What is Cotton Analogy fabric?

Cotton Analogy® combines a robust cotton Ventile® outer with a synthetic inner Nikwax Analogy® Pump Liner which pushes liquid outwards to keep you warm and dry inside. The result is a highly breathable, waterproof and tough fabric suited to cold weather mountaineering, field sports, game conservancy, bushcraft and outdoor photography.

Cotton Analogy® functions in a similar way to Nikwax Analogy®, well proven by Páramo in their highly successful range of Directional Waterproofs, by mimicking animal fur in providing both insulation and water-shedding.

All Cotton Analogy® Waterproof Clothing has been approved by Nikwax Fabrics and have also attained stringent standards – a minimum four hour resistance to 3cm of rain per hour – tested in the independent Leeds University Rain Room.

We have designed a range of technical outdoor clothing using the Cotton Analogy®  concept.

Analogy is a trade mark of Nikwax Ltd

Ventile is a trade mark of  Talbot Weaving Ltd

We has an interesting visitor to Hilltrek on Saturday, a gentleman called Carl Martin, together with his wife Barabara and son Peter, who lives in the village with his family.

Carl worked at the Shirley Institute in Manchester in textile fibre research, starting in 1946 as a young chemist.

The Shirley Institute is famous for inventing Ventile which was developed in the 1930s well before Carl’s time at the institute. Interestingly Carl could recall that Ventile was developed for clothing contrary to some views that was intended for other purposes . 

Read about the Shirley Institute in wikipedia

We recently received a letter from a Gentleman who had been given one of our Glencoe jackets as a gift from his daughter. His use of Ventile has exceeded 50 years, as you can see from his photographs.

The black & white image was taken in 1957 “on the hills above Cannich”, and shows the wearer in a Blacks of Greenock Ventile anorack.

The second image shows the Hilltrek Glencoe being put to use on a “day of driving rain in the hills North of Keswick”. The wearer also reported “not a drop of rain inside”.

Here’s to the continued use of Ventile in the hills.

‘If you can’t beat then join em’ step 2 -a second Hilltrek product is now available on Amazon.

Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket

If you are an Amazon fan you now can buy both the Braemar Ventile Smock and the Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket alongside an array of Paramo Clothing and other outdoor stuff in the Hilltrek store.

See www.amazon.co.uk and search for Hilltrek.

Braemar Ventile Smock in the Alps

Interesting how some major outdoor retailers seem to be overcome with hype of new fabrics and forget that fabrics such as Ventile are still being used in mountaineering -because they work.  

I walked into the local outdoor store of a major Scottish headquartered outdoor retailer several weeks ago to find two models prominently positioned in the entrance, one was displaying ‘mountaineering 50 years ago’ and the other ‘mountaineering now’.

Today’s mountaineer was a female dummy clad in a brightly coloured and contoured Goretex jacket and matching trousers  – she looked very attractive -whereas the ‘50 years ago ago mountaineer’ was wearing a frayed Ventile jacket with a hemp climbing rope over his shoulder and well worn triconni nailed boots stuck on his feet.

The young shop manager was rather startled when I suggested that Ventile was very much alive in mountaineering and that a small Scottish company called Hilltrek Outdoor Clothing still made Ventile Technical clothing which was widely used across the world for mountaineering. In fact I told him that I was one of a loyal band of Ventile users.

I didn’t get a reply just a blank look which suggested that this was the first time he had heard the word Ventile. One of his older colleagues had to explain that this was the fabric used in the display dummy and which climbers wore in the olden days.

The founder of this outdoor retail chain was a well known Edinburgh based climber -perhaps his old climbing gear had been dug up in the loft?

I left them to reach their Gortex jacket sales targets and possibly the young manager will do a google search on ventile and mountaineering – or am I hoping for too much?

The founders successors seem to have lost their way.

In these days of the ‘throw away’ culture we are rather proud of our skills in refurbishing worn Paramo & Ventile Jackets and trousers. From £45 we can restore that well loved jacket to almost pristine condition replacing worn zips, refurbishing cuffs, patching tears, patching draw cord channel wear – a common problem in Paramo jackets.

Winter hillwalking and mountaineering  is punishing  on outdoor clothing where typical problems include crampon tears on trousers ankles. We can repair Paramo and ventile trousers easily while tears on trousers made of  laminates such as Goretex, E-Vent and Sympatex require seam-sealing after repair. Seam sealing is highly skilled and requires sealing tapes and machine settings specific for the fabric.  This can be challenging with an unusual laminate or PU coated fabric. There is no room for experimentation on a £150 pair of ripped salopettes!

All we ask is for you to ensure that your garment is clean before sending it.

 Delivery is normally 4 to 6 weeks.