Patagonia Speed Ascent Jacket - First Look

Patagonia Stretch Speed Ascent Jacket - First Look

Price: £225.00

Weight: 894g (men's medium)

Features: Encapsil-treated water-resistant windproof stetch fabric outer, R2 fleece insulation on torso, lighter R1 insulation in sleeves, water-resistant coated zippers, R2 insulated hood, baffled main zip, drop tail, elasticated hem, handwarmer pockets above harness line, crotch strap, close rather sexy cut.

Beautiful cut, construction, looks and feel - a posh Buffalo? Question marks over the hood when used with a helmet. Expensive, but replaces two layers

Material Stuff You'll have to wait for some proper winter climbing conditions for a full test of the Speed Ascent jacket, but we thought you'd appreciate a quick run down of Patagonia's latest technical climbing top, especially with 'soft shell' being this year's buzz word.

The 'soft shell' concept's been around for a while - think Buffalo's pile-Pertex system, but Patagonia have refined it in terms of both material and cut and, as usual, the cut and detailing are beautiful. Instead of Pertex, you get a stretchy Encapsil wind-proof and highly water resistant shell, where the fibres have been coated with a silicone polymer before weaving to resist water penetration.

The big plus over full waterproof shells is much greater breathability and combined with an additional Encapsil overshell, the combination is, says Patagonia, waterproof. The pile role is played by Regulator 2 fleece, the light, high-wicking furry stuff that shares piles directional water transporting abilities. This being a Patagonia garment, there's a thinner R1 fleece to maintain mobility in the sleeves.

So it's sort of a posh Buffalo, with the same promise of warmth, water-resistance and wicking - how well it works, we'll let you know.

Cut and Features What the spec doesn't tell you is how beautifully cut and featured this jacket is, with neat touches like this year's favourite feature, water-resistant, coated zips. The cut, for us, was wonderfully snug, with a close, streamlined fit. The worry of course, is that it will restrict movement, so does it?

Water-resistand zips for both main and pocket openings

Mobility is excellent even with a harness. The Buffalo-type elasticated crotch strap helps to hold the hem in place and the combination of a well-designed cut and some give in the outer makes high reaches easy without sleeves pulling down. The handwarmer pockets clear the harness too.

We're less impressed with the hood. With a Petzl Roc Ecrin - a common helmet albeit a biggish one - it struggled to fit even at the largest adjustment and it took some stretching to get the neck Velcro fastening done up under the chin. When fastened it was secure, but the hood had a drum-like tightness which verged on being uncomfortable. Surprisingly upwards visibility was unhindered, but sideways mobility was badly impaired. If you're in the market for one of these and habitually wear a hood over your helmet, try before buying.

It actually feels more natural and comfortable wearing the hood under the helmet, which is feasible, albeit potentially a tad warm due to the insulation. In fact it all feels a lot more natural without a helmet.

Other points? Cuffs are quite narrow and may be a struggle to put on over bulky gauntlets, the hood adjustment is quite basic and fiddly with gloves on and we wonder how it will cope with the heat build-up from frenzied winter walk-ins...

Verdict: Early days yet, but this is a mega-high quality jacket that takes the basic concept from the likes of Buffalo and applies the latest materials and features in a very technical, beautifully cut climbing jacket. It feels fantastic on and the cut seems to offer a rare combination of snugness and mobility, but we'll have to wait and see how it performs in winter conditions. At just under 900 grammes it's very light when you consider that it takes the place of both an outer and mid-layer. We still reckon there's a question mark over the hood though, certainly for Scottish use, but we'll have to wait and see - we certainly won't be wearing it over our helmet.