Originally Posted by
tjspiel
In cold weather what you want your jacket to do is block the wind and that's it. It can be a thin shell. That's all mine is. Under that I wear a fleece pullover (the warmth layer) and my base layer is just a good quality long underwear top. Those 3 layers are good down to 0 °F and up to the 30's. On colder days I'll wear an extra warmth layer. Synthetics or wool are fine for base and warmth layers. Avoid cotton.
That is my exact same setup. Works great - jacket works all year around with just varying the number of layers underneath. My under jacket is a fleece jacket and it has a pocket that could hold whatever I need.