Testing to see whether Alpaca or Cashmere will outshine standard wool blankets for wild camping? And can they even top synthetics?
In my quest to find the best warmth for weight for a plastic free wild camping setup I am testing a variety of materials to get a better understanding of their insulative properties. See this post for an introduction to the approach including the method used to test. In a nutshell measuring heat loss over time from hot water in cups insulated with the test material.
Todays test looks at two of the higher priced but potentially higher performing natural fibre types. Alpaca and Cashmere. I am running the tests alongside my reference piece and standard wild camping blanket, a trusty old army surplus woollen blanket. Cheap, popular with bushcrafters but heavy and not super warm. For the test itself I am using a 100% cashmere scarf alongside a 100% alpaca scarf.
Lets start with a quick introduction to the two fibres, where they come from before jumping to the test results.
Alpaca – Where’s it from, what’s it good for?
Alpaca hails from South America and is part of a sister family to Camels and Llamas, the Vicuna. Bred for their fibres at altitudes over 10,000ft in the Andes, Alpaca products have increasingly become widely available beyond their home shores of the Andes. With a famously light, hollow fibre, perhaps the perfect lightweight, natural fibre for a wild camping blanket that packs high warmth in a lightweight package closer to synthetic cousins?
Cashmere – where’s it from, what’s it good for?
The other contender in today’s test, Cashmere, comes from the Cashmere goat. As for the Alpaca this goat is also bred at altitude, albeit across the Himalaya, as well as in the deserts of Asia, and has long been prized for it’s fine downy winter coat. This has been used to produces the softest and most luxurious fabrics for thousands of years. The fine soft fibres again prized for their warmth but reputedly not as heard wearing as traditional wool.
The test results:
Over the course of the tests I was expecting a slightly closer result however it was pretty clear cut. Key findings were:
- Both the Alpaca and Cashmere outperformed the Army wool blanket.
- Alpaca was the standout performer helping retain 9.6% more energy than the standard wool blanket
- Cashmere was closer to the wool blanket but outperformed it by 2%
- It we adjust in in terms of warmth for weight the differences become more stark. Factoring in the weight of the material pound for pound Alpaca now jumps into a clear lead!
So the upshot is that if I want to upgrade my wild camping blanket moving to Alpaca will save me not only 50% in weight but also provide 10% more warmth. There are some downsides of course. A cheap army wool blanket is super hardwearing and, well, cheap. A genuine Alpaca blanket will cost 8-10 times as much as the army surplus blanket and I would certainly be a bit precious of it around a camp fire.
The league table so far
Updating the league table of test results so far, Alpaca looks the best blanket material choice as an insulation layer, especially when you factor in warmth for weight. It competes close to the heavy piled fleece at half the weight. Cashmere is still a lovely fabric, however for wild camping both too expensive and not high performing enough for this use case.
| Material | Description | Added Warmth* (relative energy saved %age difference in kJ versus control) | Weight (GSM) |
| Piled fleece | Heavy pile fleece with microfleece liner | +12% | 520 |
| Alpaca – Knitted | Knitted 100% Alpaca | +10% | 237 |
| Double Wool | Doubled Army surplus wool blanket | +8% | 1100 |
| Cashmere | Knitted 100% Cashmere | +2% | 580 |
| Single Wool + Liner | Army surplus blanket plus silk liner | +1.5% | 622 |
| Single Wool | Army surplus blanket | Control | 550 |
| Standard fleece | Standard weight polyester fleece | -8% | 242 |
| None | nil, nada, zilch insulation on cup | -27% | 0 |
As mentioned this is a about finding the best plastic free solution. I still have no doubt that a synthetic insulation quilt would easily outperform and pure blanket material. However my previous idea of a silk and down quilt may bring those levels of performance to natural materials. Time to crank out the sewing machine!