Today I received the Marmot Mountain Down Jacket. I purchased it on clearance and it seems that Marmot has discontinued this particular jacket as it is not in their Spring 2008 catalog. None the less, it seems to be a very capable jacket for cold weather camping and backpacking. On to the review.
I ordered the fire/afterdark color in a size small. The color is a nice red with grey accents on the sleeves and shoulders where there is extra reinforcement of the fabric. My size small weighed in at 37oz on my digital scale, not including the stuff sack. The outer shell is Marmot's Membrain waterproof/breathable material. The fabric seems pretty substantial and capable of taking a fair amount of rough treatment. It also feels like it will be quite water resistant although it remains to be seen how breathable it will be. The insulation is 650 fill power down and there is a good amount especially in the torso area. There is less down in the hood and the arms but that seems to be the case with most insulated jackets. There is about 3 inches of total loft in the torso region and about half of that in the arms. The large insulated hood is removable via a zipper and a couple snaps and has several adjustment cords to batten down the hatches during nasty weather. There is a dual sliding zipper on the front with little toggles so zipping up is easy while wearing gloves. The chest pocket has a zipper pull as well. There is also a large internal chest pocket. The hand pockets are not zippered, however, they are insulated to keep your hands nice and toasty. Two of the features I really like about the mountain down jacket is the snow skirt and the way the hood can be sealed up to protect your face. The snow skirt wraps around your hips from the inside of the jacket and attaches via two snaps. This effectively keeps cold drafts and spindrift from flying up your torso. The hood wraps around your face and even covers your nose if necessary. With the hood all closed up and some goggles you could battle some serious cold weather with this jacket. As far as packing the jacket isn't the lightest at, 37oz for a size small, but provides much more warmth and durability than an ultralight down jacket such as a Montbell or Golite. The jacket packs into the included stuff sack with relative ease, but I would probably use a larger sack unless space was a big concern.
Overall I'm very excited about putting this jacket to the test this winter. I expect that It will prove to be an excellent outer layer for hanging around in camp while snow camping. It may even work well for hiking and snowshoeing in extremely cold weather depending on how breathable it is. I will report back later this fall and winter when I am able to do some field testing.
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