By Mike Brown
Each year I get together with a group of old friends for a "guys" weekend. It gives us an opportunity to catch up and talk about old times and it also gives us the chance to break away from our daily office routines and find a little adventure. We typically will work in a day or two of rock climbing and rappelling and then spend our last day trying doing something new like skydiving, whitewater kayaking, etc.
This year's gathering lead us into West Virginia for a day of rock climbing in the New River Gorge followed by a day of spelunking, or "caving" as it is called by the locals. Prior to the start of our caving adventure, our guide instructed us to dress for cool, damp conditions and to wear clothing that could stand up to the abrasion of the rocky surfaces that we would be crawling on during our tour. Following his advice, I put on an outer layer consisting of a reinforced nylon jacket (an expensive jacket from a different company) and a pair of lightweight Mountain Hardwear pants.
After an entire day of scampering over rocks and low-crawling through 15 to 20 foot limestone tunnels that were, in many cases less than a foot high, we found our way back to daylight. We emerged from the cave system, covered from head to toe with a fine, powdery dust that filled our pockets and clogged zipper teeth, making them difficult to use. We hiked back to our vehicles, peeled off our outer layers and stuffed them into plastic trash bags to keep the dust contained. We then made the long drive back to civilization, where we stopped at a local coin-operated car wash to spray off our dusty garments.
I completed the high pressure rinse and gathered up my gear only to find that my jacket had not fared well during the day's activities. It had had several large holes worn in the elbows and a couple of small tears in the reinforced shoulders. I then looked over my Mountain Hardwear pants, expecting to see the knees completely shredded, but to my surprise, found that they had no damage whatsoever... Very impressive. They kept me comfortable and dry all day and came out looking like new. Mountain Hardware will definitely be my brand of choice when buying gear for future trips. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the other brand. My expensive jacket is now only worn for working around the house.
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