I had planned to make this month’s article a softshell jacket review with a nice selection of windproof all-rounder jackets for us to fight off the winter weather with. But as I sent requests out for samples it became clear that the edges of the definition of softshell have blurred and as a result what we have is a more diverse line-up of midlayer jackets. This is a good thing however as weather protection has never seemed quite so light and breathable as it has with some of these jackets. Traditional softshell is miles away from the stiff-fabric sweatboxes of…

There’s snow on the hills, lots of us will have vouchers to spend and the sales have started, so now’s probably the best time to look at one of the most expensive bits of kit you can buy: a warm winter jacket for the mountains. I asked for winter weight insulation for this review expecting a handful of similar jackets and what came in for test had a good bit of variety which actually works out well. If you consider a winter jacket for rest stops, camp or belaying the image of a nice puffy hooded down jacket probably comes…

Winter’s here, if you’ve been on the hills recently the wind, the rain and the recently arrived snow will have you pulling your hood up and leaning into the gusts on the ascent before running for cover behind the cairn. I suppose we’d all like crunchy snow underfoot and clear blue skies above until Easter next year but the reality of a Scottish winter sees us as likely to be battling horizontal rain as much as happily walking across a Christmas card scene. It’s nice to know that we can shut it all out if we’ve got a jacket that’s…

Layering your outdoor clothing used to be a lot simpler. You had your base layer, a fleece, a waterproof and something warm jammed into your rucksack for pulling on at lunch stops or camp. But apparently we were all suffering terribly with this basic equipment and so all sorts of new clothing came along to fill the gaps in our mountain cupboard that we didn’t even know were there until marketing departments pointed them out to us. The cynic in me can’t help but admit to just how useful some of these developments have been however; softshell has all but…