It's stylish enough to wear around town, if you take good care of it, and it has a little bit of that crinkly sound you get with high quality waterproof fabrics that says "I wear seroius outdoor gear, not cheap imitations." I've worn it in all kinds of rain and never had it leak, but when it's really windy the cinch cords on the hood are hard to get locked into the pinching mechanism unless you look carefully at what you're doing. I felt like a kite, but it kept the wind out. Cinched down properly trimmed, mine kept me toast in 70mph winds so strong I could barely stand up. The collar is high enough to provide excellent wind protection when zipped all the way up and used with the hood. It's a little heavier than I would like for backpacking, but for high altitude mountaineering I think it's worth the ounces to have really warm quality equipment. The inside liner breathes well and makes the jacket comfortable to wear even without the fleece, which is usually how I wear it. It's certainly warm enough (I wore it at 22,841 feet on Aconcagua last January) and the materials and quality are topa notch. The hood, though ample for wearing around town, doesn't fit comfortably over my climbing helmet without feeling tight at the neck. It has a strap on the back of the hood for you goggles, and the hood can be zipped off though I've never bothered.Īs a climbing shell, it could be improved a bit. The deep chest pocket zipper is waterproof, the fabric is tough, and I like the huge pit zips and multiple inside pockets (including one for an mp3 player). Freedom of movement is pretty good, even with the optional tech fleece zipped inside. The interior powder skirt is nicely adjustable, and the velcro cuffs and cinch cord on the bottom hem all work well to keep out snow, even though the jacket isn't quite as long at the butt as some others. It serves all of these purposes well, but is probably best suited to the snowboarding. But even just the outer rain jacket layer was bulky to travel with.I've worn this jacket for two years now as my primary winter coat for walking to and from work, my hard shell for high altitude mountaineering, and my outer layer when snowboarding. The Omni-Tech waterproof technology on the outer layer kept me dry from rain and waterfalls during a winter trip to Portland, Oregon-and when I zipped it with the Omni-Heat inner layer, kept me cozy during a snowy January trip to Quebec City. Then, I decided to go double duty and snagged Columbia's Carson Pass Interchangeable Jacket. First, a Uniqlo Women Blocktech Coat, which was versatile in appearance and folded relatively flat in my suitcase, but left me drenched after a torrential downpour in the Azores. Having learned my lesson, I tried a few on for size. Of course, as I later trudged along a rainy eight-hour hike-moisture leaking through that windbreaker and my damp clothes starting to chafe-I realized just how essential the right rain jacket is, especially in unpredictable weather. When I saw there was possible rain in the forecast and barely any space in my bag, I tossed an old windbreaker in without much thought. The hiking boots I found were hefty, but I figured they’d be worth the extra weight in my suitcase. For weeks before a trip to Machu Picchu, I zipped to every sporting goods shop in town, obsessing over the perfect hiking gear and laser-focused on buying the right footwear.
0 kommentar(er)
