What are the prospects for ventile jackets in survival situations? i know that to keep the rain out they work by swelling (the individual fibres) to 'fill the gaps' as it were and prevent rain from further penetrating the fabric, but would it fit the bill in heavy rain when what you need most is not to be wet and weighed down? they are apparently very comfortable in all temperatures in dry weather, which is why they are used in the antarctic as well as much warmer climes.

i have just ordered one through the post, and i want some opinions of personal experience with the fabric, so that i can reasonably assess how far i could rely on the jacket in a variety of situations, other than the usual walking around the countryside and the Highlands.

is it unreasonable to expect to use it wet for extended periods of time? it may replace my nylon jacket as 'main waterproof' if i keep it.

thanks in advance
ian

forgot to mention. the actual reason that ventile is used in the antarctic is that the membrane based waterproofs do not breathe below a certain temperature. The membrane effectively stops working.

Try doing a search on the forum. I remember reading a thread a while back on ventile jackets...

Check out this post from last summer:

http://www.equipped.org/ubbthreads/showt...=true#Post18111

Sue

weird, my second post has appeared but not the first one.

Ok, I used a ventile jacket in Scotland for many years. They may not be as absolutely waterproof (they can feel damp inside) as a membrane based waterproof but I found them to be about as good as the condensation buildup in a membrane anyway (assuming you dont wear the correct layers under the membrane). However I would rate a ventile jacket much higher for survival situations as they are safer around a fire from sparks and "self-repair" from thorn damage. Both these things would cause the membrane to fail completely and leak in the damaged area. The ventile jacket also gets heavy when wet but this is more than made up for in survival situations by being quiet and enabling you to stalk your dinner if you have to.

As to long term damage as long as they get to dry out they are ok. No worse than your typical army issue cotton or polycotton jacket in use.

Cheers guys.
hey, just wondering, what are the prospects for ventile lined shoes <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. i have some great leather lined leather boots, the Borneo by Meindl. they've never leaked water but that's because i've relied on the water repellency of the polish etc for relatively short periods of time.

also, does anyone know why R. Mears uses Gore-tex? is he paid to?

Ian

Mr Mears uses ventile in the jungle at least and plugs it in at least one of his books for general temperate wear. It the various tv shows he seems to wear just about everything at one point or another