Re: "In this case, I was really pushing "safety", since I had my faux VBs over these cotton layers, so if my body vapor condensed or I sweated much at all, it could not wick or otherwise escape and I would be stuck with that well known terror: wet cotton in cold conditions."
Actually, if I had soaked my cotton under my faux VBs, I don't think I could have increased my risk of hypothermia or even a cold night(unless my faux VBs failed to actually work as VBs, which they might).
The only increased risk would have been if I was on a back country trip where I had to wear the damp cotton clothing on the following days. Just my opinion of course, and based on my experience, but:
1: Damp or even wet cotton, under a VB, would not be able to evaporate and cool me down with an additional 23ºF worth of evaporative cooling (same way a swamp cooler or AC works)
2: The moisture in the cotton would not be able to get past the VB ad wick or evaporate into my insulation. So, wet cotton underneath a VB would be no where near the concern of wet cotton used in the normal fashion. IMO.
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