Mountain Gortex Pro Shell - Your Walking and Hiking Gear Views
The use of a Gortex Lightweight outer layer (jacket) costing over the £200 mark should be an automatic recommendation that the kit supplied is of the best quality in all respects. Firstly the positives, the Jacket is generally waterproof, lightweight and simple in design and with the exception of the hood rim will fold up quite small in the rucksack for carrying. However there are several faults which I suggest would temp readers to alternative makes and designs.
Firstly the main body zip on this jacket does not engage easily and I find that if you are putting the jacket on as the weather changes it more often snags and requires some effort for the zip to move and close. Why is this a problem? Well apart from getting the upper body wet trying to close the jacket I am quite sure that the Zip stitching will pull the zip from the fabric before too long and I doubt that the jacket can be repaired in this instance. The waterproofing applies to the material but not the Zips forming the pockets, such that if you have a Map in the Chest pocket (seems to be designed for the OS 1:25000/50000 series maps) then in wet weather the maps will be wet since the pocket is not waterproof.
The hood does not seem to be capable of being folded to form a coat collar when not in use and when folded and closed with the tag/velcrow attachment the hood rim becomes distorted when opened out, such that I now leave the hood in the open position which is fine except when (as is often the case on mountains) the wind blows and the flapping hood can be quite irritating. Finally there is no inner tag to hang the coat up after use. If you fold the jacket into a rucksack after use this is not a problem but why no hanging tag?
Would I recommend this jacket to others? I suggest there are better all round jackets in this price category which would serve you better!
Matthew Egan, Sidcup
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