Rain Jacket
Outdoor Research Realm Jacket
$279, 10.5 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL
moosejaw.com
Carrying a heavy pack in intermittent, strong gusts of cold wind and hot sun—that’s actually one of the best tests of a rain shell, because you’ll discover how breathable it is, which dictates whether you can stay dry (read: not sweating up a personal storm inside it) and comfortable while exerting hard. On a four-day, spring ascent of The Mountaineers Route on California’s Mount Whitney, I wore the Realm Jacket while lugging a pack weighing over 40 pounds to our high camp at 12,000 feet—as the alpine sun created a solar oven with the snow-covered ground, and a biting wind ripped through every few minutes. Going repeatedly from freezer to broiler, I stayed completely dry. That’s just one of several reasons to like the Realm Jacket.