Fully waterproof hooded jacket with pit zips?

. LIGHTHEART GEAR Rain Jacket Sil – NYLON .

. LightHeart Gear Rain Jacket Review from Section hiker

. AntiGravityGear Ultralight Rain Jacket Review from Section Hiker with a comparison between the two

Thank you!

I’m quick to recommend The Packa.  I have three:

• Original Sil-nylon
• eVEnt
• Custom Cuben WPB

What I’ve always liked about The Packa is how it completely covers your pack in addition to giving you rain protection.  No more water running down between your back and your pack.

This guy Rhys has the Lightheart Gear rain jacket. Here he is wearing it in a video. https://youtu.be/WsksHTic2rI?t=396

Kevin is right. The Packa is worth considering. It’s nice how it floats over your backpack straps so you get better ventilation.

Also handy is the ability to don/doff while hiking. It stays attached to your pack like a pack cover.

I bought something similar to a packa called a Snugpak Patrol poncho. It’s not ultralight and doesn’t pack small though. It looks like it would work very well if you don’t care about it not being super light.

Montbell Storm Cruiser, worth the weight

https://www.montbell.us/products/disp.php?p_id=2328174

Sorry, just noted the non-WPB criterium:(

Outdoor Research Apollo Jacket, 12 oz, $99

I use a plastic garbage bag inside of my pack (about 2 oz.) and a waterproof stuff sack for my sleeping bag and down jacket. That mostly obviates the need to cover my pack with something like a packa–although I suppose water weight on the pack is a consideration. when I camp I pull the garbabe bag over my mostly empty pack.

I like a jacket because there’s far less fiddle factor than with a large wp cape style Packa that has a tendency to blow around and/or snag.

The Packa isn’t a poncho or cape – It’s a rain jacket with a built-in pack cover.  When zipped it doesn’t flap or blow around any more than any other jacket.  As Matthew said earlier in the thread, it’s also really easy to have it in “Pack Cover Only” mode and then to put it on without stopping.  I had to do that one day of intermittent showers what seemed to be 15-20 times.  I tend to generate a lot of heat while hiking so I’d free my arms when it wasn’t actually raining.

You did mention one downside of the Packa – If you want to wear your rain jacket while you’re not carrying your pack (i.e. in camp or on a meal break) you don’t have anything to cover your pack (unless you’re carrying the aforementioned garbage bag).

How much the the cuben Packa run you?

The Packa isn’t a poncho or cape – It’s a rain jacket with a built-in pack cover.

\Sorry, my bad! It’s true I’ve never seen a Packa.

North Face Venture 2 can be had for $60. Worked well on the JMT in torrential downpour. 11.8oz.

Skylight Gear makes some very lightweight rain jackets. It’s just a college student making stuff in his spare time, not a full time cottage gear maker. They have features albeit minimal – adjustable cuffs, large pit zips, and good-looking hoods. I recall a size Large weighing somewhere in the 3-4 oz range. IMO this is an ideal piece of gear to pair with an umbrella. That or something close is the direction I’m heading for pretty much all of my hiking (Coastal CA in fall, winter, spring and Sierra Nevada in summer). Look up the name here or on Reddit.

You may just want to try the MYOG route if you have a jacket you could get patterns from…

@Jeremy – My WPB Cuben Packa is a custom job that I had Eddie make to my specifications.  It’s a normal Packa with a flap that rolls to the left when it’s in “pack-cover” mode and unrolls to completely cover the “pack cover” portion when I want to wear The Packa in “jacket-only” mode.  This covers the pack-cover completely and allows the jacket to function as a rain jacket.

It wasn’t cheap and Eddie made me swear that I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to make one like this.  I’m pretty his labor revenue per hour spent was pretty low.

Brett I have owned a LHG rain jacket for nearly three years. Any questions sing out. Cheers

Cuben can be WPB? I am considering ordering a Packa and was going to go event but cuben is obviously lighter.

Email Eddie and ask him about doing one in WPB Cuben (his email is on the The Packa website).  When he did mine he ordered enough WPB Cuben to make three jackets – all custom (I think he may have purchased the material from ZPacks).  It can’t hurt to ask him – you may have to wait until he has enough interest to make it worth buying the material.

In the meantime I’m happy to ship you either my eVent Packa (XL – it’s pretty big) or my sil-nylon one (I think this is medium) to try so you can see how it works.  You can then just ship it back to me when you’re done.  PM me if you’re interested.