Hot Marmot...

We dropped round to see the nice people at Marmot importers Mountain Works last week. Our main aim was to score a cup of tea, but along the way we also copped a sneak preview of a few developments in the Marmot range for 2004 - this is kit that'll be in the shops from early next year, so don't go bothering your outdoor retailer buddy just yet...

Marmot has been around in the UK for a while now, but it's better known in the States where it's a stellar brand. In fact the company's just eased into the number one spot for speciality technical outerwear.

The brand started life about 30 years ago concentrating on down clothing and sleeping bags and founded by hardcore enthusiasts, predictably in Colorado. It's still actually an employee-owned company, which is unusual for a major brand these days, and was the first company to work with WL Gore. So that's pedigree.

Big deal you might think, but with the 2004 Minima Jacket, the devil's in the detail. First, unlike most Paclite tops, the Minima is a longer cut, mountain-orientated style - the only similar one we can think of is ME's neat Firefly - aimed at lightweight alpinists and climbers rather than 'fast movers'.

The detailing is what makes the jacket though. Take a closer look and you'll notice that seams are welded and micro-stitched for neatness, next the chest pockets use water-resistant zips, but unlike most companies, Marmot has taken things a stage further. The flush-fitting zips are covered to improve water resistance, cut damage from abrasion and prevent the UV degradation that can otherwise damage the urethane used in the zip construction.

The main zip too has been carefully designed with a double internal gutter flap running behind the zip complete with Velcro fastening tabs, so you maintain waterproofing but still keep an ultra-clean, streamlined look.

Like all Marmot's technical jackets, the Minima also has pit-zips for ventilation and the wrist cuffs are nicely finished with Hypalon wrist tabs. It's not the lightest Paclite jacket out there at around 400 grammes, but for £150 you're getting a versatile, beautifully designed lightweight alpine shell. Very neat and in the shops early next year.

The Precip is one of Marmot's biggest success stories in the UK. The original lightweight waterproof shell, it's priced at around £70 and is, says the company, genuinely multi-use with the capability to manage anything from climbing to dog-walking.

The Precip fabric uses a PU coating topped off with a silk protein-based inner which is hydrophylic, so wicks moisture outwards helping vapour transmission and feel smooth against the skin too. Breathability is reckoned to be about the same as 'classic' Gore-Tex and detailing is again good with a helmet hood, pit-zips and pockets and weight around 350 grammes.

Precip Plus - new this year - is an uprated version produced by careful modification of the coating. It's not only more waterproof than standard Precip, but significantly more breathable too. It also comes with two-way stretch.

And it's Precip Plus that's used for the new for 2004 Precip Rim Jacket. What you get is a stretch rainwear jacket complete with funky looking over-welded and micro-stitched seams, Neoprene cuffs with Hypalon pulls and a roll-away hood. Price is going to be a competitive £120.

Marmot's been doing DriClime for donkey's years now - about 12 in fact - it's the original microfleece liner with wind-proof and water-resistant outer combining great wicking and breathability with decent weight and a reasonable price.

For Spring Summer '04, the range has been extended with new stretch versions of the fabric coming into the shops and a new, near permanent DWR water resistant treatment helping water to bead for longer.

The DriClime Stretch Jacket comes with roll-away hood and looks like being a versatile, all round bit of kit. Price at £100 is slightly up on standard DriClime, but you should get better fit and mobility from the stretch. Obviously both the shell and the liner stretch. Sorry about the blurry photo by the way... It looks nice in the flesh.

Marmot's still making down bags, testing them for temperature ratings using copper mannequins to produce realistic temperature ratings and using the best down they can lay their hands on.

The Ultralight Series of four sleeping bags is aimed at - surprise, surprise - being very, very light. The first ingredient is Marmot's own 900 fill power down. Given that most top quality down has a fill power of 700 or so, that's serious loft. Turns out that the down comes exclusively from older eastern European geese all of which die from 'natural causes' so they're happy. Most of the geese, by the way, are tough old watch geese, so now you know.

The down is selected chosen and then processed before being independently tested and turned into bags. Marmot says that older geese produce larger, stronger and longer lasting down clusters, so you get better loft and increased durability in one hit.

Anyway, Marmot take the down and stuff it into Pertex Quantum fabric shells, the lightest they can find, and combine full features with half-zippers to save weight on the lighter bags. New for 2004 is the Helium EQ bag which uses a combination of the 900 fill-power down together with a shell made from Pertex Quantum Ripstop Endurance to create one of the lightest, waterproof and breathable bags out there. Rated down to minus 9 C, the Helium weighs in at just 992 grammes, or 2lb 3oz.