Clothing - Our Favourites
We own a lot (truly a lot) of outdoor clothing. Below is a snapshot of our favourites, the ones we currently wear the most and would recommed.
Our go-to bottom layers
When it comes to pants we have clear favourites. Both of us swear by the Fjallräven Abisko Hike pants. These are made from a light G1000 fabric, with ventilation, an integrated belt and cinches down at your ankles to protect against bugs and ticks. For rougher conditions, or basecamp stays we both wear more heavy duty Fjallräven pants. Either the Karla or Vidda are our recommendation. These are made from the original G1000 fabric, and can also be waxed to make them more waterproof. In addition, they hold up well against fire or dirt making them great all-rounders. If it’s raining we use Rab Eco Downpour rain pants, which are holding up great.
Our top layers
Trying to decide what shirt to wear will remain difficult no matter the options. However, if in doubt: choose a merino wool shirt for hiking. We both wear Fjallräven wool shirts for all our hikes. These are a wonderful mix of merino wool and polyster making them durable and soft. They don’t pick up smells as easily as other fabrics and look great.
For a fleece, we own several but mostly grab our Rab Polartec fleeces like the Powerstretch Pro. While a little bulky, they retain warmth really well and look great. They also come with thumbholes to keep your wrist and palms warm if you forgot to bring gloves. On top of our fleece, we wear either our down or synthetic layer. Here, we turn to Rab again: for a few years we’ve been using their down-filled Microlight Alpine Down jacket and it holds up great! It gets really small to stash away in your backpack and gives a lot of heat on cold nights.
If we’re looking for another layer but moisture becomes an issue, we both wear our Rab Xenair Alpine Light jackets. These are amazingly versatile jackets that get quite small for being synthetic. We don’t just wear it while camping, but grab it a lot do grocercies or when we are going for a walk around town.
Finally, we use Rab rain layers. We have tested both one of their GORE-TEX versions and the one with their own Rab’s own Pertex shield. Both keep us dry very well. If looking to buy a waterproof jacket we recommend going for one with pit zips. These are a life saver when hiking in rainy, but warmer conditions!
Our footwear choices
When it comes to footwear, we swear by wearing barefoot style shoes. After switching to barefoots in 2023, we have have not looked back. Our go to hiking shoes are the Vivobarefoot Primus shoes, these lightweight trail running shoes are quick-drying with great grip. They handle well in all sorts of terrain and give us a lot of confidence on the trail.
For wetter or muddier conditions (or snow) we felt a bit too exposed in the trail runners. For these conditions, we wear the Vivobarefoot Tracker Forest Esc. While this shoe might look like your average hiking boot, it also sports a zero-drop, barefoot sole. The lugs are a bit bigger on the soles making them very grippy on wet terrain.
