Lowe Alpine Elite Jacket - First Look

Lowe Alpine Elite Jacket - First Look

Price: £250.00

Weight: 664 grammes (men's medium)

Features: eVENT three-ply waterproof and breathable fabric, Swivelsight hood with single-handed adjustment and reflective patch at base, twin venting front-pockets, zipped internal pocket, articulated 'reach high' sleeves, asymmetric front zipper withe gum drop pull and double storm flap, stretch fabrics at shoulder blades and base of neck, brushed chin guard for comfort and elasticated, adjustable cuffs with hook and loop closure. Available as Emotion Jacket for women.

Great breathability Hood is great for climbing but less practical without a helmet.

The Concept We've been using Lowe Alpine's eVENT test jacket for almost a year now. The original test garment evolved into the £275 Evolution Jacket, but its quirky design, curious miniature pit-zips and strange pockets make it an acquired taste. The Elite, tested here however, is a simpler, short-cut, classic alpine jacket with some neat developments like the asymmetrical zip which reduces bullk in the neck area. It's aimed squarely at technical mountaineering use and has a price to match. We haven't had a cahnce to use it in really serious winter conditions yet, for the simple reason that it's not winter, but we've been out in it enough to form some intitial opinions. Finally, of course, it stands out by its use of eVENT fabric.

Features Leaving the eVENT on one side for now, the Elite's a nicely thought out, typical Lowe Alpine shell, so you get big, venting front pockets, easy to use 'Gum Drop' zip and cuff pulls, articulated sleeves, Watershed seamless shoulders and stretch panels at the base of the hood and at the shoulder blades. Quite subtle but effective is the slanted front zip which means the top area sits to the side of the neck rather than over any mid-layer zips, which cuts down on bulk in the chin area.

In Action It's hard not to begin with the fabric and we're not going to equivocate here, as we've said before, eVENT is the most breathable full-weight conventional waterproof fabric we've used bar none. The only material which come close is Gore's latest Paclite and we'd still rate eVENT ahead of that. It simply works very, very well. At the end of a typical grizzly winter's day on Snowdon wearing full eVENT jacket and pants I was dry under my shell, which is something of a first. So no questions over the fabric. We like it a lot - if you run hot you can still overwhelm it, but you'll dry out faster once you do stop.

Of course there's more to a jacket than the material. Fit is generally good and neat and with a harness we got very little hem lift when reaching up high. We did have a few quibbles though. Lowe's sleeves are cut longer than average, which can be irritating. Next, we'd have preferred the hem drawcord to be at the side rather than front to allow differential adjustment of the back and front of the drawcord. Finally, we liked the asymmetrical cut of the main zip when the jacket was fully fastened, but with the zip half open, the 'wider' half of the jacket sits slightly floppy and askew and feels a bit odd. One area where we feel the company could make real improvements is with the hood. It's cut to fit a climbing helmet and works really well over a lid with the lip of the helmet acting as a surrogate peak, the hood turns with your head, the brushed chin guard liner feels lovely and all is well. We like the way the stretch panel means you can pull the hood on and off without having to arse around adjusting it every time. So far, so good. Unfortunately it's not as effective without a helmet. The peak is floppy and shapeless and allows water to run down onto your face, which while hardly the end of the world, would be avoidable with a slightly stiffer peak. The great big venting and storage pockets are welcome and include a zipped internal section for security and we like the gum drop pulls on cuffs and main zip which are easy to get hold of even with gloved hands and

Initial Verdict First of all we reckon this jacket is more practical and a better choice than the top of the range Evolution, effectively the Lowe Alpine test jacket. It's just less quirky and more effective.

The Elite though, is in a tough section of the market, aimed squarely at technical climbers and mountaineers and the opposition is hard. Jackets like the latest Mountain Equipment Changabang and Macpac's Prophet, which we've been using, are both superb and a tough act to beat. We can't fault the eVENT fabric, which offers fantastic breathability even though you can still overwhelm it when working hard and overall initial impressions are that this is a very nice jacket with a good cut and hood design bar the over-soft peak. Touches like the asymmetrical front zip work well, we like the stretch panel at the base of the neck and most of the detailing. We'll put some more miles on the jacket and follow up with a full test. Right now we reckon it's ahead of the opposition on breathability, but maybe not quite as well cut as some of the opposition, even though it's still a nice piece of kit. Watch this space. Lowe Alpine web site Know more or want to? If you'd like to add your own experiences of this product check out our user review system and post your opinions to the world. If you have questions you can mail us direct, ask Richard Gear or try a posting to our gear forum.