Of course the very best ultralight towel is none at all – but you might not enjoy waiting (maybe in a cold wind) to dry off (though you will). It’s not so bad in the summertime but can be a tad testy in the colder weather. The same strategy can be applied to clothes washing – and I have done so for many years, ie just put them on wet after I have washed them as best as I can in the river (without soap). Usually I manage to dry them some overnight eg with the clotheslines in my tents, but not always.
They will be dry in around fifteen minutes on your body if they are the (modern) quick-drying type. This is a fairly rigorous regime of a morning I admit. I always dress in my wet clothes immediately before I set out. You do get used to it.
I usually prefer some type of towel after a wash as I am usually putting on my (dry) night clothes afterwards, as I would typically have a bit of a scrub up after I got to camp at (roughly) the end of the day (say around 4:00pm) before it gets too cold. At this time of day a dip in the river is not too bad – even in the winter! For more about such personal and clothing washing strategies you could look at these two posts Ultralight Personal Hygiene & Ultralight Mobile Clothes Line.
It is nicer if the towel dries one completely but there seems very little relationship between the weight (or price) of a towel and whether it does this adequately. I have tried out lots over the years. Most are completely hopeless.
For years therefore I have used cheap ‘microfibre’ towels from a $2 store as they were also the best I could find. They are 38 x 96 cm and weigh 80 grams ie 219 grams/metre2. I usually cut them in half length-wise so that my towel weighs around 40 grams. (I usually cut the other half into four to make handkerchiefs – and carry two). The half towel does not quite completely dry one so that there is just a slight chill (and dampness) when you put your clothes on – but it is completely gone in under two minutes as compared with carrying the other 40 grams, especially when you might not even have a bath – if no-one is around, or if you are being lazy, etc. I have done this daily eg even to Everest and back (twice) sometimes even in sub-zero temps. See eg 9 Days Trekking the EBC Mind you even the whole towel is nowhere near as drying as the towel below – but then it is half the weight.
You can easily buy towels which weigh twice (ie 160 grams for the whole normal sized towel) or four times that – and of course you can easily spend ten times as much – but often you don’t even get such a good towel!
Lately I have been trying out these beautiful towels from Tesalate. They are indeed very good though around twice the weight (per area) as my microfibre one. They have two kinds. A smaller one which has an anti-odour and anti-bacterial feature, and a beach-size towel which is more than twice as big (well, nearly three times).
Given their dimensions both towels are quite light and small. The larger one would nearly make three towels (if cut down – but you might need to hem the cut edge). It would be an awful vandalism (I know) as they are astonishingly beautiful, but if you are ‘into’ ultralight, anything goes! (The folk at Tesalate might not agree! I’m sure they love their towels just as they are.)
The smaller of the two towels was good enough that it dried both Della and I after a shower during which we even washed our hair. I went second yet I did not even notice that the towel was damp when I came to use it. That was without having to wring it out at all. This is an astonishing water absorbancy which I have never seen in any other towel material I confess, hiking or normal. I could (obviously) easily get by with half such a towel for just my own use at around 80 grams and never have to feel at all cool or damp! Even so sharing a towel between two has the added advantage that maybe you can finagle your wife into carrying the towel, and thus at least lighten your own load anyway!
We took the larger of the two (160 x 80 cm A$89 colour = Bohemian 454 grams 354 grams/metre2) on a three day canoe trip before Xmas (Canoeing Into the New Year) where it performed admirably for drying both of us (and two dogs I confess) after multiple dips in the river & etc and was also excellent for using as a picnic blanket/seat etc. Their (beach) towels have this additional astonishing feature that sand does not stick to them (yes, really). Goodness knows how this works, but it does!
You have to admit it is a very beautiful towel. They come in lots of other designs.
Workout towel in Charcoal colour.
I have been intending to get out and about trying out the smaller of the two towels (100 x 45 cm A$49 colour = Charcoal 174 grams = 386 g/metre2) for hiking purposes but (as you know) my leg has (still) not been up to multi-day hiking trips. I am hoping for the best (soon, please!). The smaller of the two towels has this anti-smell feature which should be really good if you need to stow it in your pack damp during the day – because you have not made a mobile clothes line (as above). The anti bacterial feature may well also help with chafing.
At the moment (June 2022 they have a deal where you get a free small (workout) towel for every beach towel you purchase.
