Sprayway Go PrimaLofty For Belay Jacket

This might seem unseasonable - mainly because it is - but this is for those of you dreaming of cooler weather and frozen Scottish winter mountaineering.

The guys over at Sprayway have just announced a couple of new insulated winter jackets using Primaloft insulation for a combination of warmth and water resistance. Down has always been next to useless in damp Scottish winter conditions - get it wet and it starts to resemble that other Scots staple, porridge - but synthetics make a lot more sense.

The big plus of PrimaLoft is that it's impressively water resistant, so you can use it regardless of rain, wet mist or water melt. The new Sprayway Belay Jacket - pictured - is an oversized technical climbing jacket.

The idea is that you stuff the 900 gramme garment in your sac when climbing and generating loads of body heat, then when you reach the belay and start to cool rapidly while you partner dithers on some desperate overhanging pitch, you simply pull the Belay Jacket on over your technical shell and other clothing for added warmth. Once you start climbing, stick it in your pack again.

The PrimaLoft insulation's ideal in this role because in demonstrations we've seen, it simply doesn't absorb water, so its thermal properties remain unaffected, though it's still close in warmth and weight to natural down. And of course there's no reason why walkers shouldn't use it too. Ideal for those mid-winter picnic stops we reckon.

One For Lasses Too...

There's also a lighter, women's jacket, the Celcius. It's a thinner insulation piece priced at a very reasonable £60 and weighing in at 500 grammes. A DWR treatment to the outer polyester shell means this is another fleece substitute with better damp conditions performance.

And speaking of fleece substitutes, next year's TNF Redpoint jacket, which we like a lot and have been using like a belay jacket to layer over shell clothing for stops, also uses PrimaLoft for improved wet conditions performance.

• PrimaLoft web site
• Sprayway web site
• The North Face web site