Montbell makes great stuff….

Agreed! I own a dozen or so Montbell pieces and love them!!
I want a Mirage pretty bad, I think that's going on my Christmas list. ;)

I've tried several wind jackets and the tachyon anorak is the best. It's sul 2.5oz and has the best hood out of any other.

my EXL is the same "quality" as most other brands out there …

no better, no worse … it had a few loose thread which i snipped off … other than that its the same as anything else

now westcomb on the other hand has exceptional quality in the pieces i own … not a loose stitch anywhere … 20 SPI …

the thing about montbell is that it used to be more affordable … however with the massive internet sales and everyone and their mom making 800+ fill goods (costco, EB, ll bean, etc) … not that montbell is exactly cheap in canada anyways

theres plenty of other brands with superior warranties

i personally find amazing on how fast BPL forgets … i dont believe this members montbell warranty repair issues were ever resolved despite talking to the montbell "Mr Big" …

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=50154

;)

I bought a UL Down jacket from them about 4 or 5 years ago from the Boulder store. Leaked little bits of down the entire time I had it and they would not replace or refund. Said it was supposed to be like that, even talked me out of sending it back within the first 30 days. Never have bought another piece from them and never will. Did buy an Alpine jacket by them the year before and never have had an issue with that but the experience of the other put me off. There are enough other companies out there producing quality pieces.

Since Eric brought this up again I guess I should tell how things ended. Eric provided the link to see and read the previous thread. After accepting the fact that I was stuck with the ugly repair I had another problem to address that one of the baffles close to the repair now was empty of down I decided to try washing the bag to see if it would help as I couldn't seem to get any down to move over from the baffles that connected to the end. The patch came off in the hand washing process revealing the stitching they had done which held but the flat baffle was not restored. I sent it back to Montbell and this time they offered me a new bag or my money back I took the money and bought a wm megalite which I liked except for the extra 6oz of weight and the way it fits around the head and shoulder area. End of story… no I ended up buying another ul spiral 3 in 2012 one of the new en tested bags with more down and I have not seen this mentioned but they added a real draft tube over the zipper. I also bought a used Ul super stretch off the forums. I have a love hate relationship with montbell and if ever had to deal with a repair again I don't know what I would do but would consider repairing it myself. Montbell does not have their own repair dept it is sent out to another company. In the defense of the repair company it was a hard repair to make IMO. As far montbell the new bag appears like its gonna do the same thing I'm keeping a very close eye on it, but it looks like a very small cut/ tear is happening where the chin drawstring exits the bag and I'm trying to be very carefully pulling this string as this is what happened to the other bag. So I guess my title above is wrong its not the end of the story

I have a few montbell pieces and love them. The fit and design, like OP said, are fantastic. I did tho have to send a jacket in for warranty repair, some stitching came loose, unraveling a baffle, and it was a great experience. THey fixed it quickly and returned the jacket back w/in 10 days. … Man, I wished I had access to an outlet store, or maybe I don't. :)

@hamsterfish… get the Mirage!! Been using it and have LOVED it.

Very very much not the "ul down inner" but at the same time, not an over the top artic style jacket either.

The down-loft-weight ratios all make sense to me too. Very good jacket by the numbers. (well, except for the price tag, which seems like it is 40 bucks too high)