Montane Featherlite Down Women's Jacket

Product Information

It's designed to be worn fairly snugly to prevent heat loss, however you can easily fit a midweight fleece underneath if you feel the cold. The hood is undoubtedly an 'under helmet' design, being similar to the general fit/feel of the jacket - snug, fitted, and without excess. This makes the jacket more windproof and warmer for its fill weight than a typical stitched-through construction.

Montane - Outdoorkit Montane - Outdoorkit

A DWR treatment will help the insulation stay dry for longer, and we've favoured more weather-proof fabrics in this review.

On the other hand you get 132g of fill in a size M jacket, which is more than most on test, and this helps to boost the Filoment's comparative warmth for winter and mountain use. Throughout the spring, summer, and autumn we mainly used it as a super light outer, which for the UK is probably what it's likely to be used for nine times out of ten. We're still not 100% convinced by the cut, but it has grown on us a bit - or maybe the comparative 'rigidity' of the baffles has since softened. Of course the Filoment can be used as an outer but it's probably best suited to more benign cold conditions rather than wind and precipitation. To help prevent the hood flapping around in the wind it's got a slightly stiffened peak, while inside this a stretchy forehead 'gaiter' keeps draughts at bay - a nice touch.

Montane | Womens | Featherlite | Down Jacket | Black - Trekitt Montane | Womens | Featherlite | Down Jacket | Black - Trekitt

It's worth mentioning that whilst tightening, it doesn't just pull around the top, or the rim - it pulls all around your head, giving an even spread. There's 100g of down in a medium jacket - a bit less than many of the jackets on test, though the fill power makes up for that. They're changing their product line, although the Fenrir is still there but they've got other new products out to UKC for testing. If you're looking for the best warmth available at a minimalist weight, then this top-of-the-market down jacket must be pretty much the state of the art, reckons Dan Bailey.If your jacket is far too tight, the baffles can compress to a point where the insulation can't loft effectively, limiting the amount of warmth it can trap. Wear as a mid-layer when moving quickly in really cold conditions or as outer insulation on cool evening camps.

Montane Womens Featherlite Down Jacket Saskatoon Berry Montane Womens Featherlite Down Jacket Saskatoon Berry

The thinner your baffles, the more stitching there has to be, and the potentially less weatherproof your jacket becomes. The 100% polyester 20 denier outer fabric is light enough, and seems very durable for how thin it is, but bear in mind that this is only relative - all down clothing needs careful treatment. It's highly wind-resistant, which does help on a breezy summit, and though it's very thin the fabric still feels pretty tough for its weight (though as with all light down jackets you'll still want to treat it nicely). It's not a deal-breaker for non-climbers by any means, but perhaps with a few tweaks the system used here could be improved on?

This heavy but nimble boot comes with a recommendation from Peter Macfarlane in his winter 2022/3 tests. Packing down to the size of a large orange, it will hardly be noticed when stowed in your backpack, whilst the PERTEX® Quantum outer fabric allows the down to loft to its capacity on demand. The weight for warmth ratio is excellent: 120g of 750+ down fill gives generous insulation for a pack weight of just 377g. To be fair to the Transcendant Hoody it's clearly a bit of a generalist, with an all-round outdoor/lifestyle kind of vibe, so its comparatively low performance is perfectly understandable!

Montane Womens Featherlite Trail Jacket | UK | Ultralight Montane Womens Featherlite Trail Jacket | UK | Ultralight

The Featherlite doesn't stuff into its own pocket, but it does come with a small stuff sack that allows it to be packed down to a compact size.Ground-breaking internal Reflect technology increases your warmth by 10% as the fine mesh reflects body heat back into your core creating unrivalled efficiency. In common with most of the jackets on review here the Arete is made with conventional stitched-through micro baffles.