Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man Jacket
The coolest, warmest, lightest, smallest-packing fleece jacket in the western world? You'd better believe it.
Posted: 30 May 2002
by Jon
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Mountain Hardwear Monkey Man
Jacket
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Price:
£80.00
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Weight: 406 grammes (men's
L)
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Features:Monkey
Phur (Polartec Thermal Pro 4080) fabric with DWR, Micro
Chamois-lined collar, zippered PowerStretch patch pocket,
PowerStretch cuffs and wrist panels, PowerStretch waistband
and hip panels
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Utterly chic, very phurry
Fabric name unpopular with vegetarian
types...
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Okay, we know it's shallow, we know that looks don't matter, but the
MHW Monkey Man has to be the coolest looking fleece top on the market
right now - there's something pleasingly post-punk about the shagpile
aesthetics of the Monkey Phur fleece and the test colour - bright red
'Salsa' - is about as non attention seeking as a Big Brother
housemate.
Fortunately for our outdoor cred, the jacket's beauty is more than
skin deep - the thing actually works. The star turn is what Polartec
calls Polartec Thermal Pro 4080 Special Edition
and MHW have dubbed 'Monkey Phur'. It's only one of three UK garments
to use this fleece, the other two are Sprayway's Frostfire, which we
tested a while back, and Lowe Alpine's Legend Pull-on. The fabric, as
we've said before, is like Regulator 2 on steroids, supper teddy bear
fluffy, but still highly compressible and very light.
A men's large weighs in at a eyelash over
400 grammes, but gives the sort of instant warmth you'd expect from a
Polartec 300 fleece. Impressive for something that packs down to a
bundle that we'd guess is about one and a half pint glasses worth.
Like Regulator 2 it wicks well - above average for fleece - but has
minimal wind resistance because of the non-dense weave.
Where it scores points over the Frostfire is
in design. It's cut short with a slightly scooped back for active use
and MHW has used strategic panels at wrists, waist and hips to avoid
bulkiness under harnesses and gloves. There's also a zipped patch
pocket on the chest - prototypes used punkish mesh, but the
production version opts for more discreet Powerstretch
fabric.
Anything else? No, not really.
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Verdict: Okay, so it's 'just a
fleece', but the Monkey Phur means that it has an incredible
warmth to weight ratio and packs down small, while the small
design touches mean that the cuffs avoid the wrist bulk of
Sprayway's Frostfire. It would make an ideal fleece for
lightweight trekking or backpacking fleece or any other
activity where warmth is useful and weight and space are at
a premium. Oh, and did we mention, it looks quite nice as
well?
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Performance
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Value
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Pushed for time:
Looks great with fluffy, post punk teddy bear shagpile
yum from the Monkey Phur / Polartec Thermal Pro fleece
fabric. Extremely warm especially given that it weighs only
a smidgeon over 400 grammes, packs very small and the cut
and use of PowerStretch make it practical for active use
too. The ultimate lightweight trekking / backpacking cool
conditions fleece? Could be.
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