Hinkes Challenge 8000 Jacket - First Look

The fabric is Gore-Tex XCR but with the hard as nails Cordura-made Cassis face fabric that ups abrasion resistance over standard XCR. The Berghaus Suilivan III uses XCR Cassis as well, but is a less technical jacket. The Accelerator, which is Berghaus's more technical option and arguably the nearest thing to a C8000 Jacket, doesn't have Cassis, so isn't as tough.

The jacket also gets XCR Raptor stretch panels on the crown of the hood, insides of the sleeves and shoulder sections. This is nominally to improve mobility but to be honest, we don't think it does much.

Also present and correct are two deep chest pockets, high enough to be used with a harness and deep enough to stow lots of bars for your summit bid and two intenal mesh pockets to stash your choclit, a water bottle or whatever else you feel the need to stash.

First, the Cassis face fabric feels tough and abrasion resistant and gives the whole jacket a reassuringly dependably butch feel. XCR is reasonably breathable, you can overwhelm it working hard though.

Next, the fit, specified by Hinkes, seems to be appreciably slimmer and closer fitting than other top-end Berghaus jackets. If anything it was slightly tight across our wider than average shoulders and it has a short, neat cut that means it works well with a harness . Like ME's Changabang, that also means that it's best teamed with some sort of soft or hard shell pant for general use.

Mobility still felt good though and the detailing is generally well thought out and effective. The cuffs, for example, are simple and easy to use while the hood is big enough to take a helmet, yet still cinches down small enough to fit a naked head properly and mo ve with your head movements, though it's still not quite as good as the Mountain Equipment hood.

The main zip and pocket fasteners were easy to use with gloved hands, as you'd expect for a jacket designed to work in high mountain environments and touches like the independent front and rear hem cord adjusters are neat and effective.

One thing we're holding fire on for now is the hood mouthpiece venting arrangements - above. The idea is to minimise condensation within the hood and stop goggles and glacier glasses misting, but while the intenal mesh section works fine, we're not sure that the exterior vents allow enough air flow to make them worthwhile. It could be that in really savage conditions, when battened down, the force of the wind itself would make them effective, but it's hard to say without using the jacket in those circumstances.

It really does seem to be different from other Berghaus shells. We reckon the design is based on a bastard mix of the Paclite Alpine Pro jacket with its Bergnomic cut and the Accelerator with harder wearing fabric. Add on some unique features like the hood vents, a very effective full mountain hood and the cut and you have a very effective jacket. The only proviso is that if you have wide shoulders, it may be a little too slim. Unfortunately, as at the moment it's only available directly from the Trail web site, it's not possible to try before buying, though that may change in the future.

The two things we haven't touched on are the commemorative nature of the jacket, though 1,000 is a pretty hefty production run, and the fact that all profit from the jacket goes to Water Aid, a charity selected by Alan for its work in developing countries.

Whether either of those matter to you is a personal decision. What is important though, is that if you do decide to buy a Hinkes Challenge 8000 shell, you're getting a proper, functional, technical shell jacket that 's one of the best of its type that we've used. That and a rather cool little stick man waving a Union Jack on top of a mountain :-)

More information at the Trail web site.

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Discuss this story

Alex Thompson

Anyone noticed that Blacks are selling the Hinkes jacket for £179.99 from their website?

http://www.blacks.co.uk/blacks.storefront/

(soz haven't figured out hyperlinks yet...)

Posted: 09/08/2006 at 17:02

Jon Doran

Oh gawd, yes you can find it here

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page and look at the FAQ section, it tells you there how to do links :-)

Posted: 09/08/2006 at 17:12

Jon Doran

I thought it was narrower than average across the shoulders btw, so trying before buying is a good call.

Posted: 09/08/2006 at 17:14

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