I bought this jacket online as a potential replacement for my old beat up Atom AR. I'm in Oklahoma and hoped this could be a good winter climbing/general purpose jacket.
I am 5'9", 150lbs, and ordered a Medium.
The Good: This jacket is warm and has done a good job in strong wind and drizzle. The shell fabric has a really good feel to it, in my opinion, and seems plenty durable for use as an outer layer and does not have the shiny trash bag-like finish that a lot of jackets get these days. The pockets are big and deep with plenty of space for gloves, a beanie, etc.
The quality of the construction feels great.
This is a really good jacket for the price.
The Okay (mostly my fault): I ordered a Medium but should have gone with a Small. I am always in between sizes and went the wrong direction on this one. The jacket has a longer cut in the torso (down to the butt) and and arms and is bulkier in the chest and arms than I expected from the pictures. For my size the Medium does feel a bit big and I lose some insulating efficiency. The jacket is also long enough and bulky enough that I would not want to wear it under a harness for climbing or belay. It will work well for throwing on as an extra belay layer.
The Okay (Technical/Design Details): The design and technical details of this jacket are pretty good but I think could use some fine tuning if it is going to be used as a technical jacket. The hem cinch around the bottom of the jacket is only only adjustable on one side. It works fine but if you cinch it down enough to keep the wind from blowing up the bottom of the jacket it pulls the bottom hem off center and makes it bunch up. Adding a cinch to the other side would basically add the weight of a plastic cord lock (negligible) but fix the awkward/uncomfortable bulge on the right side.
The cuffs on the sleeves are a little loose for me. The loose cuffs cause the sleeves to fall over my hands when they are down at my side or slide up onto my forearm when climbing. Making them slightly tighter would keep them in place better. Had I gone with a smaller size it may have also fixed the cuff issue.
The left pocket does have a sewn in stuff sack for the jacket. I have not used it yet but have kind of mixed feelings about it. I think the idea is good but I would prefer to see the option to stuff it inside the pocket. As is, the bag kind of gets in the way 90% of the time and is useful 10% of the time. Obviously, it can be cut out if you don't want it in the pocket.
The Not So Good: The hood is big enough for a helmet but not quite what I'd consider an oversized "helmet compatible" hood. It also has no adjustment for the hood. That is okay when I wear a helmet under it as the helmet fills the extra space and makes the hood move with me. Without a helmet, the hood either flopped off my head or didn't move when I turned my head so that I had to turn my whole body to look anywhere.
Overall, it's a good jacket. The hood is a bit of a disappointment for a technical jacket and some of the other technical features could use some refinement but it is a warm protective jacket at a really good price.
