Warmest Synthetic Insulated Jacket

How's it going Stephen, moved to the US yet?
I won't torment you with details of my WT Belay jacket at 6 ounce/203g P1 insulation. :)
Keep an eye on the WT website, they are updating it. Slowly.

makes a 200gm pl1 jacket at a reasonable price …

Sherpa Raajen Jacket

$180 here: http://gearx.com/sherpa-raajen-jacket-men.html

Hi Mike.

Cheers for the post.
I thought WT had stopped selling their belay parka.

Will keep an eye out for it on the WT website.

Wont be moving until the New year but I am over this week house hunting.

Good man

Stephen

Hi Eric & Brad,

I had looked at the Sherpa Jackets in the past but completley forgot about them, I will check thrm out.

Cheers,

Stephen

"Warmest" is a relative term when speaking of synthetic fiber fills.

Because the biggest problem with most current state-of-the-art synthetic fill fibers for garments is LOFT RETENTION.

Loft retention will diminish over time, especially with repeated compressions, thus that synthetic fill with the best loft retention ends up being the warmest.

Currently that synthetic fill is Climashield. (IMO, of course.) Another good one is Thermalite.

Make that ThermOlite..

Fair point Eric,

It will be uses half a dozen times a year so compression should not be a big issue for me.

Cheers,

I havent seen many jackets with Climashield, could you make some recommendations.

Cheers

The Rab Photon belay jacket has 200g PL1 in the body and 170 in the sleeves.

The Dually is another option. Only 150g/m2 fill but it's laminated and DWR'd which apparently improves the loft. Anyway I've heard it's very warm.

duelly should be 180gm … 2 layers of 2.7 oz/yd

it also costs $500 vs <$200 (or $250 for "higher end" ones like the rab photon belay) for a 200 gm PL1 jacket … my view, dont spend too much on a synth jacket … youll be replacing it in 3-5 years anyways

Anyone know the weight of the sherpa raajen? Thanks in advance.

The Dually is definitley too expensive and the Rab uses Pl Sport which is not as warm as Pl one.

Regarding the Sherpa an For sale Ad on here put a medium at 800g

Cheers all,

Mountain Equipment have the Citadel.

A useful video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUXlvbsaxXA

product specs are

http://www.mountain-equipment.co.uk/the_gear/clothing/insulation/citadel_jacket_—573/

SUMMARY:
The new Citadel follows an illustrious line of iconic expedition-proven jackets and is the warmest synthetic jacket in our collection, providing more than twice the insulation of its nearest counterpart, the Fitzroy Jacket

FEATURES AND BENEFITS:
Drilite® Loft II outer; totally windproof and highly water resistant
Primaloft® One insulation (200g body and 170g arms)
Fully adjustable helmet compatible hood with wired visor
2-way moulded centre front zip with rear insulated baffle
2 zipped hand warmer pockets and 2 napoleon chest pockets
EXL® system incorporated into hood and back of jacket
Internal mesh water bottle holder and zippered accessories pocket
Drilite® Loft inner hem and hood lining
Adjustable cuffs and dual tether hem drawcord

the wild things retail store. while the belay jacket isn't listed on line i bet they still have it in the store unless they are about to release the next generation. they also show up on ebay, cascade climbers, summitpost and mountainproject with some frequency. there are also a couple of retailers that have carried the jacket like mountaintools and lorsey. it's sized (as a belay jacket)to fit over everything so if you want a closer fit go down one size.

good luck finding one, i luv mine.

Hi Jeremy,

My local shop stopped stocking Rab recently so I took the opportunity to try on the Photon Belay when I was in Edinburgh at the weekend.

The jacket fitted very well and as I was buying a new mid layer I was able to match up the two for size.

On getting home I weighed the jacket (stated at 710g in medium on Rab site) and it turned out to be 880g in a Large.

On the end sleeves of both arms there is no insulation in back of the wrist area, this does look like a design feature.

If I had realised these two things in the shop I problay would not have purchased the jacket, as I purchased it heavily discounted and posting it back to Scotland would be expensive I am going to hld on to it an try it out.

Cheers,

Stephen

A Rab Generator Alpine is 562g (measured) in a Large.

Hiya Mike,

It got it in Tiso's in Edinburgh, I was looking out for the Generator Alpine but they did not have it in stock.

I wont be using the Photon Belay for backpacking so weights not a massive issue.

Cheers,