[Review] The Helly Hansen Dry Performance Crew Base Layer

Don’t let your base layers bog you down when you’re skinning to the top of your favorite local backcountry spot. With the Helly Hansen Dry Performance Crew, you will stay dry regardless how much you sweat, stay comfortable, and won’t be too stinky when you can’t access laundry for a few weeks.

Helly Hansen’s Lifa Stay Dry Technology works amazingly well as it not only wicks the moisture away from your skin when it’s there, it’s also a very breathable and lightweight material.

From the minute I first put it on, I knew that the Dry Performance Crew would quickly be one of my favorite base layer tops of the winter. Not only is it extremely comfortable and filled with beneficial technologies such as the Lifa Stay Dry, it also fits well. Sometimes I put base layers on and wonder, what was one designing this for? It can be the softest and sweetest top in the world but if it slips up to my belly button time and time again when I’m skiing, it falls into the unwearable category. The Dry Performance Crew is long enough to tuck in—and stay tucked in—and loose enough that it will stay put (but not too loose).

I love the “low bulk cuffs” and is in my opinion, a very undervalued feature of a good base layer. With the low bulk of the cuffs, layering is so simple and easy. As I’m usually wearing the Dry Performance for skiing, with gloves/jackets/extra layers, the wrist area can often become a cluster very quickly. With this top, you can stop worrying about wrist bulk and start worrying about what kind of sick line you’re going to take on the way down.  

The Helly Hansen Dry Performance Crew is a top that is ideal for year round and multi activity use. In the spring I’ll move it from my ski bag to my motorcycling bag and stay comfortable and dry no matter what activity I’m undertaking. Paired perfectly with the Helly Hansen Warm Pant, you’ll be drier than your friends during the day and smell better than them at night. Slip on underneath the Elevation Shell and Wasatch Pant and you have yourself a full meal-deal.