Mountain Hardwear Victorio jacket featuring DryQ Elite fabric … lightweight, technical, breathable and protective!
- Chest pockets for easy access while wearing a harness
- Helmet-compatible hood with single-pull adjustment system. One of the Jacket’s best features
- Welded watertight pockets and zips
- Extra long pit zips for ventilation
- Interior zip pocket for keys
- Micro-Chamois-lined chin guard eliminates zipper chafe but on occasion pulls like hell on stubble!
- 550g in large
- 80 Wash DWR
Cuff adjustment is great if you have big wrists but doesn't offer quite enough tightness on smaller wrists
Deep chest pockets are well placed and are pretty cavernous
In terms of the jacket I have to say it’s a well thought out piece of kit. It’s a technical cut and there’s plenty of freedom of movement despite me being a big guy. Size wise I’m normally a XXL but with MH I always size one size lower so this jacket is XL … being an Alpine fit is it’s definitely closer than usual though. If I was just wearing this for walking and climbing then I might prefer a XXL to give me a bit more layering choice but as I say it’s not really that much of an issue. I’m still fine with a base layer and my usual Haglofs fleece under it and the lack of flappy fabric suits me well when out in the middle of nowhere crawling around on the floor with chunky cameras! The two chest pockets are cavernous and there’s an interior pocket for storing keys, and other bits of stuff you end up taking out with you. If you do find that you are starting to get too hot and the jacket isn’t dumping enough heat you can make use of the two extra long pit zips which during any really strenuous sections really do help to regulate your temperature fully.
The hood is helmet compatible and still allows you to bunker down in it without helment when the weather gets serious. There's plenty of face protection and a big chunky brim too.
The hood is an excellent design. Helmet compatible yet it will pull right down offering lots of comfort and protection. It also features a really chunky brim and pulls high enough up on the face to offer protection when the weather conditions really warrant it. The only niggle I had is that after being in the middle of nowhere for 4 days my stubbly face did start to catch and pull on the chin guard more than I’ve experienced before. I still can’t really figure out why though!
The material has stood up well so far (although of course we have only had this in for a couple of months) to the abuse of numerous trips into the hills, plenty of scrambling and climbing, sliding down slopes, rolling around on abrasive rocks and the hammer that backpacks laden with up to 40kg of kit can give a jacket. If it’s been wet and miserable and I’ve been out on shoots then this has generally been the jacket that I have picked up to wear – hence in only a short space of time it’s actually had a lot of abuse in a real world working environment and it is that which has made me an instant fan. It’s still early days though and from the looks of it MH have actually already stopped making this jacket as it is no longer appearing on their website! There are plenty of other options within the range though and I feel sure you can find something to fit your specific needs.
We will be coming back to this with more thoughts soon.
SUMMARY …
- Breathability is excellent, definitely a step up over Gore-Tex and eVent with the effect starting at lower body temperatures
- So far has proven hard wearing in real world situations
- The jacket design on this particular model is excellent
- Great hood, with plenty of adjustment, comfortable with enough face protection and a chunk brim
