Rab Vapour-Rise Alpine Jacket

Softshells are designed to be breathable, but the Vapour-Rise does it better than most. The secret? A polyester fleece liner that’s so thin you can see through to the Pertex Equilibrium shell, which has a loose weave to let more moisture escape. 

“I kept it fully zipped over a baselayer while hiking hard in sunny, 20°F weather around the Alaska Range’s Pika Glacier and never overheated,” our tester says. He also praised the feel of the Vapour-Rise’s interior, saying: “It’s so soft next to skin that I could wear it over bare arms without any scratchiness.” Drawback: Although the fabric is stretchy enough that we could sleep in it, some testers found this jacket just a bit too delicate
for bushwhacking.