Rab Super Dru Tested
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Price:
£200
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Weight: 397 grammes
(medium)
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Features:
Lightweight mountain jacket made from eVent three-layer
fabric, abrasion resistant fabric on high stress areas
including shoulders and hips, helmet-compatible hood with
wired peak, single water-resistant, double-ended front zip
with internal storm flap and rain drain, three outer
map-sized pockets with water-resistant zips, adjustable
cuffs and hem drawcords.
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What's It For?
The new Super Dru is billed as a lightweight mountaineering jacket
that's also fully protective and thanks to the combination of a
lghtweight eVent body fabric and tougher reinforced wear areas, is
intended to give a good compromise between toughness and weight.
The idea is that it's tough where it needs to be - pack contact
areas for example - but lighter elsewhere. Although it's billed for
mountainering and has helmet-compatible hood, there's absolutely no
reason why you couldn't use it for general lightweight mountain
walking and backpacking too.
The Techy Bits
We've told you all about eVent fabric before, but to recap, it's
the most breathable conventional waterproof fabric we've used and
it's present in two forms here: a lighter weight version on the main
areas - the red bits - and a heavier, abrasion-resistant fabric on
the shoulders, outer arms, hips and seat, the graphite bits.
Rab has also totally redesigned its hoods for this year. The wired
peak has been revised to eliminate a seam that could leak, there's a
single-pull adjustment system and the neck has been cunningly cut to
allow you to raise and lower the hood even with the main zip done
right up, something that's not always possible.
How It Performs
Normally the pay-off with a lighweight jacket - and the Super Dru
is genuinely sub 400 grammes on our scales - is a certain flimsiness
and a short, minimal cut, - often too short - for the sake of saving
a few grammes.
There's none of that with this jacket. It's cut slim and fitting,
which is excellent for technical use, but also long enough to provide
full-on butt coverage and a reassuringly protective feel. It's also
nice knowing that the ravages of hungry pack straps are likely to be
withstood by the tougher grey fabric used in high wear areas. All in
all it's one fo the best cut jackets we've seen for a long time.
That extends to the hood as well. It's easy to adjust, comfortable
even when snugged down, moves with the head and accommodates a
climbing helmet without problems, plus we found w e could indeed take
the hood on and off without undoing the main zip. A real boon if
you're wearing gloves.
The eVent fabric is as effective as ever, the most breathable
we've tried. You can overwhelm it working hard, but the fug will
clear quicker and it takes longer to give up in the first place.
There are no vents, which may be an issue if you run really warm, but
you can always roll up the easily adjustable sleeves to expose your
forearms.
A propos of which, the Super Dru has Rab's characteristically long
sleeves which ensure there's no riding up when reaching up high.
Similarly the hem stays well planted.
Storage is good too with three map-sized and harness-friendly
pockets protected by water-resistant zips. We're not big pocket
users, but realistically, in wet conditions with the jacket flexing,
we'd expect some leakage in the pockets, so stow accordingly.
A cracking good mountain jacket in a very breathable
waterproof fabric that neatly combines decent protection with very
light weight. On top of that the cut and design are hard to fault
with a neat, close fit and a well-designed hood that does an
excellent job. It's really very hard to fault the Super Dru it's
simply one of the very best lightweight mountain shells we've used.
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Good fabric, great cut and design, light weight and
strategic protection too.
No vents and pockets not 100 per-cent waterproof in heavy
rain.
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Performance
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Value
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Know more or want to?
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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.
DandyMountainMan
