Montane Women's Extreme Smock Reviewed

Montane reckon the Extreme Smock can replace a baselayer, midlayer and outerlayer all at once, so you wear the same garment all day and use the side ventilation zips instead of stripping off layers. We wouldn't use the smock as a baselayer ourselves - it doesn't feel quite fitted enough for that - but it can definitely replace the mid and outer layers. It's pretty cosy too, as the name suggests, so it's one for a winter day out on the hills.

Montane tell us that the smock has been popular also amongst the likes of paddlers as well as walkers. For one thing, they normally want to throw on something simple but warm the moment they step out of their websuits, and for seconds, even if the smock does get submerged, the water drains from the pile really quickly, so it doesn't take too long to get warm again. All in all, it's a versatile bit of kit.

The set-up of the Women's Extreme Smock is slightly different from the men's. It features a velcroed pouch down the front, for an OS map, and, beneath this, one large single pocket with zips on both sides, rather than two separate zipped pockets. The zips run deep enough to let you fasten your rucksack waist belt through the pocket itself instead of fastening it outside the smock.

Why? Well, the pouch needs to reach right down to the bottom of the jacket to make enough room for an Ordnance Survey map, but this gets in the way of a rucksack waist belt. Fastening the belt through the pocket itself, instead of underneath it, theoretically gets rid of the problem.

The map pouch also has bellows on the sides, so that the contents push outwards, away from the body, rather than digging into you.

Smocks work really well when either the temperature or your work rate varies a fair bit in the course of a day but you don't want to stop every half hour to add or remove layers. The Extreme Smock's no exception. We put it on when we set out up the Glyders, and took it off when we had a mug of warm tea safely in our hands at the end of the day.

In between times, there were plenty of ventilation options to help moderate body temperature. The two side vents reach a long way up the body, so you can let plenty of air in, at the tug of a zip, whilst on the move. These don't have tags so they could be slightly fiddly to do up in gloves, but on the plus side they're placed at both the top and bottom of the vents, so they can be opened easily even if a harness or rucksack strap coveres the bottom of the smock.

There's also a vent down the front, which can be zipped right up to protect your neck and the lower half of your face in bad weather, or opened for extra air.

So far so good. Just one thing to note: the Extreme Smock is really pretty warm, so even though it ventilates well, you still need a fairly nippy day to wear it. It stands up to a reasonable bashing from the rain as well. It's only intended to be water resistant, not water proof, but a five mile walk to work in the snow doesn't seem to bother it (although snow's not as penetrating as rain, so if you reckon you're in for a real downpour, you'll still need a full waterproof jacket).

If you do manage to end up waterlogged (paddlers take note) the pile lining works by holding the moisture at the base of the fabric, rather than the tips next to your body, which means that you don't feel the damp so much. Water also drains away pretty fast, so you get warm again quickly.

Apart from the vents, features include a handy pocket for valuables, compass, lip salve etc. on the upper left arm, a hook beside the map pocket for keys or GPS, and a detachable hood with a good stiff wired peak. The latter protrudes well in front of your face to protect it from the elements. We particularly like the way the hood attaches to the rest of the jacket - it's a bit hard to explain but there's a flap on the hood which has velcro on both sides, so the neck of the smock can be velcroed back down over it once the hood's been attached (see picture). That way, the join is smooth and there's no chance of any sections of velcro being exposed, ready to trap unsuspecting strands of hair.

The fabric, as we've said, is warm, pretty light, and gets rid of moisture quickly. There's also a reinforced strip down the sides of the arms, so you can rest your elbows on that gnarly looking fence post without long term consequences. We like the soft fleecey lining around the neck too.

The only thing we weren't absolutely sure of was the practicality of fastening the waist belt of a rucksack through the zip pocket. If you're quite tall, you might have to fasten the waist belt too high to make this possible. Admittedly, there isn't that much of a gap between the bottom of the waist-belt pocket and the bottom of the map pocket, but those few centimetres seemed to be just where we wanted to fasten our rucksack belt.

If you're below average height it shouldn't be a problem though, and even if that's not you, it's only the functionality of the map pocket that's at stake, not the functionality of the vents. (And even then, there's an inch or two to spare in the map pouch, so you can still just about fit an OS map in there, even with the rucksack buckled over the very bottom of the smock. Just fasten your waist belt over the top, as normal, rather than looping it through the inner pocket.)

Other than that, we found Montane pretty good at female-specific fits when we tested out the Panther jacket, and we felt comfortable in this too. Fit's obviously personal but we're a fairly standard women's XS and Montane's XS sizes work well for us. Try before you buy, although we should mention that getting the smock off again can be a bit of a mission, until you've got the knack, which is always interesting on a shop floor:-)

The Extreme Smock is a pretty versatile bit of kit as it lets you increase or decrease ventilation without stopping to remove layers. It's very warm though, which is great in cold weather, but don't let the extensive vents deceive you into thinking it will work in milder conditions, or when you're moving really fast.

The features are all well-designed, with a firm protruding hood that offers plenty of protection from the elements, and reinforcements everywhere you need them. You can fit an OS map in the pocket too, although whether the trick of fastening your rucksack through the zip-up pocket works for you depends a bit on your height. Otherwise, we couldn't find fault with it.

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