Microlight Down Jacket - Women's

I took this goose down jacket on a July 2016 crossing of the Glacier Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt in the European Alps. I packed it for on-the-go under a shell for insulation and for in the high altitude huts at the end of the day. I took it instead of a thick fleece jacket which I would usually use for insulation. This was a weight consideration- at only 330 grams it promised very good insulation for very little weight in my mountaineering pack, which I would be carrying for 6 days. It was a good gamble: it was superbly warm, divinely light to wear and carry. I shrugged it on quickly on short breaks on the snow where I would otherwise cool down quickly and crammed it back in my pack when we moved again.

I wore it under my Goretex shell on cold glacier traverses as I would a fleece jumper/jacket. Being so light it didn’t negatively affect movement. It stood up to the claim on the label that the Pertex Microlight face fabric would be windproof too. (Pertex Microlight is a tightly woven dense weave fabric). I didn’t test it in showers but pertex microlight is meant to repel light showers, and the down has a DWR hydrophobic treatment.  Coming home I washed the jacket in the washing machine with some down wash. It came out looking alarmingly flat as down products do after washing, but has bounced back to be puffy and warm with a day in the breeze on the drying rack. Which I thought was a good testament to the DWR treated down.  

Jane Diemont

Jane snug as a bug in goose down at Tete Blanche, 3,710 metres, Switzerland