Sari and her race partner Pete Gaston happy to be home in Aspen

The Elk Mountains Grand Traverse is a 40-mile backcountry ski race that starts at midnight in Crested Butte and finishes in Aspen, CO. When it comes to fabrics and layering, there’s no better test for warmth, weather protection and breathabilty. Every year racers invariably have to contend with sub-freezing temperatures, howling winds and whiteout snow conditions, combined with brutally long, sweaty climbs followed by bone-chilling descents.

This past weekend, Polartec Athlete Advisory Board member, Sari Anderson made history at the race, finishing as one of two women on the podium for the first time in the event’s 14-year history. Sari is a professional adventure racer, mountain biker and ski mountaineer and this year’s race put all her skills to the test. You can read her full race recap here, but the condensed version is that she raced super-strong – breaking trail through over a foot of fresh snow for the lead teams for miles on end. She and her partner finished in third place overall, in just over nine hours.

One thing Sari didn’t have to worry about at this year’s race was her layering system. Here’s an excerpt from her race report:

Sari breaking trail along Richmond Ridge

Overall, my set-up performed beautifully, but there were a couple of standouts. First of all, I wore an awesome new jacket from Patagonia called the Knifeblade. It’s a minimalistic, anorak-style jacket made from Polartec Power Shield Pro – essentially a lightweight pullover softshell. While I watched almost everyone in the race shed layers on the climbs and then layer up for the descents, I never took the Knifeblade off. It kept me warm and completely dry while it snowed for the first few hours of the race, but breathed well enough so I didn’t overheat once the sun finally came out. Full disclosure – I’m on the Polartec Athlete Advisory Board – but this truly was the best aerobic outerlayer I’ve ever tried.

Another truly impressive bit of gear for this race were my gloves. My friend Doug Heinrich, the glove product director at Black Diamond, sent me a pair of Impulse gloves (made from Polartec Power Shield) to try and they were awesome. I wore them the entire race and my hands never got too hot nor cold.

Congratulations to Sari!

The Patagonia Knifeblade jacket, available in August 2011.

Sari with her daughter at the finish line.

Debuting in Fall 2009, is a new honeycomb pattern Polartec® Thermal Pro® with 64% recycled content that will appear in the Arc’teryx Strato Jacket and the Roldal from Norrona.

Arc'teryx Strato with honeycomb Polartec® Thermal Pro®

Houdini will introduce multiple new garments made of recycled content Polartec® Wind Pro® with Hardface® technology including the Men’s Hardface Houdi, the Women’s Slipstream Houdi and the classically tailored, Men’s Blizzard Blazer.

Polartec’s highly breathable softshell collection, Polartec® Power Shield®, continues to expand with the introduction of lightweight Polartec® Power Shield O2® fabric in the Arc’teryx Endo pullover and Zeta jackets. The new, lightweight Polartec® Power Shield O2 fabric perfectly compliments the highly successful and more thermal versions of Polartec® Power Shield O2® in the Hercules and Griffon jackets. The Endo is designed for aerobic activities in a range of conditions with excellent venting, wicking and weather protection. Haglofs features Polartec® Power Shield® stretch wovens with Hardface Technology® in the Paze jacket and tights collections, optimized for cold-weather aerobic activities.

Also known for its perfect balance of breathability and weather protection, Polartec® Wind Pro® with Hardface Technology® comes to market in a beautiful new Norrona Lyngen  jacket and Scapegoat’s custom print Sundowner and Daybreak jackets. High loft versions of Polartec® Wind Pro® appear in the urban chic Embla and Stormur Coats from 66 North.

Scapegoat Sundowner featuring Polartec® Thermal Pro®

Norrona Lyngen featuring Polartec® Wind Pro® with Hardface®

Patagonia’s Phil’s Fleece is a great example of Polartec’s expanding wool collection. Now in addition to the wool/poly blended Polartec® Power Dry® fabrics, wool blends are appearing in insulation layers with the introduction of Polartec® Thermal Pro® with Wool. 66 North will introduce a jacquard knit wool/poly blend Polartec® Thermal Pro® hoody in the Akrajfall and Por jackets. It has also been rumored that in 2010, Polartec may have 100% Merino wool fabrics to choose from in a variety of weights.

Patagonia Phil's Fleece featuring Polartec® Thermal Pro® with Wool

As always, Polartec® continues to deliver an ever-expanding collection of unique textures and finishes. A new collection of fabric geared toward the “technical sweatshirt” hits the market in The North Face Cooper Hoody, Saucony’s printed Polartec® Thermal Pro® Zip Hoody, as well as the Urdur and the Logn Zipped Sweat Hoody and Sweat Pants from 66 North. Polartec® Thermal Pro® sweater knit styles, including a mini cable knit and rib sweater, will appear in collections from Marmot, Norrona, Henri Lloyd and Bergans.

Saucony Polartec® Thermal Pro® jacket

Marmot Clo Hoody with Polartec® Thermal Pro®

Today, Patagonia’s line of Synchilla pullovers, jackets and vests are still some of the company’s most popular garments. Over the years Polartec and Patagonia have also grown their partnership to create recycled fabrics for dozens of other garments, from baselayers to jackets.

In 2005, Patagonia launched the global Common Threads program in an effort to “close the loop” on its recycling efforts. Through this program customers can return their worn out Capilene® Performance Baselayers to Patagonia for recycling. Polartec and Patagonia then further collaborated to expand the list of recyclable garments to include Polartec® fleece clothing from ANY manufacturer.

Check out this interesting article in Business Week about the Patagonia Common Threads garment recycling program.

While Polartec has partnered with Patagonia to develop hundreds of garments with recylced fabric, the Talus is unfortunately not one of them. Essentially, the Talus is manufactured in Asia where recycled yarn is harder to find and more expensive to source. Both Polartec and Patagonia would have preferred for the Talus to be a recycled product but it was just too expensive to produce and keep the price point competitive.

The Talus is a good example of the cost-benefit analysis of going ‘green.’

Of course, carbon footprints are incredibly difficult to calculate. As Mr. Ball notes, “For instance, many products’ global-warming impact depends less on how they’re made than on how they’re used. That means the easiest way to cut carbon emissions may be to buy less of a product or use it in a way that’s less convenient.”

From that perspective, the Talus jacket (and all Polartec fabrics) last an incredibly long time, require very few washings, and no machine drying. Wear it indoors and you can keep your heating bills down!

Read the full WSJ story here.