Mountain Man

For ardent backpackers and mountaineers it was a classic dilemma: Find an outer garment that would keep you dry in foul weather but would breathe enough so that evaporated perspiration could escape. The British had finely woven cotton parkas that breathed and blunted the wind. They were water-resistant, but not waterproof. The new American synthetics were waterproof, but such a parka quickly became an ambulatory steam bath. The problem was especially acute on long climbing expeditions where it was difficult, if not impossible, to dry out soggy clothing and damp sleeping bags.

Enter, more than 15 years ago, Wilbert L. Gore, a research chemist and backpacker, and his son, Bob, an engineer. The elder Gore had worked for Du Pont, but in 1958 formed his own company that fashioned Du Pont’s Teflon into insulation for wire and cable.

One evening Bob Gore tugged on a piece of preheated Teflon. Rather than snapping, as expected, it stretched. It stretched, in fact, the full length of Gore’s arm-reach. Before long the Gores had adapted the substance into a laminated fabric with billions of pores per square inch. It was impermeable to rain and melted snow, but perspiration could escape.

Gore-Tex became the miracle fabric of the mountain world--in everything from parkas to rain pants, hats, mittens, sleeping-bag covers and even hiking boots. A Gore-Tex garment could run twice the price of its conventional counterpart.

But the cost was worth it to serious outdoor people, and Gore-Tex undoubtedly has saved a number of lives through the prevention of hypothermia. Gore-Tex has now become popular in all sorts of outdoor pursuits, and is appearing in fashion wear. Competitor fabrics are coming onto the market, and prices are coming down.

Wilbert Gore, 75, died of an apparent heart attack while backpacking in Wyoming’s Wind River Range a few days ago. Anyone who has safely and comfortably weathered a mountain storm in a Gore-Tex parka or bivouac sack has reason to pause for a moment and say a quiet word of thanks.