Whenever I hear puffy down jacket, I immediately think of the Mountain Hardwear Kel-vinator
hoody.
This is a very warm and lofty down jacket that is also extremely compress-ible and light
weight for how much warmth it provides.
Mountain Hardwear uses 650 fill Q shield down and what is so important about Q shield down
is that each plume of down is coated with a water resistant coating.
So as opposed to traditional down, if this jacket is subject to a little bit of rain
or moisture it is not going to lose its thermal efficiency like traditional down would.
This means it is going to dry out faster if it becomes wet.
It is going to keep you warmer if it becomes wet.
And, ulti-mately, it is going to keep you drier and warmer than traditional down.
As with any down jacket, the baffles are stitched in a specific way.
So with this jacket you have a really smart design.
You have got nice big baffles in the front and baffles on the back that are going to
keep you core heat where it needs to be.
Along the sides you have smaller baffles and the hood is also really comfortable and really
nicely baffled to really hold that heat in.
The outer shell fabric is a nylon rip stop and you do have a water resistant finish on
that as well.
So it is not a water proof jacket by any means, but you are going to get a lot of wind protection
and a little bit of water protection with the outer shell.
The features of this jacket are really streamlined and simple and Mountain Hardwear has kept
the weight of the jacket down by just having very simple features.
So you have got a full length zipper, a nice storm flap behind that zipper and the hem
of the jacket is a little bit longer than I have seen on some other, you know, traditional
light weight jackets.
You do have a draw cord that you can cinch down from either side, but it is still a pretty
light weight draw cord and there is no pockets on the inside of the jacket just to be streamlined
and lighter weight.
You have two simple hand warmer pockets here and one of the pockets is actually bigger
than the other one.
You can take the jacket, turn it inside out in the pocket and stuff it inside that pocket.
There is also a little webbing loop on the inside of the pocket so that you can hang
it on a harness or you can hang it on your backpack.
It packs down small enough that you can, you know, put it in the inside of your pack, no
problem.
With the collar and the hood basically you just have a stretchy Lycra around the hood
and it fits really well.
It is not a helmet compatible hood, but it fits, you know, it fits around your head really
well and, you know, you can certainly get a hat or something light weight underneath
of it.
Along the cuffs here you just have stretchy Lycra cuffs and, all in all, just a really
simple, clean, warm jacket.
The fit of this jacket is what I would expect in a puffy down jacket.
I have got some room in here to have some additional layers if the temperatures drop.
Right now I am just wearing a light weight t-shirt and a wool base layer over top of
that.
I have definitely got room for more layers in this jacket, but it fits pretty well with
just those light weight lay-ers underneath.
Like I said, it is a pretty lofty jacket, so putting a shell over top might be a little
bit too bulky unless the shell you have is a lot bigger, but I can see this being just
a great stand alone piece by itself.
All in all, with the 650 fill Q shield down and the streamlined, clean look of this jacket,
I feel like it is just as at home in the back country as it is down town.
It is the Mountain Hardwear women’s Kelvinator hooded down jacket.