It may be summer out there, but in the whacky world of outdoor
gear, autumn / winter 2005 is only just around the corner with new
ranges of clothing and equipment hitting the outdoor shops from
around the end of August and, in some cases earlier.
A few months back, we popped over to see the nice folk at
Mountain Equipment for a sneak preview of their new autumn
winter stuff, we
told you a bit about the new UK-specific Kongur XCR jacket back
then - it's pretty much a longer version of the Changabang with a
new, even better hood, designed to suit typically gnarly UK mountain
conditions - but we thought now would be a good time to bring you up
to date with the rest of the new stuff from ME, so here goes....
Oh, and a big thank you to ME's Mark Clifford for his expert
modelling skills.
Insulation
The down range remains pretty much as is, with just a few cosmetic
changes and some extra down in the women's version of the Lightline
for added warmth and better, plusher looks. Things have changed on
the synthetic front though with a new Primaloft-filled jacket called
the Super Couloir.
It's designed to work brilliantly in cold, wet, damp, nasty
Scottish-type conditions which means the damp-friendly, warm grade,
synthetic Primaloft One filling is backed up with a taped Drilite
Plus outer shell that should give the filling a fighting chance of
staying dry.
You also get a fold-away hood, two big, zipped handwarmer pockets
and a ski-pass holder. The weight at 810 grammes is similar to a
Lightline down jacket and it should make a useful belay / general
insulation top for Scottish winter and more. Price will be
£140.
The Super Couloir's not the only new top in the range, it's joined
by the Cirrus a less specialist Polarloft-filled jacket with
no hood and a diamond ripstop outer plus sharper looks for £60,
its sibling, the Cirrus Vest and an interesting matching pant
- oh, sorry, we're British - trouser then, the Cirrus Trouser
which is a Polarloft filled pant, or trouser, with full-length
side-zips, articulated knees and an internal gaiter for £60.
Apparently the trouser is a response to the demand from
expeditions for an affordable, bombproof piece of insulated legwear
for extreme cold condition use - think Aconcagua and similar - the
full-length zips should make them very useable.
Shell Clothing
There's been a bit of tweaking going on in the shell department,
little refinements to areas like softer cuff tabs and so on. The big
news though is Stealth Zone technology, which is a neater,
cleaner way of constructing seams.
ME considered welding and lamination, but weren't convinced by the
strength of some of the resulting joins or the stiffness from
lamination, so they've constructed seams and zip inserts that have a
clean, welded-type look, but are actually made using sewing
techniques.
For pockets for example, zips are stitched in place, then turned
in on themselves to give a clean looks that's still strong, they
say.
"We believe that this is the best compromise giving attractive
aesthetics, but also performance."
The other development is an 'even better' Stealth Hood
which uses an upgraded peak combining a laminate and wire. ME's hoods
are already arguably the best out there, but the new version is
claimed to be even better and gives a uniform curve to the peak and a
better fit. The wire is copper for malleability.
Laminates used generally are softer, so there's less stiffness,
say, at the front of detailed jackets. Oh, the majority of this
season's jackets will use Gore's microtape for lightness and better
breathability.
The Kongur Jacket - below - we've already told you about -
see
the earlier article - but its been put together with lots of
mountain rescue team feedback, uses a longer cut, the new hood and
tough 3-layer Gore-Tex XCR fabric for durability. It could be the
perfect UK winter shell jacket with touches like water resistant
zippers with storm flaps to keep the winter outside where it belongs,
and will retail for £250.
Also new for this winter is the Vinson Jacket in Gore-Tex
soft shell. Yep, that's right, it's a Windstopper-based softshell,
but the seams are taped so it's effectively waterproof.
The fabric has a fleece inner laminated to the Gore-Tex membrane
for added insulation with the fleece shaved away to allow taping on
seam areas. The Vinson gets a full Stealth hood in Paclite with a
stiffened peak, plus twin internal and external chest pockets,
pit-zips and adjustable waist and hem.
So you're looking at a soft feeling, warm and waterproof jacket.
We're not sure how well it will work - the permanent insulation
arguably makes it less versatile than a layered fleece and hard
shell, while we find in the UK, for many people, Windstopper simply
isn't breathable enough. Might be great in the Alps though. Weight is
820 grammes and price £250. Feels nice and looks nice
too, see below...
Finally, the veritable Lhotse has been pensioned off and replaced
with a new jacket the Ogre XCR. As ME's Mark Clifford says, it
was a question of trying to make ME' sbest all-round mountain jacket
even better.
The result is a classic three-ply XCR winter hill-walking jacket
that weighs in at just 600 grammes and, like the Lhotse, has been put
together with British conditions in mind. That means you get a double
storm flap over the main zip, pockets with soft-laminated storm flaps
and the new Stealth hood, plus large chest and map pockets that are
pack and harness compatible and drawcords at waist and hem.
Should give classic mountain perfornance but with more modern
looks and refinement and quite a lot of buyers will undoubtedly be
choosing between this and the Kongur... Price is £220 by
the way and as this is the 21st Century, there's a mobile phone
pocket too :-) The women's version is the Nanga Parbat, same
price and versy similar features, but cut specifically for women.
Windproof Things
The Windstopper G2 stuff has been tweaked for this year
with a new fabric which is thicker and warmer plus a semi-wired
roll-away Paclite hood for added versatility. The outer's more
abrasion resistant too.
It comes in new, not black colours as well, midnight blue for
example, and there's a women's version, though for some reason, that
doesn't have a hood. Price is £160 or £140
for lasses. Weight just over 600 grammes. The excellent G2 Pants
soldier on unchanged from last year.
There you go, told you it wasn't black any more... That's blue
that is, midnight blue and coablt if you want to be precise. The
other option is storm and charcoal, which sounds a bit like, erm,
black to us...
Powershield Things
Totally new to the range is the Powershield Jacket. It
doesn't take a genius to work out that it uses Polartec's Powershield
fabric, which we rather like. You get a fleece inner and a highly
wind-resistant outer fabric with decent breathability, plus two
handwarmer pockets.
There's a women's version too, price is steep at £150
for a not particularly technical jacket. It's a shame there's no
G2-style Powershield top in the range.
And that's pretty much it...
Apart from a new Mountain Stretch Pant using Schoeller-type fabric
for a nice, snug fit and articulated knees and a half-leg zip for
easy changes.
You can see the current Mountain Equipment range at
www.mountain-equipment.co.uk
Wallace
