Mountain Equipment Tupilak - First Look

Mountain Equipment Tupilak - First Look

Price: £250.00

Weight: 430 grammes (medium)

Features: Lightweight mountaineering shell using 3-layer Gore-Tex Pro Shell Ascendor fabric, slim-ft active cut with articulated sleeves, helmet-compatible Stealth hood, stealth construction techniques throughtout, two-way water-resistant centre front zip with rear storm flap protection, two large external, fully taped pockets with water-resistant zip openings, under-arm water-resistant zips, adjustable hem, slant-cut hook and loop closure cuffs.

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What's It For?

The new for winter 2007 Tupilak is a bit of a departure for Mountain Equipment. It's a stripped-down, short-cut, climbing and mountaineering shell that weighs in at just 430 grammes on our digital scales, but what really marks the Tupilak out from the rest of the ME range is a cut that's significantly closer than the rest of ME's hard shell range. So if you think stripped-down mountain jacket for stripped-down users who maybe find the normal ME cut a bit too roomy, you'd be about right.

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The Techy Bits

The Tupilak uses Gore-Tex's new Pro Shell fabric in a 3-layer version. If you've missed the introduction of the new fabric, it's Gore's new top-end technical material which differs from previous Gore-Tex fabrics like XCR by using a woven inner backer instead of a knitted one.

The new woven backer has several claimed advantages - it's lighter by around 50-100g per jacket, thinner and more slippery which means it improves mobility by sliding more easily over the layers beneath it. On top of that, the woven construction is also significantly more abrasion resistant in use meaning it should last longer.

The outer, face fabrics have been carefully chose by Gore to maximise breathability while also being tough enough for technical mountain use.

Apart from the new, slimmer cut, the rest of the jacket is an evolution of ME's well-proven mountain shell design. That means the excellent Stealth hood, water-resistant zips throughout including on the generously sized pit-zips and the 'stealth' construction that hides stitch lines to give a cleaner, welded-type look to seams

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How It Performs

What marks the Tupilak out from previous Mountain Equipment shells is the cut. Whereas ME sizing is usually on the generous size of snug, the Tupilak has the sort of close fit we'd normally associate with the likes of Arc'teryx, Haglofs and Crux.

That means it's close fitting in the trunk to the extent that we barely needed to use the drawcord adjuster for a close fit on the hips and it was snug elsewhere. That's a good thing if you're a slim sort of fella, though it means the more generously proportioned would be better with something else from the range, the well-received Morpheus.

Mostly we liked the jacket and thought it worked well. ME's Stealth hood is excellent and gives great protection and movement either with or without a helmet, arguably it's the best hood out there. The pockets are well placed for stowage or handwarming and the simple cuff adjusters work well - you can roll the cuffs up for extra venting too.

It's worth bearing in mind that the cut is quite short, so it's more of an alpine jacket, which would be ideal with softshell pants or overtrousers than a traditional British mountainw-walking length.

 

We suspect the hem drawcords would also do the job, but we barely needed them thanks to the close cut. They're a two-part front and back construction and a colour-coded cord grip to distinguish the two would be a nice touch.

So far so good, but we'd suggest you try the Tupilak very carefully for fit, here's why: although there's plenty of room across the shoulders, the bottom of the armhole seems to be cut too high which pulls the fabric tight across the chest making for slightly uncomfortable fit for us.

As a knock on, it also meant that it was almost impossible to open the pit-zips past armpit level without pulling the sleeve straight, something that you may not be able to do wearing gloves with the cuff tabs fully fastened. The fabric folds sharply into the armpit and the zip simply can't get past it. Even a much slimmer tester had the same problem. And because the pit-zips aren't double-ended, you can't open them from the lower end.

We wouldn't write the jacket off purely because of those points - we're not great pit-zip users anyway preferring to vent via cuffs and main zip - but if the chest feels tight it may restrict movement as well as comfort, so try before buying.

Material Considerations

We like Pro Shell. We don't think it's as breathable as eVent, but the woven backer makes it possible to produce a light but still tough fabric. That's one of the reasons the Tupilak weighs just 430 grammes, which is very light for a full-on technical jacket with a helmet hood.

The slidiness of the fabric makes it very comfortable to wear and it does seem to slip easily over other layers. As with any waterproof fabric, you'll still overheat if you push things hard, but it's at least on a par if not marginally better than XCR when it comes to breathability.

As far as durability goes, time will tell, but Gore's tests suggest that the backer at least is much tougher than their previous fabrics.

What Else?

Although the Tupilak is designed primarily as a technical mountaineering and climbing jacket, there's no reason why you shouldn't buy it for all-round mountain use if you're happy with a shorter-cut jacket. The pockets are high enough to clear harnesses and pack belts, but still accessible enough to use as a handwarmer pocket. They'll also happil;y take an OS 1:25,000 waterproof map.

Initial Verdict

Just a year or two ago, a 430-gramme Gore-Tex mountain jacket would have been made from relatively fragile Paclite fabric. now though, Pro Shell means you can have your cake and eat it, with a streamlined, pit-zipped mountain jacket that's both light and tough.

As you'd expect from Mountain Equipment, most of the basics and, in particular, the excellent hood, are well sorted. It's just a little unfortunate that ME's bold decision to provide a closer fitting option in their range seems responsible for the only sand in the ointment - the quirky armhole construction means you should check fit carefully before buying.

We think it's also the reason behind the stubborn pit-zip operation, which will either irk or not depending on whether you're a breeze in the arm-pits sort of a person.

If the fit does work for you, the Tupilak makes a cracking, close-fitting, lightweight mountain jacket. If you're after a more generous equivalent, the ME Morpheous weighs around the same but uses ME's traditional cut.

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Tough, light, great hood and a neat, close fit. Recalcitrant pit zips and slightly odd armhole cut. .

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Mountain Equipment web site

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