hiking apparel reviews

Review: Feathered Friends Helios Hooded Jacket

by

Down Jacket
Feathered Friends Helios Hooded Jacket
$489, 1 lb. 1 oz./482g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL
featheredfriends.com

As I stood outside yurts on December evenings on separate trips in the backcountry of Idaho’s Boise Mountains and Boulder Mountains, enjoying an inky-black sky riddled with stars as the temperature plunged into the low teens and single digits Fahrenheit, this fat down jacket felt like an impenetrable force field keeping all of my body’s warmth inside and the frigid cold outside. My companions who tried it out agreed: The Helios Hooded Jacket is just crazy warm—especially for its weight and packability. Those qualities define it as one of the best high-quality down jackets for winter that you’ll find today, but also a puffy jacket that’s light and packable enough for cooler, three-season trips.

Read on

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

Review: Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell

by

Ultralight Shell Jacket Black Diamond Distance Wind Shell $149, 3.5 oz./99.2g (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL blackdiamondequipment.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 …

Read on

The REI XeroDry GTX Jacket.

Review: REI XeroDry GTX Rain Jacket

by

Rain Jacket
REI XeroDry GTX
$179, 12 oz./340g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL, men’s tall M-XXL, women’s plus 2x and 3x
rei.com

How much rain shell do you want in mountains with variable weather? How much should it weight—and how much should you pay? Those questions came to mind when I wore the REI XeroDry GTX rain shell through hours of cold wind and steady rain, with a bit of wet snow, at the tail end of a five-day September backpacking trip in the Bechler Canyon area of Yellowstone National Park. I was happy with its moderate weight and packability for three-and-a-half days of sunny, mild days at the outset of that trip, when this shell stayed in my pack. But I was even happier that it has features that kept me dry when the weather turned ugly. And paying much less for any gear makes anyone happy.

Read on

The North Face Morph Jacket.

Review: The North Face Morph Down Jacket

by

Down Jacket
The North Face Morph Jacket
$249, 12.5 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XL
ems.com

While today’s insulated jackets come in a greater variety, with different strengths and weaknesses, it can seem confusing to differentiate between them. One easy metric relevant to any consumer is warmth per dollar—and that’s where The North Face Morph Jacket shines. Stuffed with high-quality down feathers that are not water resistant, it delivers warmth that competes with the best down jackets of the same weight, and performance ideal for many backpackers, climbers, and others, at a price about 100 bucks lower than top competitors.

Read on

Review: Black Diamond Helio Active Shell

by

All-Season Shell Jacket
Black Diamond Helio Active Shell
$400, 12 oz./340g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
moosejaw.com

The rain began before we hit the trail on the second morning of a five-day June trek in northern Spain’s Picos de Europa Mountains; by late morning, we reached the snow line, and the light rain turned to wet snow, accumulating several inches on the ground. The wind came from various directions, blowing 40 to 50 mph as we got higher and crossed a pass. It felt more like Scotland’s Northern Highlands than mountains in the north of Spain. For that entire day, most of it spent hiking through falling rain or snow, I wore the Black Diamond Helio Active Shell—and it basically saved my butt on a day when cold wind and wet precipitation could have tipped me into hypothermia.

Read on