Rab Super Dru Tested

Rab Super Dru Tested

The new Super Dru is billed as a lightweight mountaineering jacket that's also fully protective and thanks to the combination of a lghtweight eVent body fabric and tougher reinforced wear areas, is intended to give a good compromise between toughness and weight.

The idea is that it's tough where it needs to be - pack contact areas for example - but lighter elsewhere. Although it's billed for mountainering and has helmet-compatible hood, there's absolutely no reason why you couldn't use it for general lightweight mountain walking and backpacking too.

We've told you all about eVent fabric before, but to recap, it's the most breathable conventional waterproof fabric we've used and it's present in two forms here: a lighter weight version on the main areas - the red bits - and a heavier, abrasion-resistant fabric on the shoulders, outer arms, hips and seat, the graphite bits.

Rab has also totally redesigned its hoods for this year. The wired peak has been revised to eliminate a seam that could leak, there's a single-pull adjustment system and the neck has been cunningly cut to allow you to raise and lower the hood even with the main zip done right up, something that's not always possible.

Normally the pay-off with a lighweight jacket - and the Super Dru is genuinely sub 400 grammes on our scales - is a certain flimsiness and a short, minimal cut, - often too short - for the sake of saving a few grammes.

There's none of that with this jacket. It's cut slim and fitting, which is excellent for technical use, but also long enough to provide full-on butt coverage and a reassuringly protective feel. It's also nice knowing that the ravages of hungry pack straps are likely to be withstood by the tougher grey fabric used in high wear areas. All in all it's one fo the best cut jackets we've seen for a long time.

That extends to the hood as well. It's easy to adjust, comfortable even when snugged down, moves with the head and accommodates a climbing helmet without problems, plus we found w e could indeed take the hood on and off without undoing the main zip. A real boon if you're wearing gloves.

The eVent fabric is as effective as ever, the most breathable we've tried. You can overwhelm it working hard, but the fug will clear quicker and it takes longer to give up in the first place. There are no vents, which may be an issue if you run really warm, but you can always roll up the easily adjustable sleeves to expose your forearms.

A propos of which, the Super Dru has Rab's characteristically long sleeves which ensure there's no riding up when reaching up high. Similarly the hem stays well planted.

Storage is good too with three map-sized and harness-friendly pockets protected by water-resistant zips. We're not big pocket users, but realistically, in wet conditions with the jacket flexing, we'd expect some leakage in the pockets, so stow accordingly.

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