Arc’teryx Phase AR Zip Neck LS – £52 /  192g

Review

Arc’teryx is cagy about what exactly makes its Phase fabrics wick and dry quite so well, but our guess would be a carefully thought out structure. The Phase AR ZN is a great ‘just warm enough’ all-round option that wicks brilliant, dries fast and has a close, efficient fit. It’s one of the best Polyester base layers we’ve used, has lasted well with regular hammer and, we reckon, is worth the premium over most other Polyester base layers we’ve tried.

Magic – Super fast wicking and drying, just enough warmth for fast movers.
Tragic – Fabric can build up an aroma after extensive use.

Wicking: 5
Drying: 5
Warmth: 3

Brand website: www.arcteryx.com.

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Columbia Omni-Heat LS HZip – £55 / 190g

Review

Columbia’s Omni-Heat baselayers use reflective metallic dots on the inner surface of the fabric which work like a space blanket to help keep heat where it’s needed. It does seem to work too, the Omni-Heat top is warmer than we’d expect, but we found the initial feel a little clammy, though that was less of an issue on the move. Other testers didn’t mind this, which suggests we’re being a little Princess and the Pea about it.

Magic – Warmer than you’d expect for the weight, reasonable wicking and drying.
Tragic – Not everyone likes the feel of the fabric.

Wicking: 3.5
Drying: 4
Warmth: 3

Brand website: www.columbiasportswear.co.uk.

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Haglöfs Active Warm Zip-Top – £70 / 235g

Review

Haglöfs has mixed Polyester with merino wool and elastane with a gridded inner face to produce another  winter weight baselayer come lightweight mid-layer option. The merino seems to add a little comfort and the Active Warm has an instant ‘nice’ factor that combined with good all-round moisture handling and drying plus decent anti-odour properties makes it quietly brilliant to the point where it’s one of the first things we reach for when temperatures fall below zero.

Magic – Warmth, wicking and drying all decent along with nice cut. Super comfortable.
Tragic – Slightly spendy.

Wicking: 4.5
Drying: 4.5
Warmth: 4.5

Brand website www.haglofs.com.

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Lowe Alpine Dryflo Zip Top 150 – £36 / 193g

Review

DryFlo is back but with a twist. Other brands have caught up on the fabric front, so Lowe Alpine has added the magic ingredient of coconut-based Cocona which really does speed wicking and drying and makes it an excellent all-round baselayer that lives up to the DryFlo legend.

Magic – Wicks and dries very quickly, good price.
Tragic – More medium than full winter weight.

Wicking 5
Drying: 5
Warmth: 2.5

Brand website www.lowealpine.com.

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Marmot Thermo 1/2 Zip – £85 / 192g

Review

Polartec’s standard PowerDry fabric is a fast-wicking base-layer fabric, but the High Efficiency version used here is more like a lightweight stretch fleece with tiny micro-gridded blocks increasing warmth without adding much weight or bulk. It works brilliantly making this a really good call for hot, fast movers. It also doubles as a very light mid-layer worn over a thin wicking base-tee or as a cold and still single layer in its own right. A really nice cold weather all-rounder.

Magic – Brilliant light fast-wicking, fast-drying and warm fabric, nice fit, can be used as a light mid layer.
Tragic – Not cheap.

Wicking: 5
Drying: 5
Warmth: 5

Brand website www.marmot.com.

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Mountain Equipment Eclipse Hooded Zip Tee: £90 / 320g

Review

Mountain Equipment’s super technical winter baselayer come lightweight mid-layer uses a brilliant, stretchy, micro-gridded Italian fleece for a close fit and great insulation for the weight then plays a killer trump card with a versatile hood that’ll sit over or under a helmet, cover the lower face completely in a Buff style and double as a night-time warmer too. Not cheap, but a superbly versatile bit of winter kit that can do the mid-layer gig all year round. Works well over a thin, high-wicking tee. Also available without a hood.

