Rab Baltoro Lite Tested

Price: £100.00

Weight: 416 grammes (medium)

Features: Summer-weight Polartec Powershield Lite softshell jacket with WindPro Stretch panels, two outer pockets and one inner zipped security pocket, hem drawcord and adjustable cuffs, microfleece-lined adjustable collar, venting mesh-lined pockets, slant-cut cuffs.

Great fabric and neat cut. Is it a windproof microfleece or a windproof or...

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What's It For? Ah, now you're asking. The Baltoro Lite is a lightweight softshell with a simple fleece jacket-style cut, no frills or twiddly bits, no hood or drop tail. It's part of the Rab Extreme range which means it's theoretically aimed at climbers, but in reality it's not a technical design even though it uses a very technical fabric.

We reckon it's an all round pretty much windproof and very water resistant jacket that's good for a bit of everything, but not super technical.

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The Techy Bits The most important bit of the Baltoro Lite is the fabric. It's a lighweight version of Polartec's Powershield. It's an interesting material because it's 'only' 98 per-cent windproof. Polartec says that the 2 per-cent of permeability - we think the membrane is perforated by the way - means significantly better breathability without any real loss of windproofing performance.

The dark panels are Polartec's WindPro Stretch with hardface technology, which is a closely woven fleece with decent wind resistance but more breathability than the the Powershield main fabric.

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How It Works Once we'd got over trying to work out what the Baltoro was for, we actually quite liked it. Eventually we came to the conclusion that it's effectively a super-tough summer-weight fleece - the fabric has a light fleecey backing that adds a little insulation - with near complete windproofing and even water resistance to deal with drizzle and light rain.

The fabric works well generally and feels more breathable than any of the totally windproof laminates we've used, that's helped by the WindPro Stretch panels, which are a little less windproof, but not intrusively so and help overall breathability. You can also vent through the mesh-lined pockets, the main zip and by rolling up the sleeves.

Although the fabric isn't technically windproof, it effectively feels that way and it'd have to be blowing pretty hard before you noticed anything penetrating the fabric. It's also water resistant enough that you can wear it until it starts raining properly.

The fabric's great then, but we couldn't help thinking that the jacket's limited by its design. Stick on a drop tail for butt protection and a semi-technical hood plus some shoulder reinforcement for pack use and it would be significantly more useable we reckon. Unfortunately it would also be more expensive and more 'niche' so harder to sell, which is probably why Rab hasn't done it.

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Verdict

If you want a lightish, simply cut, neat, virtually windproof and very water resistant jacket with good breathability then the Baltoro Lite does the job well, though the expensive fabrics used up the price tag.

Aside from feeling nice and adding a little insulation value though, it's hard to know what the Baltoro Lite does better than a simple windproof other than feeling and looking nicer. Adding a hood and a drop tail with some strategic wear reinforcement would have made it both more useable and more distinctive, but would have upped the price as well.

So... we like it, but we reckon it's a bit of a luxury.

Performance
Value

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Rab web site

Pushed for time Hey ho, soft shell ahoy - it's very breathable, virtually windproof, quite water-resistant and nicely cut, but we're not sure it does much better than a straight windproof jacket. Nice fabric though.

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