Montane Quickfire Jacket Tested

Montane Quickfire Tested

The good old Super-Fly used to be considered 'light' but as other companies jumped on the lightweight bandwagon, it started to look slightly portly - the revised 2007 version is just over 450 grammes. Enter the Quickfire, Montane's 320-gramme solution for those looking for a lighter jacket still using eVent's very breathable fabric.

It's aimed at lightweight, fast-movers rather than those toting big, heavy packs around and the combination of excellent breathability and light weight means it should be good on the back or in your pack.

Montane started with a Super-Fly then set about lightening it. That means a lighter grade of eVent fabric with a rip-stop construction for tear resistance and careful detailing to reduce both weight and bulk.

The jacket loses the Super-Fly's chest pocket and while it still has two hand-warmer type pockets, they're asymmetric - the one on the left as you wear the jacket, is large enough to take an OS map, while the other is smaller to save fabric and weight.

The main zip uses a double storm flap rather than a water-resistant zip to improve packability and everything else has been kept as simple as possible, with, for example, the hood using a hook and loop volume adjuster to cut weight and bulk.

Even the reflective bits are prints rather than sewn-on fabric, again to save weight and bulk.

We're big fans of waterproofs that you can stash and forget without a significant weight penalty and the Quickfire does that very well. To be fair, with sub-200 gramme tops starting to appear on the market, it's not the lightest or smallest packing jacket out there, but it's still extremely reasonable and the lightest eVent outdoor shell we're aware of - close rival Rab's Drillium weighs slightly more at 350 grammes.

The pay-off is the excellent performance of the eVent fabric. It's still significantly better than other conventional waterproof breathable fabrics we've used, meaning you stay comfortable for longer and dry out faster when you do get damp. It's also, at a pinch. just about breathable enough to perform as well as many windproof fabrics making it more versatile.

Just so it's clear, eVent isn't magic, you can still overwhelm it when working hard, but it's better than anything else we've used so far.

The rest of the jacket will feel instantly familiar to anyone who's used a Super-Fly. It's the same neat cut, has easy to use adjustable cuffs which allow you to roll the sleeve up for forearm venting, the same simple but reasonably effective hood with wired peak, single handed adjusters for hem and hood and so on.

The main differences are the lighter fabric - stay away from heavy packs or abrasive pack straps to avoid bobbling from abrasion damage - and the different pocket lay-out, the rest is well proven and capable.

The pocket design is a piece of dark cunning, with an asymmetric cut making one pocket large enough for a map, while the other is left smaller to save weight and the pockets are high enough to avoid fouling waist belts and harnesses.

It's an ideal alternative to the Super-Fly if you're focussed on saving some weight - around 130 grammes against the 2007 model Super-Fly - and, in particular, if you won't be carrying a big pack, but still want eVent performance and decent weather protection.

Overall it's a great compromise between weight and bulk and performance.

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