Lowe Alpine Flash Jacket

Just in for review is Lowe Alpine's new Flash Jacket, a technical mountain hardshell made from a new version of their own-brand fabric, Triplepoint, dubbed Triplepoint Dynamic and rather evocatively for some of us, containing 'ceramic technology' and reviving fond memories of the old Triplepoint Ceramic material.

The Flash - a familiar name as well - retails for around £200 and it's very much a high-end jacket with some interesting features. We've seen it before, but we now have a fully-finished production version to test.

The first thing you'll want to know is what is that fabric like?  Well, first, it has a subtle stretch to it, next the inner face has an interesting, almost metallic sheen to it that's quite unusual. It's a 3 -layer fabric and the black bits have a rip-stop finish to increase tear resistance in strategic areas. Those black bits, like the hood, have a really soft, unusual feel whereas the green sections have a more conventional face fabric.

As we understand it, the fabric is microporous PU-based, but also contains some ceramic particles, Lowe Alpine also puts a lot of emphasis on the performance of the DWR saying that it's long lasting so breathability is maintained for longer in wet conditions. That's also helped by micro-taping on the seams.

Lowe's clothing range has been a tad low key in recent years, but the Flash - at first take - looks like a very well specced technical mountain jacket. There's a big, easily-adjustable helmet-compatible, Swivel-Sight hood with a wired peak, Lowe's neat, multi-adjustabe chin-guard section and two big alpine chest pockets.

One thing we are wary of is that the wire in the peak doesn't seem to have any sort of end-cap leaving the ends relatively sharp and we're concerned that in time, they may simply wear through the fabric the wire sit in.

The latter are covered with both a storm flap and an extra internal strip over the zip. The brand's signature, rear of upper arm vents use a similar arrangement, so rain ingress should be unlikely, though we're not sure how well they'll stay open.

We like the cut. It's close enough to avoid billowing but over tight and just long enough to give some crotch protection. Looks neat on too.

At a real-life 570 grammes, it's not the lightest jacket out there, but it's not absurdly heavy either, particularly given the spec and we suspect that a fair few people out there with nostalgic yearnings for Triplepoint Ceramic and a suspicion of Gore-Tex will be keen to give the Flash a whirl.

We definitely are, so watch this space for a full review once we've had a chance to use the jacket properly.