The Annapurna Softshell achieves this, keeping your head and nose warm while keeping a good range of motion. Softshell material is made to be durable. It has kept the worst of the weather off and I felt that only on the worst of days might I take an extra lightweight shell to help stave off the damp. The sleeves on the Sherpa Thorong fitted well and the velcro wrist tabs worked fine with gloves on. Your email address will not be published. With a softshell jacket, I am able to keep a layer of insulation, windbreaking, and breathability that is hard to get with a hard shell layer. The gridded fleece lining was generous and gave great warmth – in most UK autumn, winter and early spring conditions the Thorong was plenty warm enough and the fleece did a good job of wicking away moisture and drying quickly when on a route. Sherpa Lakpa Rita jacket review | Climbing Gear Reviews. Just sign up via the home page link in the sidebar. Notably, the pockets are in a position that is inconvenient to use if used with a harness. I was sent the Lava Red color and it looks especially great in a background of ice and snow. It’s super warm though and will keep most of the weather out – those inside pockets are brilliant. Now to speak on the former, performance. If it was windy then the jacket would have been better and as the season has changed here in the UK I have found myself wearing it more and more. Two interior pockets easily big enough to fit an OS map into – genius and hats off to Sherpa for this one as I have relied on these pockets on several occasions for stashing gloves in. Skip to the beginning of the images gallery. I would like a slightly more relaxed fit and the sleeves need a little more work on them. With 3M Thinsulate 75% recycled featherless down insulation, the Annapurna Hooded Jacket is the new puffy you've been searching for. A good fit and very breathable for when you’re working hard. ( Log Out / Indulge me while I first speak on the latter, and take a close look at this growing company, Himali, and their roots planted in a Nepalese community. The helmet compatible hood was great and fitted nicely over my climbing helmet. So a pocket I normally reserve to keep a phone or spare camera battery is unusable for me. Not a member? I had the opportunity to test out a small sized jacket. Aidan Goldie is a ski mountaineer based out of Colorado. It’s a solid softshell at a competitive price. Outdoor Prolink is a pro purchase program for qualified Outdoor Industry Professionals. The Sherpa Thorong is a fully featured, fleeced backed softshell jacket that has been great in all test conditions except driving rain. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. As HIMALI’s co-founder Tendi Sherpa describes his upbringing in a very remote village, without school or infrastructures developed, one can see a motivation to use the fiscal and social platform of outdoor gear manufacturing to help communities in need. There was also a zipped chest pocket, this was just enough to keep a phone, digital camera, some energy bars in and has a headphone lead slot to keep everything neat and tidy. Himali claims to create quality gear that the founders of the company would themselves use. Read our for full details. The hood is tailored for a climber, and the durable softshell material can withstand the brutal conditions the big ranges will deliver. Outdoor Prolink’s members are the heart of the outdoor industry. Establishing a mission tailored to two major parts of Tendi Sherpa’s life: his community and his passion for the mountains. The weather guard was laminated Neoshell and worked really well, that extra width meant in never got caught in the zip. Nevisport use cookies to improve your website experience. We also store some third-party cookies for marketing purposes; you can read about these in our. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It utilizes a 15k/15k waterproof membrane and features an ergonomic fit, coupled with integrated spandex for additional comfort. Polartec Neoshell is now an established breathable fabric that competes well with Gore Tex and eVENT for breathability and water resistance. You can return any item by post for a refund within 60 days of receiving your original order. Just as it is with any piece of gear, one should try to try the jacket on to determine fit and think about your preferred layering system. HIMALI states their corporate mission to give back charitably to the Nepalese people, as they invest 5% of net profits “into the Himalayan region, particularly by supporting schools and also by fueling initiatives that provide clean water.” HIMALI Life focuses their donations to Charity Water, a nonprofit that provides clean drinking water in developing nations, and also school supplies for local Nepalese children. I instead opted to take my Annapurna Hooded Softshell Jacket to the coldest and windiest conditions that my home state of Colorado can offer. Most of the time I just needed to wear a t-shirt under the jacket for trekking and rock climbing and non- snowy mountaineering. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. A key test of the versatility of a softshell jacket is the ability to use it in a diverse set of steps of a backcountry tour. It was straight forward to adjust without gloves but with gloves on it became trickier, this could easily be solved by having a bigger tab on the cord. A softshell is ideal under these conditions because I tend to work harder the more vertically my movement becomes. Learn how your comment data is processed. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. It was then very comfortable to wear, if the weather got cold I put a synthetic vest or even a full jacket over it to be very toasty indeed. I would, however, like to see the hanger tab twice the size it is to help dry the jacket out in a drying room – we would see more of that lovely prayer flag patterning too. The sleeves were roomy enough not to impede climbing and the cuff tabs locked the sleeve in place and stopped it riding up for those reachy moves. For the majority of trekking and climbing activities it would be more than enough. Conditions that necessitate windbreaking layer, with a little more insulation and that offers protection from harsh snowy conditions. The Annapurna Softshell functions just as you would expect a softshell to perform. As a backcountry traveler, a softshell jacket is traditionally reserved for cold and adverse conditions. ( Log Out / Unfortunately, I will not have the means in the near future to travel to the Himalayas to test the jacket under their designed conditions. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Gear that stands up to the highest and harshest conditions on the planet. For a company that is in its foundation, and looking to grow, this generosity is generally unheard of. The HIMALI Annapurna softshell jacket, intimately tied to Nepal and the Himalayas, is designed to withstand the planets harshest conditions, and a mission to support the communities around them as well. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Change ). If I wanted to wear my big puffy jacket under the softshell, I would have chosen to go with the medium.