Magic – Great fabric, ingenious versatile hood, doubles as lightweight mid-layer.
Tragic – Hood can get in the way when not being used.

Wicking: 5
Drying: 5
Warmth: 5

Brand website www.mountain-equipment.co.uk.

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Patagonia Men’s Capilene® 4 Expedition Weight Zip Neck – £85 / 177g

Review

Patagonia calls it Capilene 4 but essentially it’s the same fabric used for the Marmot Thermo, but with more restrained styling. The latest versions are even more laid back. In short the fabric wicks and dries fast and is much warmer than you’d expect for such a light garment thanks to the inner gridded face which traps warming air. And as with the Marmot, you can also wear is as a very light mid-layer. Patagonia’s thumb-loops are tiny elastic bands which you can simply cut out if you you choose. Nice touch.

Magic – Great wicking, drying and decent warmth with close fitting, stretchy fabric.
Tragic – Price.

Wicking – 5
Drying – 5
Warmth – 5

Brand website www.patagonia.com.

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Rab MeCo 165 Long Sleeve Zip Tee – £60 / 206g

Review

Rab kind of managed to find the Holy Grail with MeCo. It has most of the best qualities of merino like comfort and anti-odour properties, but dries a whole last faster and wicks well too making it a great half-way house between the two fabrics. Add in merino-like anti-odour properties and it’s a cracking multi-day option for folk who run on the sweaty side of things. We wore our first one, but while that suggests it’s not as durable as pure synthetics, it has a lot of hammer and pure merino would have died a lot faster, trust us. Not super warm, so best if you run hot. new this winter is a hooded version.

Magic – Good wicking and drying with merino type anti-odour properties.
Tragic – Expensive, wears out with serious abuse.

Wicking – 4
Drying – 4
Warmth – 3

Brand website www.rab.uk.com.

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Smartwool NTS MID 250 Hoody – £90 / 291g

Review

Smartwool’s hooded winter-weight baselayer has all the great pluses of merino wool. It’s super comfortable, reassuringly warm and anti-odour properties mean you can wear it for days on end making it a cracking choice for multi-day trips. It also deals well with low to medium moisture output, but gets overwhelmed if you’re really sweaty and then takes longer than average time to dry. The women’s version has twin pony-tail outlets.

Magic – Super comfortable, deals well with moderate moisture output, handy hood and thumb-loops. Anti-pong.
Tragic – Expensive, not ultimately high wicking, slow drying times. Not super durable.

Wicking: 3
Drying: 3
Warmth: 4

Brand website: www.smartwool.com.

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Our Top Winter Baselayer Picks

All the baselayer tops we’ve tried have done a decent job but if were forced to choose from all twelve for different uses our final preferences would be as follows:

Pure Technical Use For full-on mountain use we can’t see past the Mountain Equipment Eclipse Hoody – the Italian made stretch fleece is brilliant, the fit is good and close and the hood is a little bit of genius that gives the whole top added function compared to simply zip-necks. It’s the best of its kind that we’ve used.

All-round Winter Stuff Plenty of the tops here will cope just fine but there’s something about the Haglöfs Warm Active that gets out vote. It’s warm, comfortable, a nice fit, and wicks and dries well with it. And it feels more substantial than the Power Dr Hugh Efficiency tops we’ve used, though that’s also brilliant fabric. Our other pick would be Arc’teryx Phase, which just works in a quiet, unobtrusive way.

Multi-Day Use Were going to cheat hear and multi-pick. If you don’t sweat too much, both Icebreaker andSmartwool make fantastic merino wool tops that shrug off multi-day odours. If on the other hand, you’re a sweaty git, Rab’s MeCo has a lot of merino-like qualities but adds better wicking and drying at the expense of a little warmth and softness and would be our pick.

Special Award The Brynje of Norway Super Thermo mesh top is just all-round ace. If you can cope with the looks, you won’t be disappointed and it’s ideal with systems like Paramo and pile-Pertex.

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