It's off to the great gear mountains in the sky for Mountain Equipment's classic Ultrafleece Mountain jacket. Whatever next? No more Heinz Tomato Ketchup?
So
farewell then Ultrafleece Mountain Jacket
You were reasonably warm
Yet quite wind resistant
Unlike other fleeces
Now you are just dead
I wonder how long you'll take to compost
- OM Thribb
Yep, it's the end for Mountain Equipment's classic Ultrafleece
tops after what seems like an eternity as standard issue British
mountain wear.
Ultrafleece - aka Karisma - proved to be an excellent product for
the UK with the dense weave offering much more wind resistance than
standard fleece.
All the tops have been discontinued for this autumn / winter
season, so if you want one, you'd better be quick - the new range is
due in the shops from September. ME tell us that sales were simply
falling away with more buyers going for their softshell and
Microtherm ranges as an alternative.
The Mountain Jacket Is Dead, Long Live...
We brought you scoop news and pics of the ME range for this winter
a few months back - see
this story - but there are a couple of obvious alternatives to
the Mountain Jacket which'll be appearing in the shops shortly.
One is the new G2 Techlite jacket, a shorter-cut version of
the Gore Windstopper soft shell-style Alpine Jacket which has a
shorter cut and an added Gore-Tex hood for extra protection along
with two big chest pockets. We reckon it's the way to go for true
alpine use.
For the UK though, take a look at the new Microtherm Mountain
jacket. It's a variation on ME's Microtherm range of lightweight
windproof shell with a wicking fleece liner with a cut based on - you
guessed it - the Ultrafleece Mountain Jacket. It's lighter though,
windproof rather than wind resistant and more water resistant
too.
Looks good. Hopefully we'll get one in on test soon. For more ME
info, see the web
site.
And if you still want Ultrafleece?
Karisma is essentially the same fabric as Ultrafleece and a number
of smaller manufacturers are still using the fabric. See this
Richard Gear
for some options (it's on the second page), also Extreme,
who Richard don't mention, produce several Karisma tops.
