Hi everyone,

I'm trying to lighten my pack a bit. For most of my hikes, I like to carry a Patagonia R1 hoody (the OG version - not the air) as my only torso insulation and forgo the puffy and the wind jacket. I love the simplicity of having few items and the R1 has just the right amount of warmth - I've never felt like I needed something less warm (i.e. I've never been too warm in the R1 and too cold in just my baselayer) and it's always been enough for sitting in camp for the half hour or so it takes me to cook and eat dinner.

However, it's heavy and I wanna see if there's a lighter alternative.

I've briefly tried out Alpha Direct 90 hoodies and I think they might work for me. They seem slightly less warm than the R1 but the main difference is they're much more breathable, so I might need to throw over my rain jacket more often - not the end of the world, but not ideal either. But since I'm in for a new purchase anyway (I'd want to switch to a Senchi hoodie if I stayed with Alpha direct), I stumbled across the Kuiu again and am giving it some thought.

So, TL;DR, my questions:

• How warm is the Kuiu Peloton 97 compared to an OG R1?
• Do you find it suitable as an only insulating layer or is it more of a lightweight "this plus your puffy" solution if you're not Jupiter and hike every second of the day?
• How would you compare its ability in that regard to an Alpha Direct Hoodie?

For more reference, I also own a Patagonia Capilene Air Crew Neck and a Montane Allez Micro Grid Hoodie, but I'd put those in the "in addition to your puffy" category. My puffy is a EE Torrid Hoodie and it's great, but I find I only use it in camp where I also have my quilt.

/edit: For more context, I don't use wind breakers. I own two of them (EE Copperfield and Montane Featherlite) but I find they provide next to no additional benefit to my rain jacket (Lightheart Gear Silpoly Rain Jacket). In moderate winds, I just wear my R1 and in heavy winds, I'm totally fine wearing my rain jacket to block the wind.