What's It For?
New for spring/summer 2009, the Diffusion Lite is a lightweight soft shell jacket intended for three-season mountain use. It's intended to be light, breathable and have a tough outer face and stretchy fabric so it should work well for climbing and scrambling.
The Techy Bits
The Diffusion Lite uses a lighter version of Berghaus's own Diffusion soft shell fabric introduced in winter 2008. It's a cunning sort of material with built-in stretch featuring a tough, woven Nylon outer fabric to cope with abrasion from rock climbing, scrambling and pack use and a Polyester inner fabric for better moisture transport away from your baselayer.
There's a 'super durable' water repellent finish to shrug off showers and Berghaus says that the 'controlled air permeability' of the fabric makes it 'comfortable for summer mountain use'.
How It Performed
First off, the Diffusion Lite is as its name suggests light, or lite maybe with a measure 330 gramme weight for a medium. Cut is short, close, simple and neat, no drop tail, no excess fabric, nothing flash bar the articulated sleeves.
You get two handwarmer pockets that sit just above a waist belt and double as venting options and a chest pocket, plus adjustable hem and a short collar. Despite its relatively light weight, the jacket manages to feel quite tough and a lot more substantial than a lightweight windshell - we think it'll fare a lot better if dragged over rocks or pack abused.
That's relevant because despite the absence of a membrane, the fabric is nigh on windproof making it feel very snug and protective on breezy days. The pay-off though, seems to be that while it's more breathable than a membrane-based windproof, it's still not astonishingly breathable, so while it's fine for walking, don't expect to be able to hammer yourself hard and not get a bit sweaty.
The other big plus point of the jacket is an excellent water repellent finish that means anything short of heavy rain tends to simply bead and run off, so a quick shower doesn't mean reaching for the lightweight shell - always handy when you're halfway up a route and fumbling with gear.
One thing we did notice is that the cuffs, while cut narrow, don't have any fastening tabs, so the narrow wristed may experience a waft of cold air to the forearms. Coversely, tight sleeves mean you can't roll them up beyond wrist level.
Verdict
Simple but protective, close-fitting lightweight soft shell jacket that makes an excellent if pricey mountain equivalent to a lightweight but flimsy-feeling windproof shell. The DWR is excellent, wind resistance is close to the top end of the scale and while breathability isn't outstanding, it's okay and venting pockets help keep things cool.
If you want a more technically-featured garment with hood, rollable sleeves and maybe a droptail look elsewhere, but if a simple, protective mountain windproof is what you're after, the Diffusion Lite fits the bill nicely.
Buy if... you want a simple but protective soft shell for mountain use and can cope with the snug fit.
