Montane eVENT Soft Shell Jacket Scoop!

A quick scoop for you along with some very brief first impressions - Montane is going to be bringing out an eVENT softshell early next year and we've got one to try.

Just in case it's passed you by, eVENT is a waterproof / breathable membrane that's the most breathable waterproof fabric we've used. Like Gore-Tex is uses a PTFE membrane, which has microscopic pores to allow water vapour to pass through it, but it differs in one important respect.

While Gore-Tex has a very thin PU layer on the inside of the membrane to protect it from contamination by body oils, eVENT treats the inside of the pores so there's no limiting PU between you and the membrane.

All of which would mean nothing if it didn't work, but our experience suggests that it does.

eVENT Softshell

The new eVENT softshell uses the same membrane as the waterproof 'hard-shells' but with a soft-feeling face fabric and a honey-combed inner scrim. The garment isn't technically 'waterproof' because the seams aren't taped, but it should be pretty water resistant just the same.

The Montane jacket's a neat, well, jacket really. Nicely cut with two venting mid-level front pockets, shoulder and elbow reinforcement patches, adjustable cuffs and drop-tailed hem and a comfy fleece-lined collar. It also has non-membrane side panels running right down the side of the trunk to improve breathability. Looks nice too. Oops, sorry about the mud on the hem, that's what you get for using stuff ;-)

Does it work?

We've been using the eVENT softshell for almost a week now, mostly in the recent freezing spell for everything from walking to mountain biking and, here's the thing, while we normally boil in membrane-based wndproof fabrics when working hard, with the eVENT, our main problem at anything other than flat-out pace was staying warm...

We're guessing it's a combination of the totally permeable side panels and the breathability of the membrane which prevents a wet, warm fug building up inside your jacket. The good news is that usually our problem is dissipating heat rather than keeping it in - we're thinking that in milder conditions, where we'd normally boil in the bag, we might actually stay at a reasonable temperature.

If we're right, this could be the first really weather-resistant softshell we've used that's still breathable enough to cope with high energy, sweat-producing use.

Like we said though, it's early days yet, but we'll bring you a fuller report in the next week or so, just watch this space. The Montane eVENT softshell jacket will be available early in 2006 priced at around £140.

More about eVENT fabrics www.eventfabrics.com