water-resistant down jacket reviews

Feathered Friends Eos Down Jacket.

The 12 Best Down Jackets of 2024

By Michael Lanza

Whatever you need an insulated jacket for, there’s a down or synthetic puffy for your needs, within your budget. And whether you want a puffy jacket for outdoor activities like backpacking, camping, skiing, climbing, and hut treks, or just to keep you warm around town or at outdoor sporting events, this review will help you figure out how to choose the right jacket for your purposes, and it spotlights the best down and synthetic insulated jackets available today.

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The Himali Accelerator Down Jacket.

Review: Himali Accelerator Down Jacket

Down Jacket
Himali Accelerator Down Jacket
$330, 12.5 oz./354g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL
himali.com

On cool mornings and windy evenings in the low 40s Fahrenheit (4-6° C) in campsites while backpacking the Skyline Trail in Jasper National Park and the Nigel, Cataract, and Cline Passes Route in the White Goat Wilderness in the Canadian Rockies in August, my Himali Accelerator Down Jacket kept me perfectly warm over just one or two base layers. By many measures, this midweight puffy hits the target for three-season mountain adventures in its balance of weight, packability, warmth, materials, water resistance, and features—all at a competitive price for a high-quality down jacket.

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A backpacker hiking the Dawson Pass Trail in Glacier National Park.

How You Can Tell How Warm a Down Jacket Is

By Michael Lanza

While sleeping bags have temperature ratings, with down jackets and other insulated jackets, there exists no easy way to determine how warm any specific garment will be without wearing it outside. But despite the absence of a precise metric for gauging the warmth of down and synthetic puffy jackets, there are ways to assess a specific jacket’s relative warmth before you even see it, using simple metrics. This article will explain how to do that.

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The Arc’teryx Cerium Hoody.

Review: Arc’teryx Cerium Hoody

Hybrid Insulated Jacket
Arc’teryx Cerium Hoody
$400, 12 oz./340g (men’s medium)
Sizes: men’s XS-XXXL, women’s XXS-XXL
moosejaw.com

Who expected the overnight temp would drop nearly to freezing and the wind would blow 30 mph through our campsite on our first morning in southern Arizona’s Aravaipa Canyonin April? Well, I didn’t when I reserved that permit months earlier—but we all did when we saw the forecast immediately before the trip. So I packed my new Cerium Hoody and it proved the perfect antidote to unseasonably cold mornings.

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Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Down Jacket

Review: Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Down Jacket

Down Jacket Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Down Jacket $295, 13 oz. (men’s medium) Sizes: men’s S-XXL, women’s XS-XL cotopaxi.com Down jackets come in a wide range of prices based primarily on the fill-power rating (read: warmth per ounce and packability) and amount of down inside, with the cost boosted when those feathers are water-resistant. While $250 does not seem inexpensive at …

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