Our take Stretch Armstrong himself would’ve picked this superflexy number: Its knit construction (rather than the more common woven design) lends it the best four-way stretch in the test. “It’s much more comfortable to move in than a typical hardshell,” reports one Canadian ice climber. And that same suppleness also makes it easy to layer midlayers underneath.
The Details The 2.5-layer proprietary fabric earned high marks for breathability, thanks to another benefit of the knit material: a more open knit in the pits and on the upper back. “Hiking with a full pack through knee-deep snow at Ontario’s Diamond Lake was enough to get me sweating, but I dried out by the time I finished unpacking my gear,” our tester says. The two-way adjustable hood accommodates a helmet, and you also get cinchable cuffs and hem. Ding: The hand pockets are inaccessible under a hipbelt.
Trail cred “When the snow started coming down in Rocky Mountain National Park, I unzipped the second, off-axis zip around the neck to expand the area in front of my face,” notes a tester. “This maintained almost the full protection of the shell, but I still felt like I could breathe.”
14.6 oz.; m’s S-XXL, w’s XS-XL