Crossing the Bridge in Rain Gear

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Rain can be an intimate companion. But its fascinations are easily washed out by cold and damp.

The REI Switchback Parka and side-zip parts are sturdy, waterproof, lightweight, and not too dear.

THE best example of weather-proofing by weight is the trench coat. What a piece of work the real article is! Six hundred buttons, a foundry output of metal rings and buckles, epaulets, room enough to rent space. The collar buttons up to the nose, the wrists adjust, the pockets are deep, the waist cinches flatteringly, and there's a shoulder patch for your Enfield rifle. Trench coats are built in a tightly woven wool twill that sheds water for hours. Designed to keep men in some kind of comfort while they marched or stood in trenches, the coat is heavy and cumbersome—and once the shedding hours are up, it lets you know.

Technology began to tinker with the possibilities of a "breathing" coat in the early '60s. The familiar sierra coat was made of a fabric blend of 60% cotton for breathability and can-vaslike repellency and 40% nylon for strength. The theory sounded good: The coat would breathe while water beaded on the surface until the outer fibers absorbed moisture and swelled, held in place by the stronger, less permeable nylon. Water would be excluded, but water vapor would pass through. In reality this coat kept its inmate dry for about five minutes in a light mist, but it was so damned useful and handsome that it's become a classic light coat for cool, sunny days.

The W.L. Gore company does not manufacture rain gear, shoes, or gloves. They have perfected a film, thinner than a communion wafer, that has interesting properties. It is made of a synthetic polymer that is hydrophobic (it will not hold water, or "hates" it) and has a controlled porosity. In every square inch of the film there are 9 billion open pores of fairly consistent size. As a gas, water's molecular structure is small and passes through the pores. In liquid form, water's matrix is too large to pass through and is kept on the outside. Another oleophobic layer is added that will not allow body oils to compromise the film's mechanism. The film is too delicate for use on its own and so borrows strength from the hard-wear textiles to which it is bonded. Bonded, seams taped, tested and approved for water repellency by the W.L. Gore labs, it becomes Gore-Tex for a limited number of licensed manufacturers.

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