than two hoods in my clothing system. I find it easier to move my head freely if my under-the-helmet insulation is not sewn into one of my layers. If you are not using a hood, then a balaclava is a crucial piece of equipment, as a hat/toque leaves too many cold gaps.

I have tried many different balaclavas over the years, and this is my current favorite. I am not under any delusion that it is the best one out there, but it simply isn’t practical to try out every balaclava under the sun. I like this one because it fits me well and because it has a less “open” fabric that provides some level of wind protection, which makes a big difference in warmth.

La Sportiva Toque

When my helmet comes off, which during this Cerro Torre climb was only at my bivouac, then I like to be able to put on a toque, either in lieu of my balaclava or in addition to my ­balaclava. This toque happens to fit me well (I have a smaller-than-average head), and, like the balaclava, I like it because it has a fair amount of wind resistance.

Capilene® Boxer Briefs

There is not a lot to say here, except that, like for my T-shirt, I prefer to use purely synthetic baselayers for the most serious scenarios, even if I find wool or wool/synthetic blend baselayers cozier for regular use.

Custom M10® Storm Pants

The M10® Storm Pants are my baby. These pants are the result of a close collaboration with Eric Noll over many months. I am significantly involved in R&D with each of my main sponsors (Patagonia, Petzl and SCARPA), but these pants are the product that I have had the most influence over. I think that they turned out almost perfect, and I have written extensively here about why I think they are so good. The very condensed version of that lengthy article is that they give better mobility than any other hard-shell pants that have ever been made, at least that I am aware of.

I think that the M10 pants are almost perfect, but over the past couple of years, I have been wondering if there are any other changes that could make them even better. I decided there was one other change that I thought might be promising and visited the Forge a year and a half ago to get a pair made to test my idea.

The M10 pants have a very simple elastic waistband, rather than some system of an integrated adjustable belt. This makes the waistband lighter and less bulky, and I think it’s absolutely the best choice for these high-performance climbing pants. However, in order to never have issues with the pants sliding down, the waistband must be quite tight. While I’m climbing it doesn’t bother me that the waistband is tight—after all, it is totally insignificant compared to the discomfort of the climbing harness. But, when I’m trying to be completely relaxed, specifically when trying to sleep, then I find the tight waistband to be less comfortable than ideal.

It may sound odd that I sleep wearing the M10 pants, but for full-on, multiday alpine climbing objectives, it is absolutely standard to sleep wearing every item of clothing that was brought, for maximum insulation. If you are warm enough to sleep without wearing all of your clothing, then you could have brought a lighter sleeping bag, and therefore achieved a lighter pack.

So, considering that I sleep wearing the M10 pants, and considering that the waistband must be very tight for optimal performance while climbing, I decided that it was worth trying a version where the waistband can be opened. This pair of custom M10 pants is nearly identical to the standard version, but the zippered fly has been extended up to the waistband and a small plastic button added to the waistband. In this way, the waistband is just as tight while climbing, but for sleeping, I can undo the button, open the fly a little and have no tension in the waistband. As an added bonus, it makes the pants a bit easier to put on and take off, as well as a bit easier for going poo.

In all my testing so far, I have been really pleased with this minor modification, and, if I have my way, it might get incorporated into the next version of the M10 pants (but hopefully no other changes!).

Feet

Wool Socks

There are two qualities that I look for in wool socks: density and tightness. I want the socks to be as dense as possible so as not to compress inside my boots. I also want the socks to be very tight on my feet, just so that they can’t move around at all on my foot. Both of these qualities I appreciate because they improve technical climbing performance.

I also tend to like “simple” socks, ones that have a uniform thickness. Throughout the mountaineering and backpacking industry, it is very common for wool socks to have extra padding in certain areas, like on top of the toes, under the ball of your foot or around the heel. Ironically, if there are any places where I would like to have more space, it’s generally those areas! If socks have thicker and thinner sections, I would almost prefer the opposite of how they are typically made. So, I just look for socks that have a uniform thickness throughout, rather than the gimmicky extra-padding zones.

The most important thing to consider when picking socks is how thick they are and how tight your boots are. A very common misconception is that a thicker sock will make your feet warmer and a thinner sock will make your feet colder—that is only true if your boots are too big for you! If your boots fit correctly, then a thinner sock will make your feet warmer, but reduce climbing performance. If your boots fit correctly, then a thicker sock will make your feet colder but increase climbing performance. When picking socks, it is critical to try them on inside the boots that you will be wearing, with the exact footbeds that you will be using. Only then can you evaluate the right amount of tightness to strive for, balancing climbing performance versus warmth.

Learn more about Colin’s winter solo of Cerro Torre in his story, Three Decades of Dreaming.