Initial Thoughts
"I just received this jacket in the mail two weeks ago. Here are a few of my initial thoughts and or impressions after ordering both the men’s medium and large sizes. For reference, I am 5’10” and 160 pounds: THE GOOD: 1. Being that it is a belay jacket, I figured it was going going to be cut very large. It is cut adequately, however, I found the size large to fit better for belay purposes versus the men’s medium. The size large gave me a little bit more room for better layering, especially if I wanted to add a 60 g/m2 synthetic jacket to help defend against internal humidity and moisture. 2. I am very particular about hoods on belay jackets and the hood on this jacket is monstrous, which is fantastic in my opinion. I like to layer my jackets, including anywhere from 1 to 3 hoods on at once, all over my climbing helmet. This hood swells all of them up without issue and is the biggest, likely warmest hood I have ever owned. I tip my hat to Mammut! 3. The outer Pertex material feels bomber and should not have durability issues. Yes, it adds a little bulk and a little more weight versus something like Patagonia’s Grade VII, however, I feel this jacket, especially in the alpine, will take much more abuse, especially near sharp rock. THE BAD: 1. The front main zipper, when zipped all the way up, slides down half an inch or so. I don’t know if this will affect much of anything when actually using for ballet purposes, but I wish the zipper locked in place where it’s supposed to. 2. As mentioned, this is much heavier than the Grade VII. This is likely due to the PERTEX fabric, but it does outweigh the Grade VII by almost 200 g size dependent. Once I have this jacket in practical use, I will report back. and identify any other issues I’ve noticed. The aforementioned issues may not be a problem in the field, we will see."