Fall is an amazing season: Changing colors, cooling air, and fresh jackets from Helly Hansen. The new Vertex Stretch is a polyester, slick faced hoodie designed for high intensity activities like backpacking, jogging, and repeatedly diving face first into piles of leaves. This is my review. The Vertex Stretch hoodie is what is called a “go” … More Helly Hansen Vertex Stretch Jacket Review
Merino wool is an amazing material; Soft, warm, and it performs in a just about any condition imaginable. Wrapping that same material into a soft pullover? Magical things happen indeed. The Rendezvous from Mountain Khakis has treated me well from deep into the frozen woods to the middle of a bustling city. This is my … More Mountain Khakis Rendezvous Quarter Zip Review
When it comes to jackets, synthetic materials are especially useful. They’re warm, durable, and provide reliable protection when precipitation starts rolling in. The Dunkley Belay Jacket from Big Agnes is a serious cold weather jacket with just such benefits, but it also adds packability and compressibility to the mix. The Dunkley Belay is a hooded … More Big Agnes Dunkley Belay jacket Review
Originally designed for the US Special Forces, The Alpha Air Jacket from L.L.Bean is a sturdy, functional, fully windproof jacket that’s designed to take a beating and provide stubborn weather protection when it’s needed the most. Instead of being built light and fluffy, it’s built with a robust soft shell body, Polartec insulation, and wet weather protection … More L.L.Bean Alpha Air Jacket
There once was a time when down was the only option for light weight winter insulation. This is no longer the case. High performance synthetics like Primaloft have changed the game, and even offer benefits over down fill. The Odin Insulator from Helly Hansen is tangible proof of this. The Odin Jacket outer and inner body are both … More Helly Hansen Odin Insulator Jacket Review
It’s not always summer or winter, sometimes you land in those shady seasons in between when it’s too hot for a full jacket, but it’s too cool for a shirt. This is where the PrimaLoft Superlight Jacket comes in. It’s an ultra-light, packable jacket that provides a mild amount of insulation for those cool, but … More L.L.Bean PrimaLoft Superlight Jacket Review
A windbreaker is something I don’t quite see enough of in the backcountry. Often times it’s too warm for an insulating layer, but the wind chill can still cut right through your bare skin. The Granite Creek Windbreaker is a light weight solution to this problem. The jacket is built from a lightweight rip-stop nylon … More Mountain Khakis Granite Creek Windbreaker Review
The Elite Cagoule and Chaps from Sierra Designs ditches the concepts of traditional gear, and instead reaches deep inside their pocket of ideas for something lighter, breezier, and completely zipper free. Tradition is a strong force in backpacking, but sometimes different truly is better. The Cagoule and Chaps are sold separately, but are designed to … More Sierra Designs Elite Cagoule and Chaps Rainwear
The Packaway Fuse jacket from L.L.Bean is a lightweight, highly breathable packable jacket designed to fill that need for light weight warmth in the spring, summer, and fall. It’s a quite straight forward jacket, made of a thin PrimaLoft chest, back and upper arms, with a very breathable, vent like, stretchable nylon panels under the … More L.L. Bean PrimaLoft Packaway Fuse Jacket
The L.L.Bean PrimaLoft Packaway jacket is a light weight, highly compressible mid layer garment that challenges fleece for year round usability and comfort, but can it replace it? Let’s see how it holds up. About the jacket The Packaway is built from light weight rip-stop nylon, with a thin layer of PrimaLoft One synthetic insulation. The … More L.L.Bean PrimaLoft Packaway Jacket
TreeLineBackpacker 