synthetic insulated jacket reviews

Outdoor Research Ascendant Hoody.

Review: Outdoor Research Ascendant Hoody

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Breathable Insulated Jacket
Outdoor Research Ascendant Hoody
$249, 12 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XL, women’s XS-XL
backcountry.com

The range of activities, conditions, and seasons in which you wear a jacket arguably says more than anything else about its value, so I’ll tell you what I’ve done (so far) in my Ascendant Hoody: On a 39-mile, mid-September backpacking trip in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, I wore it in camp on cool, windy mornings and evenings. I’ve worn it as a middle layer on days of skiing downhill at resorts, and as an outer or middle layer skiing up and downhill in the backcountry. And I’ve regularly pulled it on to ride my bike on errands around town this winter. Its versatility derives from having just the right amount of breathable insulation to make it the insulated jacket you grab more than any other all year.

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Review: The North Face ThermoBall Active Jacket

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The North Face ThermoBall Active Jacket.
The North Face ThermoBall Active Jacket.

Hybrid Insulated Jacket
The North Face ThermoBall Active Jacket
$150, 14.5 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
ems.com

The December sun was about to drop over the horizon, and the air temperature was dropping even faster—but I was enjoying the skate-skiing around Bear Basin, in the quiet ponderosa pine forest outside McCall, Idaho, too much to head for the car just yet. It didn’t matter. I knew I could wring out the last minutes of daylight and stay warm, despite my base layer being quite sweaty, thanks to the hybrid design and unique insulation in the ThermoBall Active Jacket.

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Arc’teryx Cerium LT Hoody.

Review: Arc’teryx Cerium LT Hoody

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Hybrid Insulated JacketArc’teryx Cerium LT Hoody$400, 11 oz. (men’s medium)Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XS-XLarcteryx.com In the evening shade of a windblown campsite at around 10,500 feet in Titcomb Basin, an alpine valley in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, I pulled this jacket on and instantly felt warmth infuse my torso and arms. Throughout that mid-September backpacking trip in the Winds, wearing …

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The Patagonia Nano-Air Jacket.

Review: Patagonia Nano-Air Jacket

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Hybrid, Breathable Insulated Jacket
Patagonia Nano-Air Jacket
$199, 10 oz./284g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XXS-XL
backcountry.com

Throughout four straight days of backcountry skiing in the mountains above Lake Tahoe in early February, winds gusting at 40 to 50 mph buffeted us—the pockets of protected terrain seemed rare—and snow fell for three of those days, heavily at times. A few days later, I was Nordic skate skiing and snowshoeing in Idaho’s Boise Mountains, on days ranging from overcast and windy to breezy with warm sunshine. On all of those days, temperatures were cold enough—from the low 20s to the mid-30s Fahrenheit—to quickly chill me if I either under-dressed for the wind or sweated from overdressing. And for hours at a time on those days of widely ranging conditions and exertion levels, I wore Patagonia’s new Nano-Air Jacket.

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Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody

Review: Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody

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Synthetic Insulated Jacket
Patagonia Nano Puff Hoody
$279, 13 oz. (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXL, women’s XXS-XL
backcountry.com

A lot of people wore this jacket before I did—or, more accurately, a lot of people wore most of this jacket—before I zipped it up at my campsite on a rocky ledge high above Baron Lake in Idaho’s magnificent Sawtooth Mountains. But I wouldn’t know that by simply looking at or wearing my Nano Puff Hoody. I’m speaking only partly metaphorically: Besides having excellent performance qualities, this jacket now contains cutting-edge, synthetic insulation that comes mostly from recycled polyester—which means that it’s not only good for me in the backcountry, but it’s good for the planet my kids are inheriting.

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