October 25, 2006
Patagonia Active Mesh Bra & Brief. Mountain Hardwear Virtuousa Pack, Minaret T-shirt, and Yuma Pant
Hiking Gear
By Megan Michelson
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Patagonia Active Mesh Bra and Brief. Mountain Hardwear Virtuousa Pack, Minaret T-shirt, and Yuma Convertible Pant
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Picture this: I'm standing in a chest-deep puddle of thick, brown water, wearing just my underwear and a sports bra. I'm carrying a fully-loaded, 3,600-cubic-inch Mountain Hardwear Virtuosa backpack over my head. The goal? To navigate my way through a narrow slot canyon (which is prone to flash flooding) without getting my gear wet. I'm on a three-day backpacking trip in southern Utah's Capital Reef National Park, a 378-square-mile geologist's paradise, with a dozen people I've just met, who are standing on the other side of the pothole watching me. This is not a moment where you want your equipment to fail you.
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These are the kind of situations where performance underwear either lives up to its name—or it doesn't. In this case, thankfully, it's the former. With seamless construction, extra-thick nylon-spandex fabric, and moisture-wicking mesh, Patagonia's Active Mesh Bra and aqua-colored Active Briefs are exactly the underwear you want to be wearing when you're told you need to strip down and wade through a frigid pool in front of a bunch of near strangers. And thanks to their sorbet-inspired colors, they're both functional, and, well, kind of cute.
I quickly made my way to the other side and found a ray of sunlight in the dark canyon to warm my body. Within a few minutes, I threw on my hiking clothes, the same ones I'd been wearing for the last two days—Mountain Hardwear's Minaret women's t-shirt, a 100 percent organic top with a paisley print, and Mountain Hardwear's Yuma Convertible Pant, a cargo hiking pant that zips off into a capri.
The Minaret is soft and breathable, but since it's cotton, it isn't quick-drying. I spend the next 15 minutes or so with wet stains across my upper body. The pants, however, wick off water like they're coated in Saran Wrap. And with two wearable options—full length pants or ankle-biting clam digger—it doesn't feel like I'm sporting the same outfit for three hot days in the desert.
There are 15 hiking trails in Capital Reef National Park. We used exactly zero of those trails during our GPS-directed scramble. We barreled up and over white domes, teetered on flaky sandstone, and wedged our way through countless canyons. To be honest, I barely noticed my clothes or my underwear during the hike—which usually means they're doing their job.
But the backpack? Now that I noticed. Mountain Hardwear has been making backpacks for five years now, and it's still a work in progress—but so far, progress is good. The Virtuosa is a women's fast and light cross-country pack, weighing in at four pounds, six ounces. The frame system—called Exodus Motive—was designed by a Tahoe-based backcountry skier who wanted a pack that moved with him, not against him. As a result, the pack has a pivoting waist belt that literally turns when you turn, which I noticed as I climbed up and down scree slopes. There's also a pulley system on the shoulder harness that lets you adjust the pack as you encounter varying terrain, so when I was walking on flat sand versus steep chutes, I tweaked it accordingly.
Truth be told, I noticed the pack most of all when I was lifting it over my head, wading through the pothole in just my underwear. I felt all thirty pounds of it. But later, after dressing myself and heaving the still-dry bag onto my back, it suddenly felt lighter. The weight was so well distributed that I barely noticed it all.
Patagonia Women's Active Mesh Bra, $35; Women's Active Brief, $18; patagonia.com. Mountain Hardwear Virtuousa pack, $369; Mountain Hardwear Minaret t-shirt, $45; Mountain Hardwear Yuma Convertible Pant, $75; mountainhardwear.com
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