I won one of these jackets from Trail magazine, and after giving it a thorough testing I’m converted. On variable days I have kept wearing it, venting it with the zips if I got warm, and zipping up when it rained. Initially I didn’t trust it fully, and carried a gore-tex jacket with me, however, recently I have been leaving that. Having been caught in some horrendous downpours recently I have no complaints about how waterproof it us, in fact my lower Paramo covered half was soaked through, while my upper eVENT half was dry. After a few years it is still working well, although it ’wets out’ in the heaviest of downpours. Bearing in mind the extremities of Scottish weather it copes pretty well with what is thrown it’s way.
The lack of a hood is my one complaint about the design.
On the downside, the stitching on the shoulder of my jacket did start to come away, where the straps of my rucksack rub against it. That said, Montane replaced it within 48 HOURS of my returning it to them, fantastic service.
I can’t recommend it highly enough, a really good multi activity jacket.
The Airdrie Rambler 