Gear Review: Marmot Stride Jacket

This souped-up windshirt is the latest iteration of the DriClime, a jacket that we’ve loved for 20 years, ever since it earned its first (of three!) Editors’ Choice Awards. (It also won a Gold Award in 2002 and a Green Award in 2008.) “I find myself reaching for the super-packable Stride all the time,” says one ranger who used it as her only jacket during a two-week October patrol on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, when daytime temperatures ranged from 40 to 55°F and winds gusted up to 40 mph.

“I pulled it on during nippy rest breaks, but it was also the perfect, breathable layer to wear on chilly, blustery, spitting hikes as well.” The new Stride features a slightly lighter weight water- and wind-resistant ripstop polyester exterior and the same fuzzy, wicking fleece DriClime interior as past versions, but adds comfort and performance features that made testers fall in love all over again: zippered, fleece-lined hand warmer pockets, a chest pocket with headphone port, and adjustable drawcords on the bottom hem and neck that seal out drafts. “I liked that I could zip the jacket up to my chin and cinch the drawstring collar like a gasket,” says one tester.

During cold-weather hikes, the Stride kept testers warm, yet it ventilated well under a pack, thanks to the new mesh pit vents. Also, the tapered cut layers smoothly under a pack hipbelt. You’ll need more protection during soggy hikes or on freezing nights in camp, but for moderate conditions, the Stride is the ideal lightweight, do-anything shell, and it stuffs down to softball-size. Remarkable: The improved Stride costs and weighs less than the previous version. $100; 8.8 oz. (m’s M); m’s S-XXL, w’s XS-XL; marmot.com