Patagonia Ultralight Down Shirt Review

[Tom Clark]

I agree with others that using a down shirt/jacket for hiking is tough considering the high price and moisture issue in that application. A light fleece seems like a much more durable, moisture resistance, and CHEAPER option.

I am less worried about mositure & wind resistance since I would combine it with a wind shirt or rain jacket. I think that provides a more versatile system.

Regardless, the higher price of the Patagonia down shirt is the only reason to completely eliminate it from consideration.

[Martin RJ Carpenter]

Well in terms of synthetic equivalents, if you consider that the version of the Halo with baffles similar to those on the UL shirt – and almost twice the down fill – tested as roughly == the cocoon 60 then its clear the UL shirt can't be very warm.

In fact in terms of insulation at this weight point it very likely loses rather badly to something like PHDs ultra/WM's flight vest. Certainly an awful lot more core warmth, if of course less on the arms :)

Suspect implementation was reasonable, but they just pushed the basic design idea a bit further than it really rationally goes.

[Author]

Posts