Gender: Male
Age: 44
Weight: 246 lb (112 kg)
Height: 6 ft (1.8 m)
E-Mail: starnescr@yahoo.com
Location: Grant, Alabama, USA

Tester Bio
I live in North East Alabama. I enjoy hunting, fishing, canoeing, and most other outdoor activities but backpacking is my favorite pastime. I enjoy hiking with friends and family or solo. I hike throughout the year and actually hike the least in the hot humid months of summer. My style is slow and steady and my gear is light. However I will sacrifice weight for comfort and durability. A typical 3-season load for me is around 20 lb (9 kg) not counting food or water. I usually sleep in a hammock and cook with an alcohol stove. My backpacking trips are usually 2, 3 or 4 days in length.

Product Information
Test Item: Men's Ibex Scout 1/2 Zip Shirt
Manufacturer: Ibex Outdoor Clothing LLC
Manufacturer's Link: http://www.ibexwear.com
Year Manufactured: 2005
Color: Graphite
Size: XL = 45 to 48 in (114 to 122 cm) chest
Listed Weight: None, but the website gives an average weight of 15.1 oz (428 g)
Measured Weight: My size XL = 15.7 oz (445 g)
MSRP: US $130

Product Description
The Scout 1/2 Zip shirt is more of a sweater or pullover jacket than a shirt to me. Describing a sweater is fairly simple but this one has some nice features. The Marino wool is an excellent material for a sweater for several reasons but warm when wet and low stink factor are two of the most important. It also has a half-zip zipper in the front for ventilation on those warmer days and a generously sized zippered pocket on the left chest side.

From the website
"A midlayer with a versatile, double knit wool fabric. Flat knit on the inside, lofty boucle knit on the outside, it offers maximum temperature regulation. Clean design suits technical or everyday wear."

They go on to mention it is perfect as a midlayer or outerwear for hiking/backpacking, snowshoeing, skiing and everyday wear.

Testing Locations and Conditions
During the past few months I have worn the Scout on a 3-day 22 mile (35 km) hike as well as several more overnight hikes, both here in North East Alabama and Southern Tennessee. While hiking I have been rained on a few times and the temperatures have ranged from around 70 F (21 C) to a cool 24 F (-8 C). Trail conditions have varied to fairly mild to pretty wild (rocks moving underfoot, steep descents, blowdowns etc), and with rain, some have been muddy and slick. I have also continued to wear the Scout for other activities such as lazying around the house, working around the house and yard or feeding the neighbors horses.

Long Term Test Results
I went into a lot of detail on fit issues and general wear characteristics in my Initial and Field Reports. The Long Term Report just basically shows some of the additional trips made and touches on these issues again.

I can only say that this shirt has continued to be a great addition to my hiking wardrobe. In fact, on a recent three day hike I did not carry any other shirt for daytime wear, instead relying on the Scout and my Frogg Togg jacket for most conditions. I did carry a silkweight shirt for sleeping and my down jacket in case it got really cold. My previous experiences gave me confidence that this would see me through this hike without any problems which is saying quite a bit for a hike in mid January. Of course a low of 41 F (5 C) meant I could have left the down jacket at home and made it fine. I did not even pull the jacket out of my pack except to use it as a pillow at night.

On this hike I wore the Scout all day on the first day. It was around 45 F (7 C) when we started out and warmed to around 60 F (16 C) by mid-afternoon. It had started cooling back down by the end of the 9 miles (14 km) hiked as we made it to camp just shortly before dark. That night it dropped down to 41 F (5 C) but I was in my sleep shirt and sleeping bag by then.

On the second day, hiking around 11 miles (18 km), it was cool all morning but after lunch it warmed up quite a bit. I had hiked downhill all morning so as luck would have it, the day was getting much warmer as I begain the hike up the other side. About halfway up the climb I did become uncomfortable enough to take the Scout off. I had already removed my wool pants about a mile earlier and I finished the day in shorts but only removed the Scout for a couple of hours. It was now around 65 F (18 C) but considering the hard hiking it is not really a fault of the Scout, but rather, hiking in conditions it is not ideal for. When I topped the mountain it was not long until I was ready and did put the Scout back on.

On the last day it was misting lightly and around 50 F (10 C). I had my umbrella handy but never opend it. Even though the shirt got a little damp it still felt very warm. However, the most impressive thing to me was that after 3 days hiking and basically living in this shirt, it had not developed a strong odor.

I have worn the Scout on a couple of other short overnight hikes and several day hikes since the mid January hike. It was a very warm February and so far March has been warmer than normal too. While I did not really need a shirt this warm on several of these hikes it has just reinforced my opinion that this shirt is great to wear when I don't know exactly what the temperatures will be. On several occasions I took the shirt off but as nightfall approached and the temps begin to dip I was glad to put it back on.

Long Term Durability loose thread on sleeve

I am now on my second bottle of Woolite since obtaining the Scout and I estimate it has been washed approximately 20 times. Since I usually wore the shirt twice and sometimes three times before washing, I estimate I have worn it at least 50 times. It is still in nice shape with only one small loose string on the wrist of the right sleeve. I do not know how this loose string occurred but I noticed it shortly after my last 3 day hike. I have not attempted to fix it and it has not worsened. The shirt is not pilling and shows virtually no wear anywhere else.

In Conclusion
The Scout will absolutely be one of the first shirts I grab for any cool weather hiking. A shirt that is this comfortable in such a wide variety of temperatures is not only a safety issue, it adds much to my mental outlook when out hiking. It works well by itself from around 40 F (4 C) to around 60 F (15 C) and from around 25 F (-4 C) to 40 F (4 C) my Frogg Togg jacket and the Scout seemed like an ideal combination. It needed more help when it got colder than this. It worked well on up to around 70 F (21 C) when I was taking it easy. I don't think I own any other items of clothing that work so well over such a broad range of temperatures.

I continue to be impressed with the wearability of the Scout. It has been worn as my only layer most of the time and when layering, the other stuff went over the Scout. Ibex has nailed the comfort factor in the Scout. The material is nice and soft and the seams are put together so that the garment remains flat against my skin. The fact that it does not retained much odor after several wearing is just a bonus. If the sleeves were a little stretchier at the wrist I would call it perfect!

I would like to thank BGT and Ibex for allowing me to participate in this test.

Read more reviews of Ibex gear
Read more gear reviews by Coy Ray Starnes

Long Term Report

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