Proposed Light Weight Rain Gear Test..

[Yellowknife]

In testing the First Lite Stormtight, the KUIU CHugach NX, and the Sitka Dewpoint there was a noticeable difference in the face of the fabric. Both the KUIU and the First Lite have a softer face than the Sitka. As such that soft face held water vs. shed water like the Sitka. Its hard to explain, but if you look at the picture of me in the wet First Lite jacket you can see how the jacket appears soaked. It did not leak, but in contrast the Sitka fabric face shed water better. All 3 jackets dried quickly, but I felt that I needed a way to differentiate this and uses the scale to do so.

I hope that helps.

That feature is one of my favorite things about the Dewpoint. Even after the DWR is defeated, the nylon face fabric just doesn't seem to hold any significant water. Lots off raingear uses a polyester face fabric (including some of Sitka's), but the nylon ripstop seems to work really really well in the Dewpoint.

Yk

 

[7mag.]

I'm glad you cleared that up. I did a 15 minute shower test when I got my Chugach set, and didn't get any leakage at all. Now I understand your rating, and why you gave it a 9. Excellent review, thanks again for your time and effort.

 

[luke moffat]

Great work high country....enjoyed the read for sure. Well thought out!

 

[chindits]

Excellent aritcle and I appreciate your efforts very much.

 

[Matt W.]

Thanks guys. It was a lot of fun to do.

 

[5MilesBack]

In the shower I move enough so the the entire garment gets as wet as possible. I will stand, kneel, sit, walk / run in place, and even do a few push ups now and then.

Wow.....pushups in the shower.......I want your shower. I like room. Nothing like banging your elbows and such when you're trying to break dance in the shower.

As for the water retention statement.......I would guess that there is a tradeoff between "quiet" and "water retention". "Quiet" is paramount for me so I'll take some water retention over slick noisy material any day. Just like Xpac material is waterproof but noisy as heck for a pack. I prefer a softer fleecy material for my actual hunting pack. I'm hoping the Stormtight is a lot quieter than most rain jackets.

 

[Lawnboi]

Wow.....pushups in the shower.......I want your shower. I like room. Nothing like banging your elbows and such when you're trying to break dance in the shower.

As for the water retention statement.......I would guess that there is a tradeoff between "quiet" and "water retention". "Quiet" is paramount for me so I'll take some water retention over slick noisy material any day. Just like Xpac material is waterproof but noisy as heck for a pack. I prefer a softer fleecy material for my actual hunting pack. I'm hoping the Stormtight is a lot quieter than most rain jackets.

I thought I saw you ordered the stormtight a while ago somewhere on here, When you get it can you comment on if you think its bowhunter quiet?

I have a set of KUIU chugach right now, and its just too loud for bowhunting I think, great raingear, but loud. I ended up just getting soaked to stay quiet this year rather than wearing the chugach. Ill probably keep the chugach gear for rifle hunting, backpacking and fishing.

If the stormtight is quiet enough to leave the softshell at home, that would be even more of a plus

 

[5MilesBack]

I thought I saw you ordered the stormtight a while ago somewhere on here, When you get it can you comment on if you think its bowhunter quiet?

Yep, ordered this past week. We'll see. Ya, I go without as well many times especially if I'm base camping and have changes of clothes. This year in a couple absolute downpours with our 15+ inches of rain during September, I literally stripped down to nothing when I got to the truck and keep a towel in there anyway. I was so wet I might have been drier if I'd come out of the pool. Oh well. Do what you gotta do.

 

[Matt W.]

Wow.....pushups in the shower.......I want your shower. I like room. Nothing like banging your elbows and such when you're trying to break dance in the shower.

As for the water retention statement.......I would guess that there is a tradeoff between "quiet" and "water retention". "Quiet" is paramount for me so I'll take some water retention over slick noisy material any day. Just like Xpac material is waterproof but noisy as heck for a pack. I prefer a softer fleecy material for my actual hunting pack. I'm hoping the Stormtight is a lot quieter than most rain jackets.

Well you do have to keep the elbows tight....
I don't think any rain gear is skookum ninja silent. Quieter perhaps, but nothing like fleece. I'm not sure fabrics are there yet. I've got a few soft shells I'm testing next. While none are as dry as rain gear, it will be interesting to see how they perform. Couldn't resist the sales...

