The Zpacks Goose Down Jacket is an insanely heat 950-fill energy goose-down jacket that’s excellent to put on in camp on chilly nights and as an adjunct to a sleeping bag or quilt. It’s form of a cross between a parka and a jacket, reduce lengthy and really roomy however with the sewn-thru model of development widespread in jackets. Despite DWR coatings on the within and out of doors, this goose down jacket is simply too heat and puffy for use as an energetic midlayer when climbing. While it does have the hood adjustment controls which light-weight down jackets usually lack, its worth lies in its glorious heat and intensely low weight.
Specs at a Glance
- Weight: 6.1 oz to eight.8 oz; varies by measurement – S,M,L,XL,XXL
- Tested Weight: 8.5 oz (males’s XL)
- Down fill energy: 950 Downtek handled down
- Down fill weight: 3.0-4.6 oz, varies by measurement
- Shell: 7 denier Ventum Ripstop Nylon
- Construction: Sewn-thru
The Zpacks Goose Down Jacket is a really light-weight, very heat down jacket, reduce lengthy and really roomy for layering. It’s made with a extremely breathable 7 denier ripstop nylon that’s down-proof and has an expensive silky really feel. The development is sewn-thru, that means that the within and out of doors material are sewn collectively to carry the down insulation in place. This a standard development method in down jackets though it gives much less house for the right down to loft and retain heat than a field baffled development, which is extra generally utilized in hotter parkas.
That mentioned, the Zpacks Goose Down Jacket is extraordinarily heat, which I attribute to the 950 fill energy down that it’s insulated with. The Men’s XL measurement jacket I examined comprises 4.2 oz of goose down however solely weighs 8.5 oz, which is a really excessive warmth-to-weight ratio. I’ve discovered it nice to put on when utilizing a hoodless sleeping bag or quilt, offering further head insulation with its snorkel-like hood and serving to to seal out drafts, notably across the neck and shoulders.
However, fit-wise, I discovered the jacket to be a little bit bigger than I desire. I didn’t thoughts the additional size as a lot as the additional girth and shoulder width which makes the jacket really feel like a sleeping bag with sleeves! Size-wise, the big was too small for my chest girth so I opted for the extra-large with the subsequent bigger chest girth. While it doesn’t matter that a lot, since this isn’t a jacket I’d suggest for energetic use when climbing, it felt unusual with all that further quantity.
The Zpacks Goose Down Jacket has three pockets, an interior chest pocket with a zipper, and two open handwarmer pockets alongside the perimeters. The jacket could be stuffed into the chest pocket for packing, which is an effective technique to compress it and defend the shell material from any sharp pointy issues in your pack. That chest pocket can also be good for storing a smartphone or a screw-on water filter at evening wrapped in a Ziploc bag when it will get beneath freezing at evening. The hand hotter pockets would not have zippers and are open, so you must be a little bit cautious with placing something precious in them. They’re additionally positioned considerably low on the jacket which I’ve discovered a little bit awkward however not insurmountable.
The jacket has neck cords so you’ll be able to modify the dimensions of the face opening, which I believe is crucial, however is usually left off of light-weight down jackets. But the wire locks that management the size of the adjustment wire are positioned contained in the hood at mouth peak, not outdoors the hood, so that they rub towards your face. Moreover, the seam the place the wire exits the hood is just not strengthened with a plastic or metallic ring so it rubs immediately towards the seam and seven denier material, which doesn’t bode properly for sturdiness.
If you evaluate this hood development to the hoods of the Montbell Ex Light Anorak and even the artificial Enlightened Equipment Torrid Jacket, which I might think about good aggressive options, they’ve far more durably constructed hoods with exterior adjustment controls which are out of the best way. Both additionally defend the hood seams from the management cords with metallic rings so that they don’t tear the material or seams. The identical goes for his or her hem changes, one other weak space on the Zpacks jacket.
I additionally don’t notably like the stitching on the Zpacks Goose Down Jacket, the place the stitching is totally uncovered, with numerous free threads, and never buried and out of sight just like the aforementioned aggressive jackets above. If you’re going to $375 for a down jacket, I believe it is best to anticipate a extra refined stage of development.
Assessment
The Zpacks Goose Down Jacket is the third garment I’ve reviewed from Zpacks this 12 months, together with the Zpacks Ventum Wind Shell and the Zpacks Vertice Rain Jacket and I haven’t been blown by another of them. While tremendous light-weight clothes was once a lot tougher to return by a couple of years in the past, there’s much more competitors on the market than there was once. Zpacks makes nice backpacks and shelters, however I’d give this Goose Down Jacket and their different ultralight apparel a move.
Disclosure: Zpacks donated a jacket for this overview.
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