Black Diamond apparel reviews

The Black Diamond Treeline Rain Shell.

Review: Black Diamond Treeline Rain Shell

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Rain Jacket
Black Diamond Treeline Rain Shell
$140, 10 oz./283.5g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XL
blackdiamondequipment.com

High-performance rain jackets for the backcountry cost real money. Cheap rain shells often compromise on quality. Through a rainy, three-day, August backpacking trip in the Wind River Range, including hiking nine miles in wind-driven rain and temps in the 40s Fahrenheit on our last day, this lightweight jacket kept my 20-year-old son dry. If you want a rain shell that delivers good quality at a price that leaves you gas money to reach the trailhead, the Treeline warrants a close look.

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The Black Diamond Approach Down Hoody.

Review: Black Diamond Approach Down Hoody

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Water-Resistant Down Jacket
Black Diamond Approach Down Hoody
$380, 10 oz./284g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
backcountry.com

Sometimes it’s hard to anticipate how much warmth you’ll need from your insulation, especially on a multi-day backcountry trip—and you may be tempted to go with an ultralight puffy jacket and hope for the best. If your choice is BD’s Approach Down Hoody, you’ll achieve the ultralight objective with little risk of feeling under-dressed. Wearing it on cool, very windy evenings and mornings down to the 40s Fahrenheit on a six-day backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon in early April and in similar temps on a five-day, late-summer hike in the Wind River Range, I stayed both perfectly warm and happy that I’d avoided adding more ballast to a pack already encumbered with substantial food and water weight.

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Black Diamond Dawn Patrol Hybrid Pants.

Review: Black Diamond Dawn Patrol Hybrid Pants

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Ski Touring Pants
Black Diamond Dawn Patrol Hybrid Pants
$325, 19.5 oz./553g (men’s small)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
blackdiamondequipment.com

We all know the challenge of finding pants that keep you dry, warm, and comfortable when ski touring or riding in the backcountry: You need them to release heat and moisture when you sweat hard going uphill and repel snow and wind when moving through exposed terrain in stormy weather or charging hard downhill. On days of ski touring in Utah’s Wasatch Range that displayed all of winter’s multiple personalities—from temperatures in the teens with dumping snow and the wind blowing hard to warm March sunshine with the temps in the 20s, BD’s Dawn Patrol Hybrid Pants demonstrated why they’ve remained enduringly popular among backcountry users.

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The Black Diamond Vision Down Parka.

Review: Black Diamond Vision Down Parka

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Down Jacket
Black Diamond Vision Down Parka
$465, 1 lb. 4.5 oz./581g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
blackdiamondequipment.com

On a morning in the first week of March, with the temperature a blood-thickening 17° F at a campsite on the edge of The Maze District of Canyonlands National Park, this fat down parka felt like my best friend. That followed a night in the teens spent inside a sleeping bag not rated for temps that low, when I spread the parka over my torso and hips inside my bag and felt an immediate infusion of warmth that enabled me to enjoy a comfortable night of sleep.

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The Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell in Spain's Picos de Europa Mountains.

Review: Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell

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Ultralight Shell Jacket Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell $140, 3.5 oz. (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL backcountry.com Obvious first impression: The Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell passes the test of being so light that there’s no reason to not carry it. But a shell this packable becomes truly invaluable when you can use it in a variety of …

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