New Rab Kit Previewed

For some reason OM and Rab have never quite managed to get our act together, so while we've brought you endless gear scoops and previews from other companies, we've singularly failed to touch on the Debyshire-based company's range of outdoor clothing and down products. Until now that is...

Yep, we spent a useful few hours the other week getting a quick guided tour of the Rab range for this winter and we were highly impressed. As you may know, the company was founded by Rab Carrington and specialised in down clothing and sleeping bags, which were made in Sheffield.

Rab sold the company a couple of years back, but still works with them on sleeping bag design and down selection for one day a week. The Sheffield factory's still going too, but is used selectively for specialist gear and top-end stuff, while other kit is made abroad.

The company takes huge pride in the quality of its products and uses eastern European down because it's the best. In some cases, the shell of bags and insulated clothing is made in the far east, then filled in Sheffield. This also means you can order sleeping bags with an overfill if you feel it's necessary.

All Rab kit is broken down into one of four categories:

Active which is designed to work for UK mountain walking.

Extreme which is technical climbing and mountaineering kit

Expedition which is for 8,000 metre plus peaks

Neutrino which is super lightweight kit regardless of use...

Anyway, enough blather. It's an interesting company that makes some of the best down clothing and bags around and is increasingly making a positive impression with an expanding range of clothing. This winter that range gets even bigger and includes a full set of women's options for the first time.

We've taken a quick skim though some of the more interesting and new bits of the range that'll be getting into the shops in just a month or so's time...

There's been some tweaking across the range, but the Pro-Active Jacket is totally new for this winter and Rab has high hopes for it. It's a duck-down jacket with a water-resistant Hyperlite Plus shell fabric that should make it very versatile for allround use.

It gets 350 grammes of 85/15 European duck down with an EU rating of 560 plus in a longisg cut, stitch-through shell complete with detachable hood. It's not superlightweight, but should be great for cold evenings sitting around in the tent or climbing hut or winter pub outings. Not super lightweight at around 1100 grammes, but useful, we reckon. Price is £150.

That's the Pro-Active above, also new, if you feel the need for a fully waterproof down jacket, is the eVENT-shelled Summit Storm which is based on the existing Summit but with a waterproof, breathable Hyperlite Storm shell. It's only 40 grammes heavier than the Summit and uses 90 per-cent good down fill, some 250 grammes of it. Price is £250.

Alongside Montane, Craghoppers, Helly Hansen and, we think, Salomon, Rab is one of the few companies using the excellent and very breathable eVENT waterproof breathable fabric. We're big fans, so it's nice to have more options.

On the climbing side of things, the Latok Jacket has been revised for this year and a women's version, the Women's Infinity introduced. There's also a new Latok Guide.

The Latok pictured below, is probably best known for its use of a double main water-resistant zip. It's a slightly eccentric design, but Rab point out that most of the time you can use just one of the zips, double-zipping when things get gnarly, but it also allows you to use the outermost set of teeth to give increased volume to accomodate extra insulation layers as needed.

As a technical jacket, it has a wired, helmet-compatible hood and high pockets plus an extremely impressive 560 gramme weight. The Latok costs £250 and weighs around 560 grammes, but for £170 you can have the Latok Alpine from the Neutrino range which tips the scales at just 440 grammes, but won't be as durable as the straight Latok. Less, for once, is actually less though...

Walking Jackets...

Mountain walkers should be more interested in the mens' Bergen or women's Vidda jackets or possibly the new Lofoten which is a traditional, five-pocket, long-cut, UK-conditions mountain jacket weighing 540 grammes and costing £200.

We really like the look of the more contemporary Bergen - below - though. It weighs only 500 grammes has a proper head-sized hood with wired-peak and two rather than five pockets. As with the other walking jackets in the range, the main zip is a conventional one with a storm flap. It's also cut more generously than the climbing jackets, so you're not limited to a whippet-like build :-)

Er, fleece, like, yeah, so what? Except that for this winter, Rab has an very interesting new stand-out technical jacket in the form of the Phantom Jacket. It uses a new Polartec fabric called Windpro Stretch with Hardface Technology - gulp - which is based on the old Windpro.

That's a very densely woven fleece that's as breathable as normal fleece, but a lot more wind resistant, it's not dissimilar in fact to the Ultrafleece used my ME which many users reckon was the ultimate UK fleece. The latest version used here has a smooth, abrasion resistant outer face and built-in stretch.

Powerstretch side panels help with a close technical fit and there's a neat hood and thumb loops that'll remind older OMers of the revered Lowe Alpine Ninja Hoodie. It ain't cheap at £120 and obviously needs to be black, but should be a great climbing fleece thanks to the added wind resistance. Think halfway between fleece and softshell and you won't go far wrong - kawabunga dude ;-)

The Photon Smock and Hoodie have been around for a while now, but new for this winter is the rather neat-looking, Primaloft-filled Belay Jacket. As the name suggests, it's a throw-over insulated shell filled with Primaloft, which should make it ideal for use in damp UK conditions.

The lightweight Pertex Endurance shell material should keep the worst of the water at bay, while you get a full hood, four outer and one inner pocket and neat-looking water-resistant zips. The weight is a very decent 560 grammes and price will be £130. If it works as well as it looks, it should be a winner.

See www.rab.uk.com for more information.