Award-winning jackets, interesting mountain packs and wild colours coming next spring.
The North Face sometimes takes flak for being a 'high street brand', but the reality is that the company produces a wide range of kit and some of it is genuinely excellent. We caught up with the latest spring 2011 products at Friedrichshafen a few weeks ago and were impressed, here are a few of the highlights.
New 40-litre Mountain Pack
The new Prophet 40 is an all-round alpine/mountain pack with some interesting new features. In particular, there's a very neat lid design which incorporates the main body compartment draw cord into the lid itself.
The pack's made from light but extremely strong Cordura Bombastic auto-airbag frabric, which is just what it sounds like and reinforced with hard as nails SuperFabric in vulnerable areas. There's an E-VAP thermo-moulded back panel to shed snow and avoid sucking up sweat like a sponge.
New clips and buckles are stronger than before and you get belt gear loops and side ski slots as well. Weight, for a tough mountain pack, is a very reasonable 1100 grammes and it'll retail for £130 in the UK.
Lightweight Summit Pack
Also new for next spring is a minimalist summit pack, the Verto 26 which packs down good and small thanks to an absence of padding apart from shoulder straps and belt, is made from cargo chute fabric. It has two pockets and multiple reflective lash points.
The idea is that you leave your main pack behind and head for the top with minimal gear and pack. But the bit we really like is that the Verso also doubles neatly as a sleeping bag stuff sac, so it's useful even when it's apparently useless... It weights 310 grammes and will sell for £50.
New Shoes
New in the footwear line-up is the Singletrack TH trail-running shoe. Based on the Singletrack which appeared this year, the 'TH' version is a more stable version with a 'Terrain Harness' design intended to reduce pronation. So more chassis resistance to lateral roll, but all the other features of the standard Singletrack like X-Dome Cradle high impact-heel cushioning, EVA mid-sole, Tenacious Grip rubber outsole and so on.
We've used the standard Singletrack and like it as a lightweight trail shoe with occasional running capability, the TH should definitely be worth a look if you want something with added stabilty along the same lines. Available in both men's and women's versions.
New Top-End Pro Shell Jacket
The Half Dome Jacket is a new £360, three-layer, Gore-Tex Stretch Pro Shell technical mountain waterproof jacket. It's sub-500g, but still has a fully-adjustable, helmet-friendly hood with brushed chinguard, pit-zips, four pockets.
The Half Dome uses the brand's 'performance fit' and the stretch in the fabric, which is what pushes the price up as it's an expensive material, should allow greater mobility for those seam-busting, high-altitude rock moves. Great colours as well...
Incidentally, the UK-friendly Point Five Jacket, with its wired peak, is tweaked for the spring with new tethered hood cords and a few other minor changes.
Mad Light Emergency Shell
We like this one, the new Verto Jacket weighs just 91 grammes and has a tiny pack size for minimalist alpinism. It's made from 7-denier Pertex Quantum which, as you can see, is so fine that it's near translucent, but, says the The North Face, is still 'surprisingly durable and abrasion resistant'.
Unlike most ultra-lightweight windproofs, it comes complete with an ergonomic, elasticated hood and cuffs and has a single pocket which doubles as a stuff sack. It's been specifically designed for lightweight, emergency use when you're carrying as little as possible and the judges at OutDoor were impressed enough to hand it an innovation award. Nuff said.
Another PowerShield Pro Jacket
We've been using the new Kishtwar Jacket – out shortly – which is made from nigh on waterproof, Polartec PowerShield Pro and really like the fabric – more soon. The Kishtwar is hooded, but the new Halo Jacket comes without a hood and like the Kishtwar is virtually waterproof but still very breathable.
Like most of the new range, it comes in a full range of slightly mad colours, though there are also more muted options for the shy mountaineer.
Loads more pics below. The gear here will be in the shops in early 2011, more about the autumn 2010 kit we've been using shortly and more North Face information at www.thenorthface.com.