 

[First Lite]

Big thanks to Matt (High Country) for doing this test. It is such a cool thing to be able to read about each jacket and hear how they work out it the field and in different environments. It was a huge undertaking and he did it just so Rokslider's could see how the gear worked before plunking down a sizable wad of cash on new gear. While we have team guys in AK our main testing grounds are in the Sawtooth and Pioneer mountains of Idaho so we was pleased that the products performed in extremely rainy Alaska. To address the posts above we specifically designed the jacket to be as quiet as possible while packing decently and having the ability to shed water. When designing products, compromises must be made in one area to make others work better. For our jacket we sacrificed a little weight for some quietness and durability. The weight issue comes up a lot. It would very easy for any company in this test to build the lightest piece in every category if that was the primary goal, but it would be kinda like building an F1 car for the Baja 1000. In terms of clothing, the needs of a backpacker differ hugely from a hunter. Backpackers are discouraged from ever leaving the trail and hunters leave the trail asap and and spend a lot of time in terrain that a backpacker would only venture into if something went very wrong. Its more than just being able to afford new gear every trip. If your gear is no longer works 3 days into a 10 day trip you are going to have problems.For us durability and noise comes slightly before weight. Not to say that weight is not a big deal for us because it is, it just gets prioritized below durability and quietness. Thanks again Matt, its guys like you who make this website such a great resource.

 

[Matt W.]

Appreciate the support First Lite. You guys started the whole thing by throwing out a jacket and well the effort took off from there.
I hope that we were able to get enough info out there so that a hunter can play around with the %s and pick the right jacket for their use. Changing or adding a category's % weight can really make a difference in the final scores. Pick the feature(s) that matters most to you and tweak the chart. If there is a certain feature you really are concerned about, and it is not on there throw it out here. Enough of us have used this stuff we might able to help calculate that score to help you out.

 

[BigDog00]

I know the Russel APX rain jacket wasn't used in this test but I'm curious about the performance. I dont recall if it was discussed. Does anyone have any experience with it? Weight? Breathability? Etc? The local sportsmans has their Russel gear at 75% off and I can pick one of them up for about $35. I'll probably get one anyway, but curious what people think about them.

 

[Matt W.]

I've never seen one in person, but for $35 its worth a gamble.. Give it a whirl and let us know what ya think. Worst case scenario it buys ya time to watch for sales on something else. : )

 

[Jon Boy]

I think it would be well worth 35 bucks. I have a lot of other apx gear I've picked up on clearance and love it all.

 

[Matt W.]

As a follow up to this, I've been playing around with the heavier rain gear. I used the Kryptek Koldo as my outer layer for a few winter adventures to test it out. Its not being used in rain, and I'm not working as hard as I do when in the mountains, so hard to use that data as a good measuring point, but this stuff is burly tough. Its almost like you have to break it in with a wash and a few trips. I think it is a great set for fishing and ATV'ing use, and times when weight is not your concern and durability is a must. Only really note of complaint so far is the hood is a little large for me. I'll take the Sitka Gear Stormfront out next weekend.

 

[wilkes]

Glad to hear the Koldo set has worked out well so far. I purchased the set and look forward to trying it out myself.

 

[Matt W.]

Glad to hear the Koldo set has worked out well so far. I purchased the set and look forward to trying it out myself.

Hard to really test this stuff in cold weather, but its worked great as an outer shell. Had some fun in the Sitka Stormfront this weekend. No yotes or bunnies were slain, but shooting ice waterfalls is a ton of fun! : )
View attachment 12757

 

[Justin_the_EDG]

This might be inappropriate, but just bumping this as a relatively new Rokslide lurker in appreciation of the amount of work that went into this. More people deserve to see it.

Did a p2 with extended testing every get published does anyone know?

 

[Matt W.]

What info are you looking for? Be happy to help if I have what you need. I wrote the original effort.

 

[Justin_the_EDG]

No one thing in particular for the most part. Curious how they all held up over time, if waterproofing remained consistent or faded, if any other jackets have jumped out at you since this article.

I suppose specifically/selfishly, I'm looking at perhaps a Kuiu Teton or one of the newer updated Poseidon jackets as the lower ratings should be fine for the occasional rainy New Mexico day and weight/packability is more important. But as a nickel & dime kinda guy, I'm curious if the lighter 2.5 jackets would hold up fine to years of packing and occasional use.

Thanks for the reply!