RRP: £170 Weight: 300g (size 10) Rab have updated their synthetic isulated Xenon jacket and I’ve been trying it out for last few months as the weather has turned colder. The insulation is Primaloft Gold Active and I’ve found the warmth for weight ratio to be excellent. Although the jacket feels thin when you first put it on, the combination of wind resistance and insulation has proved an equal to my current lighter down jacket without having to worry about it getting wet in our Scottish climate. The Pertex Quantum outer fabric provides a good wind barrier and feels comfortably…

RRP: £225 (currently on pre-Xmas offer in many retailers) Weight: 645g (size 10) When this jacket first arrived I felt a rush of 90’s nostalgia quickly followed by disappointment that I would be testing a relatively heavy, chunkily styled, old-school waterproof when I’d got used to the high performance of lightweight alternatives. However having worn the Glissade on numerous outings over the last few months I’ve had to humble-pie my initial prejudices and can honestly say this item has won itself a place in my winter hillwalking ensemble for a number of good reasons. The Glissade is made from 2…

Recommended Price: £240 (widely available for less) Weight: 460g The Broad Peak IN Hooded Jacket from Mammut provides lightweight down insulation with a very small packsize. The jacket contains 125g of down – 10% of it goose down – but the high fill power of 750 cuin means that the Broad Peak provides a high level of insulation. The outer fabric is windproof Pertex Microlight with a water repellent finish, ensuring the jacket can be worn as an outer layer in dry conditions as well as as a mid layer. I’ve found very little down leakage through the outer, a…

Recommended price: £140 Weight: 300g (women’s size 10) Sheffield based Rab has a 30 year history of making quality climbing and walking gear and this latest piece of lightweight insulation adds to their record of innovation. The first thing to strike you about the Alpha Flux is the very soft feel of the outer material and the weird exposed panels of fleecy insulation on the inside. It’s best worn as an outer layer on cool days but its neat fit and high wicking ability means its also useful as a midlayer – on breezy days I’ve been happy wearing it…

RRP: £110 Weight: 365g This softshell from Mammut comes midway on the spectrum of these jackets that fill in the gap between seam-sealed waterproof hardshells and super-light windshirts. The Rab Runbold Trail SO is made from Mammut’s SOFtech fabric which in use proved itself able to withstand light showers whilst also offering some protection against wind. The soft feel on the inside makes it very comfortable to wear over a short sleeved base layer and the fabric is super stretchy giving loads of movement in the arms and also the neck when wearing the hood. Breathability is good and there…

I know you might not believe it as we’ll be kicking through fresh snow in the hills this weekend, but summer is coming so it’s time to lighten the load a wee bit. I like big protective hoods in the winter, I like wide cuffs I can pull over gloves and as the years are racking up I’m feeling quite happy out there with a heavier fabric to keep a little bit more of the windchill at bay. However for the past few weeks as I’ve been back in lighter shells and I’ve adjusted to all the cut corners and…

Last winter I did a roundup of various midlayers and some of the feedback I got was that plain old fleece still has a lot of fans. This includes myself by the way, more often than not you’ll find me in a microfleece of some sort as its versatile, quick drying and low bulk which means it layers well. With these thoughts in mind I put together this review, but because it’s coming out in early winter I added in another favourite feature of mine: a hood. A fleece hood done well replaces a hat as it’ll move with your…