Lightest Fully Featured Waterproof Breathable Jacket

ZPacks claims their WPB jacket is lighter (4.5 oz size medium) and cheaper ($235). It is Cuben / eVent. Reviews I have seen for it really like it.

ZPacks™ Waterproof Breathable Cuben Fiber-eVent Rain Jacket

$600 for a jacket?

( Gulp )

Is it made out of gold or platinum?

–B.G.–

Zpacks is spot on with thier weights. Save hundreds, go lighter, support cottages.

This jacket looks a lot like the zpacks event jacket too… uh oh

NW alpine IS cottage .. just not the "popular" cottage on BPL

its probably "more cottage" than those "cottage" companies that make goods overseas … everything is made in the US of A

Bill Amos, 32, started NW Alpine with the dream of supporting U.S. manufacturing jobs while creating gear to feed his love of mountaineering.

Now two years old, the company manufactures products in Portland, Ore., and is growing fast. Its apparel is now sold in 12 shops in the United States and is doing well on the export market, with 11 outlets in Tokyo and at online retailers in Mexico and Germany.

http://gearjunkie.com/nw-alpine-mountaineering-clothes

;)

Fair enough, but making surely they know how to use Google. It's not the lightest.

How durable is eVent as an outer layer? An inner layer? I know Gore has found out the hard way that the ePTFE material degraded quickly from dirt and abrasion unless it was protected by a liner material (or even a PU layer).

Is this stuff going to hold up and maintain its properties in the face of sweat and dirt and abrasion?

“the lightest fully featured waterproof/breathable jacket on the market” (my emphasis).

"fully-featured" may be the important words; depends on what those two words mean. ZPacks has some things; they have other things. For example, they do have a chest pocket, while ZPacks does not.

I would rather go with the z-packs jacket in cuben.
Is this jacket cuben? It looks like it from the pics.

Yes, it is Cuben. He describes the same sandwich ZPacks uses, and (according to the video) gets it from the same vendor ZPacks does.

The video that is linked to shows the Eyebright not breathing nearly as well as a plain eVent jacket. That reminded me of the original ZPacks garment not breathing all that well, either.

There was a fabric update last summer — the ZPacks garment reputedly breathes fine since then. I wonder whether the Eyebright demo video was with old fabric, and whether they are now using the new fabric?

Scott,
I'm with the others in not knowing exactly what you mean by "fully featured."

The Marmot Super Mica Jacket is around 8.7oz (heavier than many of the options mentioned above) but it has two full sized front pockets as well as pit zips. These two features make it "fully featured" in my mind, but you might have something else in mind entirely…

Any love for the OR Helium II?

Appears to have decent reviews, backed by a solid warrenty. Its not Cuben, but it wont break the bank.

"Any love for the OR Helium II?"

I like, not love, mine. Generally, I hate rain gear though. It's a compromise at best. I snagged one for $59 last year so I guess I love it in that respect. It's been stuffed in my pack on dozens of trips to the Sierra, but only used in the rain for about 5 days total. It will keep you dry and doesn't feel too clammy, but just like my RAB eVent shell, when you're really moving especially uphill it's going to get hot & sweaty.

> not knowing exactly what you mean by "fully featured."
Usually means it has all the frills and frolls added by Marketing to attract the street fashionistas.
Usually means extra weight, extra things to leak and go wrong, definitely extra cost.

Cheers

I have an Inov-8 raceshell 150 which is a 1/2 zip waterproof jacket. Their naming conventions mean it weighs 150grams (not sure exactly which size they base that off of). So slightly heavier depending on what size the 150 is at. I never weighed mine, however it has a ton of features (2 way adjustable hood with shapable brim) and waist synch cord. The hood can be secured back with a little velcro piece to secure it.

Its part of my running gear that crosses over to hiking and I got mine for under $200 shipped to my door.