Voormi Thermal II Baselayer Top

A VERY versatile piece of clothing for 3-season hiking

If you haven’t heard of Voormi, you need to check this company out.  Voormi bills itself as “a high performance natural fiber based brand built around the remote and rugged lifestyle of the southern San Juan Mountains.”  Established by Dan English in 2010 in Pagosa Springs Colorado, Voormi uses locally-raised merino wool and knits it in unique ways and applies proprietary methods to create wool clothing that lasts longer, has integrated water resistence in some cases, or in others wears more like fleece.  You can read about their technology HERE.

I don’t understand half of that technical jargon, but I did acquire a couple of their hoodies last year and have been highly impressed.  I wore their River Run Hoodie on my Wind River hike last September, and it inspired me to order their Thermal II Baselayer Top for my April Shenandoah hike.  I have to tell you, this was a piece of clothing that was PERFECT for that hike.  Temperatures ranged from upper 70’s the day I started down to a low of 23 on the 3rd or 4th night.  I wore the Thermal II the entire time.

In the sun when the temp was in the 70’s, it was a bit too warm, even with the quarter zip fully unzipped.  But from Day 2 on I was thrilled to be wearing it.  As long as the temperature was above freezing, I was not cold while hiking.  And when it got colder and windy (or “sleety”) I just put my ultralight rain jacket on over it (with pit zips wide open) and was comfortable.  It wicked away sweat like a baselayer, and kept me warm like a fleece.

During 8 days and over 110 miles it remained completely stink free!  Merino wool is a miracle fiber in that regard.  It also showed absolutely no signs of pilling or wear in general.  Granted, it’s only 8 days, but I usually nick almost anything up in that period of time.  My Voormi still looks like new.  This particular top utilizes Voormi’s Dual Surface technology, which from their website is described as:

Ideal for next to skin applications, this fine micron wool construction features a thin inner layer of high performance wicking yarns designed to pull moisture off the body and disperse it on to the outer facing surface of the fabric. Once there, the natural temperature and moisture regulating properties of wool are free to take over, keeping you dry and comfortable long after the furnace stops burning.

I was impressed with the wide range of temperatures in which I could wear this 185 wt. garment and remain comfortable.  So impressed that I’ve purchased the matching leggings for my upcoming VA AT section hike in December.

At $129 it ain’t cheap, but if you’ve been good maybe Santa will bring you one this year.  If not, it’s worth buying anyway.  It’s heavier than a fleece- my XXL weighs 15.2 oz.- so it’s not something you’re going to want to have in your pack.  The good news is that you’ll never want it there.