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Price:
£200
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Weight: 620g
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Features: Pertex Quantum® Endurance weatherproof outer, Pertex Quantum® inner, 220g of white goose down with fill power 750+EU 850+US, water resistant zip, two outer and one inner zipped pockets, fixed down filled hood, velcro adjustable cuffs for a secure storm seal, provided with a stuff sac.
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What's It For?
The Neutrino Endurance Jacket falls at the top end of the down jacket market. With a high fill power rating, but relatively low weight, it's ideal for mountaineering in say the Alps or Himalayas, where life's going to get nippy but you don't want to be lugging anything too heavy around either. It's less suitable for UK use because down turns to pulp when it's wet, and even with the water-resistant finish on the fabric, you won't get far in a good British downpour.
On the warmth spectrum it falls below the full-on Neutrino Extreme Jacket, which contains an extra 80g of goose down but weighs over 350g more in total. On the weight scale, it's a step up from the Neutrino Lite (the clue's in the name) but with almost twice as much down. Basically it's a good compromise between the need to stave off chattering teeth and the need to remain light and nimble, although frankly, it scores pretty highly on both the warmth and weight scales.
As the title suggests, this one's a women's specific jacket, so lasses don't have to worry about a poor fit sacrificing half the heat they're trying to safeguard. There's a men's version out there as well though.
The Techy Bits
The fill power rating is 750+ (EU ratings) which is high, and the higher the figure, the more space the down expands to fill. This means it traps a greater volume of air, which provides the actual insulation, so you stay warmer. Isn't cause and effect wonderful?
Rab uses Eastern European goose down which is the best quality down out there. It's hand-filled in the UK and treated with all the tender loving care you'd want to lavish on 96% pure white goose down, so it's not getting squashed or damaged in transit. Studies have shown that long periods of compression (and damp) have a long-term effect on the warmth of down, so that's pretty important.
What's the fabric? On the inside you've got Pertex Quantum, which Rab describes as the lightest Pertex fabric out there, weighing in at 30g per metre squared. That's 50% less weight and volume than standard Pertex fabric.
On the outside you have the slightly heavier (50g per metre squared) Pertex Quantum Endurance fabric which, since we're on the accolades, is the lightest water resistant Pertex fabric. It's windproof, water resistant and breathable, so it will protect you from spindrift and those gusty moments up on the mountainsides. Oh yes, it's downproof as well, but that should be a no-brainer:-)
And how's it all put together? Well, the jacket uses baffle wall construction, rather than stitch-through construction, so you don't get any cold spots along the lines of stitching. The baffles hold the down in place, so it doesn't migrate and leave any uninsulated patches, adn they fall closer together than on some jackets, which helps as well.
How It Performs
First up: the women's fit. Rab falls well into the category of companies that understand the shape of women's bodies and this jacket fitted us perfectly. It's snug but with room for base and mid-layers underneath, and the draw cord around the base, and cuff adjustments round the wrists, mean you can pull it tight wherever any cold air threatens to seep in. Sizes range from 8 to 16.
Warmth is a bit harder to test, partly because the insulating properties of down vary depending on the amount of moisture in the air, so it feels warmer in dry mountainous air than on, say, a British hillside. Rab doesn't give it a specific temperature rating for this reason, but we wore it in the evenings between 3500m and 4000m in the Alps last summer and we didn't get chilly.
Design features that help preserve the heat include an insulated flap under the zip, so you don't get a cold spot there, and a down-filled hood. If you don't want to cover your head you can roll it away under the velcro flap to form a collar (see picture).
If you do want the extra heat, the hood adjusts for a cosy fit at the back and at both sides. The toggles are a bit different from the standard 'squeeze and pull' design. You pull the cord until the fit's right and then tuck it into a niche in the plastic toggle, which is light, pretty secure and easy to do up one-handed, but more of a mission to loosen again.
There's also a stiff and well-protruding wired peak on the hood for face protection if it starts getting a bit white out there.
Pockets include a small inside pouch for valuable bits and pieces, and two hand pockets at the front, all zip-ups. The front pockets are fleece lined for comfort as is the top of the main zip flap, around the collar, for a comfortable finish.
That's about all, except to satisfy our obsession with lightweight gear once again by pointing out that this is a seriously light jacket for its warmth, like all the items in Rab's Neutrino range. When you're hauling full camping and ice gear up a mountain, every gram of weight you can save counts, and the designers at Rab understand that. Good stuff.
We've come to expect top quality outdoor gear from Rab and once again we weren't disappointed. The Women's Neutrino Endurance jacket is seriously toasty for its weight, with a 750+ fill power of Eastern European goose down. It's not just the materials that do the job either; the design's spot on, including the good snug fit, baffle wall construction, adjustable hood, and insulated, water-resistant fastenings.
Top quality down jackets don't come cheap from any company, but with Rab you can be sure you're getting the best quality materials all put together with care and if you can afford it, the price is worth paying. It may not be as good as synthetic insulation for use in the UK, as it doesn't work when it's wet, but for Alpine, Himalayan or other high altitude use, it's just the job.
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Very warm and light, with a good women's fit.
 Not much really:-)
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Performance
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Value
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