Mountain Equipment New Gear Scoop

It may be summer out there, but in the whacky world of outdoor gear, autumn / winter 2005 is only just around the corner with new ranges of clothing and equipment hitting the outdoor shops from around the end of August and, in some cases earlier.

A few months back, we popped over to see the nice folk at Mountain Equipment for a sneak preview of their new autumn winter stuff, we told you a bit about the new UK-specific Kongur XCR jacket back then - it's pretty much a longer version of the Changabang with a new, even better hood, designed to suit typically gnarly UK mountain conditions - but we thought now would be a good time to bring you up to date with the rest of the new stuff from ME, so here goes....

Oh, and a big thank you to ME's Mark Clifford for his expert modelling skills.

The down range remains pretty much as is, with just a few cosmetic changes and some extra down in the women's version of the Lightline for added warmth and better, plusher looks. Things have changed on the synthetic front though with a new Primaloft-filled jacket called the Super Couloir.

It's designed to work brilliantly in cold, wet, damp, nasty Scottish-type conditions which means the damp-friendly, warm grade, synthetic Primaloft One filling is backed up with a taped Drilite Plus outer shell that should give the filling a fighting chance of staying dry.

You also get a fold-away hood, two big, zipped handwarmer pockets and a ski-pass holder. The weight at 810 grammes is similar to a Lightline down jacket and it should make a useful belay / general insulation top for Scottish winter and more. Price will be £140.

The Super Couloir's not the only new top in the range, it's joined by the Cirrus a less specialist Polarloft-filled jacket with no hood and a diamond ripstop outer plus sharper looks for £60, its sibling, the Cirrus Vest and an interesting matching pant - oh, sorry, we're British - trouser then, the Cirrus Trouser which is a Polarloft filled pant, or trouser, with full-length side-zips, articulated knees and an internal gaiter for £60.

Apparently the trouser is a response to the demand from expeditions for an affordable, bombproof piece of insulated legwear for extreme cold condition use - think Aconcagua and similar - the full-length zips should make them very useable.

There's been a bit of tweaking going on in the shell department, little refinements to areas like softer cuff tabs and so on. The big news though is Stealth Zone technology, which is a neater, cleaner way of constructing seams.

ME considered welding and lamination, but weren't convinced by the strength of some of the resulting joins or the stiffness from lamination, so they've constructed seams and zip inserts that have a clean, welded-type look, but are actually made using sewing techniques.

For pockets for example, zips are stitched in place, then turned in on themselves to give a clean looks that's still strong, they say.

"We believe that this is the best compromise giving attractive aesthetics, but also performance."

The other development is an 'even better' Stealth Hood which uses an upgraded peak combining a laminate and wire. ME's hoods are already arguably the best out there, but the new version is claimed to be even better and gives a uniform curve to the peak and a better fit. The wire is copper for malleability.

Laminates used generally are softer, so there's less stiffness, say, at the front of detailed jackets. Oh, the majority of this season's jackets will use Gore's microtape for lightness and better breathability.

The Kongur Jacket - below - we've already told you about - see the earlier article - but its been put together with lots of mountain rescue team feedback, uses a longer cut, the new hood and tough 3-layer Gore-Tex XCR fabric for durability. It could be the perfect UK winter shell jacket with touches like water resistant zippers with storm flaps to keep the winter outside where it belongs, and will retail for £250.

Also new for this winter is the Vinson Jacket in Gore-Tex soft shell. Yep, that's right, it's a Windstopper-based softshell, but the seams are taped so it's effectively waterproof.

The fabric has a fleece inner laminated to the Gore-Tex membrane for added insulation with the fleece shaved away to allow taping on seam areas. The Vinson gets a full Stealth hood in Paclite with a stiffened peak, plus twin internal and external chest pockets, pit-zips and adjustable waist and hem.

So you're looking at a soft feeling, warm and waterproof jacket. We're not sure how well it will work - the permanent insulation arguably makes it less versatile than a layered fleece and hard shell, while we find in the UK, for many people, Windstopper simply isn't breathable enough. Might be great in the Alps though. Weight is 820 grammes and price £250. Feels nice and looks nice too, see below...

Finally, the veritable Lhotse has been pensioned off and replaced with a new jacket the Ogre XCR. As ME's Mark Clifford says, it was a question of trying to make ME' sbest all-round mountain jacket even better.

The result is a classic three-ply XCR winter hill-walking jacket that weighs in at just 600 grammes and, like the Lhotse, has been put together with British conditions in mind. That means you get a double storm flap over the main zip, pockets with soft-laminated storm flaps and the new Stealth hood, plus large chest and map pockets that are pack and harness compatible and drawcords at waist and hem.

Should give classic mountain perfornance but with more modern looks and refinement and quite a lot of buyers will undoubtedly be choosing between this and the Kongur... Price is £220 by the way and as this is the 21st Century, there's a mobile phone pocket too :-) The women's version is the Nanga Parbat, same price and versy similar features, but cut specifically for women.

The Windstopper G2 stuff has been tweaked for this year with a new fabric which is thicker and warmer plus a semi-wired roll-away Paclite hood for added versatility. The outer's more abrasion resistant too.

It comes in new, not black colours as well, midnight blue for example, and there's a women's version, though for some reason, that doesn't have a hood. Price is £160 or £140 for lasses. Weight just over 600 grammes. The excellent G2 Pants soldier on unchanged from last year.

There you go, told you it wasn't black any more... That's blue that is, midnight blue and coablt if you want to be precise. The other option is storm and charcoal, which sounds a bit like, erm, black to us...

Totally new to the range is the Powershield Jacket. It doesn't take a genius to work out that it uses Polartec's Powershield fabric, which we rather like. You get a fleece inner and a highly wind-resistant outer fabric with decent breathability, plus two handwarmer pockets.

There's a women's version too, price is steep at £150 for a not particularly technical jacket. It's a shame there's no G2-style Powershield top in the range.

Apart from a new Mountain Stretch Pant using Schoeller-type fabric for a nice, snug fit and articulated knees and a half-leg zip for easy changes.