I'll again agree with the Bri-Master (why, I don't know ), but will amend what he said to needing a waterproof layer in winter for wind protection to also needing it in conditions where you'll be getting a lot of snow dumped on you. Classic case would be recent snow on the trees on a already deep snow layer. You don't want all that snow going on your fleece.

And polypro is da bomb!

I can say the Helix kept the falling snow from the branches nicely off my head and back

Hi,

I hope this post will be helpful to you. This is only one way of doing it...

I made a list of what each piece of clothing did first and that helped me organize what I needed vs what I already had that the would work.

For example, my summer rain jacket was my winter hardshell for the first few winters. A few years later I found a Columbia ski jacket with minimal insulation on sale at the end of the winter.

The Columbia jacket really looks the part but I miss the pit zips on the rain jacket. The tough part was finding a ski jacket that didn't have a lot of insulation since insulating isn't what I use my hardshell for.

My two 3 season fleece jackets take turns as a mid insulation layer / softshell. One has a tight weeve and is very windproof but I need to be extra careful about sweating since it doesn't breath. The other one wicks away moisture great so I can tolerate a bit of overheating but a wind goes right through it. I want to buy a softshell some day but I am making do with gear I have.

I have EMS knee high gaiters and they have worked well for me. They add a good deal of warmth but more importantly, when I pouched through a snow bridge with foot/boot/snowshoe I was incredibly thankful for them.

Much of my actual hiking is done stripped down to my wool baselayers, goretex bib pants, a thin wool hat, and thin wool liner gloves [I am a walking advertisement for the smartwool brand]

Good luck. Wear layers, and subtract them, as needed, to avoid sweating