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Montane Prism Jacket

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Montane Prism Jacket
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Average Rating: 4 out of 5
No. of Reviews: 8
RRP: £75
Year: 2007

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Description:

Ultralight, lightly insulated, hooded jacket.

The Prism Jacket is the lightest insulated jacket in the MONTANE® range and one of the world\'s lightest insulated jackets.

Using PERTEX® Microlight as the outer shell and 25g Prism® synthetic insulation, it is windproof, water-resistant and ultra low bulk, yet warm enough to conserve your body heat in all but the coldest conditions.

Featuring an insulated hood, two hand warmer pockets and packable into one of the pockets, the Prism was designed to be stuffed into your daysack and completely forgotten about until it's needed.

REVIEWS

1 to 8 of 8 reviews, to post a review you need to be a member - Join now.

Jake

Posted: 08/04/08
Updated: 26/04/08

'LIGHT, WARM AND A GREAT FIT'

Strengths:
Light
Small pack size (stuffs into one of the pockets)
Very good fit
Windproof
Well-fitting insulated hood

Weaknesses:
None really. One reviewer mentioned the lack of a volume adjuster on the hood but it fits my head very well without.

[Update 26/04/08] Bummer! One of the pockets has just ripped. I've had the jacket for less than a year and it's never had anything heavier than a mobile phone in each pocket.

Overall:
This jacket is only lightly insulated so suitable for cool rather than freezing conditions. Mind you, I wore it last weekend over a Montane Pulse shirt and a short-sleeved base layer in temperatures around zero C and I was fine.
It is windproof and certainly showerproof (I haven't worn it in a downpour so can't comment beyond that) and packs down really small. As with most Montane products, the fit is great.

As someone else pointed out, it is far better than a windproof fleece, being at least as warm but also showerproof and much lighter with a smaller pack size. It has replaced my Berghaus Choktoi.

Although not designed for scrambling or similar rough use, the Pertex outer is much more durable than it seems. I have snagged it on gateposts and things and it does not show any signs of wear.

Performance		60%
Reliability		40%
Value		40%

Overall Rating

47%

Darren Fowler

Posted: 16/04/08

'EXELLENT'

Strengths:
Light, comfortable, suprisingly warm and good size

Weaknesses:
Volume adjuster for hood would be nice

Overall:
Have worn it down to about -5 and with a decent base layer it was great

Performance		80%
Reliability		80%
Value		80%

Overall Rating

80%

Simon Chaplin

Posted: 22/04/07
Updated: 06/04/08

'LIGHT AND WARM'

Strengths:
Lightweight, warm and good fit.

[Update 06/04/08] Used recently on a winters night camp out in a bothy where wind was not a problem. Combined with an icebreaker top, this kept me warm and cosy until sleep time. Still going strong after a years use, no signs of wear.

Weaknesses:
Elastic cuffs

Overall:
Good piece of kit, store and use when applicable. Good review from Backpackinglight.com http://www.montane.co.uk/viewarticle.php?aid=62&o=6

Performance		80%
Reliability		80%
Value		80%

Overall Rating

80%

Parky Again

Posted: 04/04/08

'EXCELLENT LIGHT WEIGHT LIGHT INSUALTION'

Strengths:
Around a 100 to 200 fleece insulation.
Light
Small pack size
Water resistant
Warm as far as "lightly insulated" in the description indicates
Good hood

Weaknesses:
no specific ones i can think of

Overall:
excellent, light weight, lightly insulated (so it will not surprisingly be "not all that warm"), windproof jacket that knocks the spots of any windproof fleece of similar spec. easy to put on over and easy to put things over the fabric.
Will pack up into a pocket.

Performance		100%
Reliability		80%
Value		60%

Overall Rating

80%

huan solo

Posted: 04/04/08

'EXTREMELY LIGHT AND PACKABLE'

Strengths:
Very lightweight. Packs down small into it's own pocket. Windproof. Water resistant. Good fit. The addition of a hood is really good. And the hood fits well.

Weaknesses:
If you feel the cold. This jacket won't be warm enough. Really for mild winter / autumn use. It can however be combined with a hardshell easily.

Overall:
Warmth to weight ratio is good. But won't excel in extreme conditions - I doubt it was designed with that in mind. Practical and lightweight.

Performance		80%
Reliability		80%
Value		80%

Overall Rating

80%

Posted: 03/04/08

'OVER RATED'

Strengths:
Light and compact

Weaknesses:
Not all that warm. Very over rated
Shoddy stitching / workmanship on pockets which have fallen apart after about 1 months use

Overall:
Nice concept but fails to deliver

Performance		40%
Reliability		40%
Value		40%

Overall Rating

40%

Dave C

Posted: 03/01/08

'FANTASTICALLY LIGHT, WARM AND PACKABLE.'

Strengths:
Virtually the only jacket I've worn this year other than a shell when it's tipping down. So light you hardly know you're wearing it. It's much warmer than it looks. Wore it over a base layer on a cold December day with snow blowing through and stayed both warm and dry. Vitally (for me) it's not a dog hair magnet like fleece.

Weaknesses:
Some kind of volume adjuster on the hood would be worth the extra weight, as would adjustable cuffs but these are minor points.

Overall:
Achieves the ideal balance between insulation, windrproofing and water resistance for ten months of the year. I'm thinking a Montane Flux will be a suitable replacement for deepest winter.

Performance		100%
Reliability		100%
Value		80%

Overall Rating

93%

Dave Hollin

Posted: 19/09/07

'SURPRISINGLY WARM AND A TERRIBLY GOOD FIT!'

Strengths:
light, very packable so it doesnt take up much room in the rucksack, a really good fit (for me), cheap, windproof, water resistant, quick to dry

Weaknesses:
none so far (not as warm as down jackets of similar weight but then we know this of any synthetic jacket!)

Overall:
I was looking for a lightweight, synthetic fill jacket for use when mooching about camp, wearing on stops and coll down and also occasionally as an extra layer in bed. I tried many different jackets and all had one or two points better than the prism. Some were warmer, some were lighter, some were more rain proof. HOWEVER!!! None of teh jackets I tried gave the best balance of warmth, size, packability, cost and performance like teh Prism jacket did. it is simply a superb all rounder. i know that it will not fit everyone of float everyones boat but i think montane have come up with a really good lightweight insulation layer for general use in the UK

Performance		80%
Reliability		100%
Value		100%

Overall Rating

93%

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