Craghoppers Unveiling eVENT At London Show

Just four days to go before the new Outdoors Adventure Show kicks off at Islington's Business Design Centre on Friday and it'll be the first opportunity for most people to see Craghopper's new eVENT mountain jacket.

If you're an OM regular, you'll know that we rate eVENT as the most breathable conventional waterproof fabric on the market. Up till now though, it's only been available in three-ply form and used in technical climbing jackets from Lowe Alpine and Rab.

The Craghoppers jackets are different on two counts. First, they use a two-ply version of the eVENT material with a drop liner to protect the membrane from abrasion. Second, they're designed as all round mountain-walking jackets rather than specialised climbing garments.

We've got one of the new Craghoppers £220 Epoch jackets here and it's very much a traditional British hillwalking jacket with some nice modern touches. It's full length with a waist and hem drawcord offering decent butt protection, you get handwarmer and chest pockets, all protected by water-resistant zips and a roll-away hood with decent wired peak.

It's not the lightest jacket we've encountered, but it's not excessively heavy either plus there are shorter cut, lighter tops in the range as well. Seeing as it's promising to rain here, we'll take it out on a lead this afternoon and see if it chases any sheep.

You can see the new Craghoppers eVENT range at the weekend's Outdoors Adventure show. Full show details from the web site. More information about Craghoppers here.