We popped over to sunny Alfreton yesterday to sample Rab's brand
new Dutch coffee machine and get an early look at their new Autumn /
Winter 2006 range of Rab clothing and equipment which is appearing in
shops some time about now.
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The new Summit Jacket -
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Neutrino Lite - click for
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Neutrino Lite on - click for
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Some interesting stuff too with a new hardcore Scottish winter
shell jacket in eVENT making an appearance plus some neat tweaks to
the down range. And then there's the Generator Smock, which we rather
like, anyway, here are some of the highlights from the down
range...
Down Looking Up
Rab has been tweaking its renowned down clothing for this winter.
For starters the old top of the range Batura jacket with its
waterproof shell now has a new name, the Summit Extreme -
ideal for film makers in the Arctic we reckon.
More accessibly the top-selling Summit Jacket has had a
couple of major revisions - for starters it's now available for the
first time in a women's specific version, so lasses no longer
need feel deprived of winter warmth.
The other major change is that for the first time, the Summit uses
box wall construction instead of the sewn-through design
previously used. That means the down sits in square, boxed channels
rather then tubes with the inner and outer fabrics stitched
together.
There are two major advantages to using box walls. One is that
they eliminate cold spots where the stitching is and allow a more
even distribution of the down.
The second is less obvious, but just as important - using box
walls means that Rab can fill the jacket with its top notch Polish 90
per-cent goose down here in the UK at its factory rather than in the
Far East. That means that each jacket is freshly filled just weeks
before you buy it rather than being filled, compressed and bulk
transported across the world.
Sometimes humid, hot conditions mean that down inserted into items
in Asia can be slightly moist, which in turn may impair its
efficiency. Filling in the UK sidesteps that issue too.
The bottom line is that this year's Summit should be warmer and
more efficient, though the price of £200 remains the
same, which can't be bad...
New Neutrinos
Also new is the Neutrino Extreme, Rab's ultimate warmth to
weight jacket using Pertex Quantum Endurance fabric along with 330
grammes of 750+ fill power goose down to produce a jacket that weighs
less than the Summit, but has an extra 80 grammes of higher spec
down.
The £250 jacket replaces the old Andes and should be
mega-warm for its weight. Probably a bit OTT unless you're in the
market for 7000-metre peaks though...
Of more relevance to the average OMer, we reckon, is the
positively scrawny Neutrino Lite a super lightweight goose
down jacket using lightweight Pertex Quantom fabric and 120 grammes
of Rab's top 96 per-cent goose down with a fill power of 750+, same
as the Extreme.
It uses a stitched-through construction for simplicity and has no
hood. Feels lovely, packs tiny and weighs just 400 grammes. Stash and
forget until you need it, should be great for lightweight trekking
and alpinism, though in the damp and dready UK you may be better off
with the new synthetically filled Generator...
The what? All will be revealed shortly...
More Information
Full details of the entire Rab autumn / winter 2006 range at
www.rab.uk.com
