UKC

Hello all, a colleague recent showed me his new and very fancy Gore brand mountain biking jacket that looked like it would be great for climbing, but a bit out of my price range (£269)

I do carry a mountain equipment windbreaker (i think its an old version of the aerofoil) on most summer routes but got frozen on the etive slabs last May.

Do you have recommendations for a lined windbreaker that packs down small to fit on a harness? Budget of £150 (ish).

Many thanks!

Do you mean a softshell? 

Hmm I don't know. I was hoping for a two layer jacket like this (the one my colleague had):

https://www.gorewear.com/en-uk/r5-gore-tex-infinium-insulated-jacket-100665...

Is this a softshell? It has POLARTEC® ALPHA® Insulation.

Yes, that's a softshell.

How much warmth do you want?

How small do you want to pack, theres a big difference in packsize between something like a Montane Featherlight windproof shell and anything with insulation.

Lightweight down jackets have better warmth/weight-pack size than fleece lined windbreakers. My wife's down jacket packs down to half the size of my synthetic one.

If you want something to carry and put on at stances in summer then I'd recommend something like the OMM Rotor smock. If it's cold I wear a windproof to climb, stuff the Rotor round in the back of the windproof and pull it out to belay. Super light and enough insulation to make an appreciable difference.

Rab, Montane and marmot used to make a polartec alpha lined wind proofs (strata/flux , hydrogen, alpha 60 respectively) but alpha seems to have fallen out of fashion so to speak

More manufacturers seem to be using octayarn in place of alpha and I think it is maybe as good possibly better depending on your application

Rab do the vapour rise summit in octa, mountain equipment have various switch derivatives in octa

Marmot are also still persisting with driclime after all these years

Jottnar possibly still produce the asger using alpha

Sadly for my purposes few make them without hoods!

Thanks for the help! The switch jacket looks like the one.

Just to note there are various versions of the switch jacket around at the minute

All have just fleece arms, ie no wind proofing

Latest version is octa direct the offer l order version has lined alpha - IE not direct

Typo on previous... Should have read

Latest version is octa direct the older version has lined alpha - IE not direct

Yes! You (possibly) need a ME Kinesis. Warm, windproof, packs very small.