Dalesway Postscript - Gear Review

Just ask my wife Christine: I'm not what you would call an adventurous dresser.  When we met 30 years ago, my uniform was jeans and baggy grey jumpers; now it's jeans and a t-shirt. She ventures out now and then to buy things to sharpen up my look, but they stay in the cupboard. My tendency to wear the same thing all the time was reinforced when I won a Berghaus competition just before doing the 5000km E4 hike across Europe. I ended up with (amongst other things) 8 blue 'Argentium' t-shirts made of polyester and completely indestructible.  Blue quickly became my signature colour, and with 8 I had enough to last a lifetime.

My complacency was challenged when I did the Dhaulagiri Circuit last year.  Some of my fellow trekkers had taken the 1 colour t-shirt a big step forward and were making do with just one t-shirt.  The claim was that merino t-shirts don't smell, and because you don't need to wash them just one will do.  Being so well endowed in the t-shirt department I had somehow missed this mega marketing message, but the advantages seem pretty profound if you're carrying everything on your back and want to reduce the load (and washing effort).

Although not a 20 day hike like the Dhaulagiri Circuit, I decided to give merino a whirl on the Dalesway - this year's 'chap's walk'. As you can imagine, walking with 6 other guys whose main interest is real ale, steam trains and pensions, my sartorial experiment was seen as a radical departure and my merino top's progress was very closely monitored. I can report that it was a success - the t-shirt remained free of odour (unpleasant ones anyway) and was essentially the same at the end of 6 days walking as it was at the beginning.  The only issue now is what to do with my 8 polyester ones.

Many thanks to Cotswold Outdoor Brighton who provided helpful advice and found me a great merino T-shirt (a Rab Meco 120 Tee - a blue one).

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