We take a look at Paramo's Alta 2 mountain-walking jacket with its directional fabrics and some interesting venting features.
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Paramo Alta IIalta Jacket
Tested
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Price:
£220
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Weight: 857 grammes (men's
medium)
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Features:
All-round hill and mountain-walking jacket with Paramo
analogy fabric, roll-down hood with wired peak, upper arm
vents, drip skirt and scooped tail, twin hand-warmer
pockets, one internal map storage pocket, twin chest
pockets, internal storm flap with ventilation poppers, hook
and loop adjustable cuffs, single-handed hem drawcord pulls,
double-layer shoulder construction. Also available in
women's version.
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Warm, minimal condensation, decent hood.
Maybe too warm plus some slightly eccentric detailing.
Old-fashioned look.
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The Concept The Alta II is Paramo's all-round hill and
mountain walking jacket - if you want a Paramo for climbing use, have a
look at the Aspira. Like all Paramo's waterproofs, it uses
directional fabrics, so while it's not technically waterproof in lab
tests, in real life use it is. The big plus claimed by Paramo is a
lack of condensation inside the garment.
Features The jacket uses a slighty lighter fabric than it's
Alta predesssor and is a fully featured mountain jacket. Features
specific to the Alta include upper arm vents that align with the same
vents in the Mountain Vent pull-on, a poppered storm zip behind the
main zip which allows you to vent through the main zip without the
garment opening up. There are also twin internal strips to prevent
packs from compressing the back of the garment and causing
condensation.
In Action
We've said it before, but Paramo doesn't suit everyone. We find it
too warm even in winter with all venting options open, but if you run
cool it may well suit you. To put that in perspective, we were
uncomfortably sweaty, walking downhill in temperatures of around 5C
with all the vents open.
The
big plus, for many users, is the lack of condensation associated with
some conventional waterproof fabrics and it's true that in moderate
tempo use, you will stay dry, even when it's hammering down
outside.
The Alta is cut loose, almost baggy and our test jacket was a
strange, unprepossessing green colour. The bagginess helps the
Analogy fabrics to work and extra length gives a nice, protective
feel to the garment. We were less impressed with some of the
detailing though.
The hood is generally good and effective in use, but the front
tension cords have a lot of stretch in them and really need tethering
to prevent the madam whiplash effect in windy conditions. The cuffs
open up nicely so you can roll up the sleeves and vent your forearms,
but cinch them down and they form a nasty bulge of material that
doesn't sit well with gloves.
Then there's the upper arm vents which don't really do much unless
it's blowing a hoolie, though the roll-up sleeves and ventable main
zip means that's not a huge issue in real life use.
There are some big pluses to the system. It's easy to maintain the
fabrics - wash in Nikwax Tekwash and reproof with TX22 when needed -
and tears can simply be sewn up or patched without compromising
waterproofing and the steadily growing number of Paramaniacs is a
testament to the effectiveness of the system if it suits your
physiology. It really does minimise condensation. There's no rustle
from the soft fabric either, making it ideal for sneaking up on
things...
Paramo's directional clothing system will either suit you or
not. Chances are, if you run on the hot side, it won't really work
for you except in really cold conditions. If you're less sweaty
though, the lack of condensation in wet conditions is a real
plus.
Otherwise the Alta II does work well though there are some details
faults like those cuffs and the loose drawcords at the neck. It's
also a tad heavy by modern standards. And does it have to look quite
so dowdy? Put those on one side though and the Alta's an honest and
effective mountain-walking jacket that does what it's intended to
do.
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Performance
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Value
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Pushed for time
Too hot for some fast-moving users, Paramo kit majors on
lack of condensation and while the Alta II is a tad dowdy
and has some small detail faults, the fabric worls pretty
well and a decent hood keeps most mountain weather at
bay.
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Know more or want to?
If you'd like to add your own experiences of this
product check out our user review system and post your opinions to
the world. If you have questions you can mail
us direct, ask
Richard Gear or try a posting to our
gear
forum.
