Quote Originally Posted by auld argonian View Post
...the author...proclaims blue jeans as "The Trousers Of Death" and tells you that if you're not wearing wool pants out there in the outback, you will most certainly freeze to death and die of exposure.
The hiking community always says, "cotton kills," though if it's the middle of summer and you're not on top of a mountain you'll just be miserable, not dead. Modern fabrics like polypro wick moisture away from your skin, and keep you warm even when they're wet - just as wool does. The advantage to modern materials is that they dry extremely quickly. If I wear my poly/viscose kilt through a thunderstorm (or ford a waist-deep river in it, which I've done many times) it will be dry an hour after the rain ends, just from wearing it. Even when wet it keeps me warm. I'm sure wool would do the same, though I've never been caught out in a downpour while wearing a wool kilt.

Remember that it rains a little bit in Scotland, and the old Scots thought the kilt was a fine garment to wear every day.

Andrew.