Buff CoolNet UV+

If you’ve ever been on a hike without a Buff, then you know true misery. From mopping sweat to concealing greasy hair, the Buff is a hiking mainstay. Our new pandemic reality adds yet another use for a Buff: Trail facemask. The Buff CoolNet UV+ is the latest generation of Buffs in that it offers a considerably smaller environmental footprint: it’s made with 95% recycled REPREVE^® Performance Microfiber from plastic bottles. On the skin, it feels less like a microfiber and more like a lightweight silky fabric that I hardly felt. (< that’s a good thing). Bonus points to Buff for making these in Europe vs Asia. During hikes I wear it as a neck gaiter. When hikers pass near me, I just pull it up over my nose.

Osprey Tempest 40 Daypack

I have an 85-liter pack for long multi-day trips and travel. A 65-liter pack for 2-3-day hikes and travel. A wee 28-liter pack for dayhikes. But the women-specific Osprey Tempest 40 is my most versatile pack. It’s ideal for that sweet spot for long day hikes in which I need to pack gear for the unexpected: rain, sudden cold front moving in, extra food, and a camp stove and air mattress for when I find that beautiful spot perched high on a mountain overlooking a lake that I want to hang out a bit.  

This versatility comes with the features of a large pack—Osprey’s AirScape suspension with foam back panel for ideal moisture management, adjustable harness to fit any back length, hip belt lined with mesh for optimal comfort and air flow, functional and easy-to-reach pockets, exterior PowerMesh pocket for stashing a wet rainjacket, hiking pole attachment, compression straps and hydration sleeve—but delivered in a lightweight pack ideal for long dayhikes or an overnighter. Full review coming soon.

Helle Mandra Knife

The Norwegian sourced- and made Helle Mandra is a light-weight, full-tang knife in the category of “every day carry” or EDC if you’re a knife geek. Tipping the kitchen food scale at a petite 70 grams, this knife offers great versatility on the trail. It comes with a leather carrying sheath and thong that can be worn around your neck looped through the hip belt of your pack or hiking pants. Its cutting power is smooth and precise, easily taking on the slicing of sheets of birch bark in half that had been naturally shed from a tree to start a fire with wet wood, cutting a climbing rope with an impossible knot tied by someone else’s negligence, freeing a snagged fishing line and shaving intricately thin slices of cheese and sausage for crackers on a trail lunch. Check out the full review here.

Royal Robbins Bug Barrier Tech Travel Long Sleeve

There are many reasons I like the Royal Robbins Bug Barrier Tech Travel Long Sleeve—great fit for layering, long length that doesn’t bunch up under backpack waist belts, decent body temperature regulation. But the biggest and most important is that the fabric is made with InsectSheild bug barrier protection. Ticks are everywhere in Minnesota in the spring. Crawling on the ground on which I set my pack. Lurking on the bush during a bio break. Waiting in the tree branches to launch themselves onto me so they can burrow into my skin until they’re bloated and happy from the feast of my blood. InsectShield fuses and binds a formula of permethrin into fabric fibers that repels mosquitoes, ticks, ants, flies, chiggers, and midges. Per InsectShield, the repellency is “EPA-registered to last through 70 launderings—the expected lifetime of a garment.”

Gore H5 Active Hooded Jacket

When wearing a loaded backpack, the bulk and bunch of a rain jacket can translate to discomfort and hot spots. But not with the form-fitting Gore H5 Active Hooded jacket. It’s not skin-tight and it’s not baggy. As with all Gore products, it’s both waterproof and highly breathable. In a world where many manufacturers tote their rain jackets as being breathable, Gore is about the only one I have experienced to really achieve this feat. Aside from hitting the finer points that make a rain jacket a rain jacket, the Gore H5 Active Hooded jacket’s hood stays put in wind gusts, packs easily into its own pocket and is very lightweight, weighing in at a scant 8 ¼ ounces. Check out the full review here.

MSR PocketRocket Deluxe Stove Kit

In my opinion, day hikes that take all day are best rewarded with a hot lunch or cup of steaming tea or coffee. The MSR PocketRocket Deluxe Stove comes with the “Trail Mini Duo” cook set. It includes a 1.2 liter anodized aluminum pot, a 28 oz cold/heat safe bowl with a strainer lid (BPA free), and a handy “Mini LiteLifter” tool for gripping the pot when heated (it does not have its own handle). It is everything you will need to prepare food for 1-2 people. Even better, the kit nests together neatly into a compact 5 x 5.25 inch space. The piezo-igniter is a bigger-than-expected convenience and worked smashingly for our reviewer in a range of temperatures, wind, and rain. With 11000 BTUs / 3200 Watts of fire, you can boil water in a hurry. During field testing, our reviewer averaged 3:18 to boil one liter of water (in the included container) in a windless environment. Read full review here.

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What I Love

GORE-TEX ShakeDry

Love it or hate it, Gore-Tex remains the gold standard in waterproofing performance. As the name implies, one shake and the jacket is dry. But with GORE-TEX ShakeDry technology, it never actually gets wet in the first place.

GORE-TEX ShakeDry is a waterproof membrane continuously sheds water by virtue of a “persistent beading” surface. This means that moisture will never build up and soak through. The difference between ShakeDry and other waterproof fabrics is in the layers—or lack thereof. In non-ShakeDry rain jackets the waterproof membrane, which is what keeps you dry, is under a face fabric that has been treated with a waterproofing agent like Durable Water Repellent (DWR). With ShakeDry, the face fabric is eliminated and waterproof membrane is the face fabric.  

ShakeDry is a solution to an actual problem, one that I encountered backpacking in Greenland: Trying to keep a soaked rain jacket from coming into contact with my down sleeping bag and Exped Downmat inside a very small tent. If I had had the Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket I could have removed the jacket inside the tent because it would have never got wet.  

Fit

The Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket is in the fit class of “form fit”. It’s not skin-tight and it’s not baggy. Gore designed this jacket for “fast hiking” but the fit is more in line with that of a cycling jacket than a hiking jacket. But make no mistake, it is a rain jacket for hiking. The contoured hemline is shorter on the sides (for optimal symbioses with a backpack hip belt) and longer in the front or back. My size small sample’s hem hits right at the top of my hip bone on the sides. My personal preference is a longer hem, like that of the Gore H5 Active Hooded Jacket (review coming).

Still, I still found much to appreciate with the Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket. The shorter length and form fit remove any potential for bulk or bunchiness. When not wearing a backpack this isn’t as important. But when wearing a backpack bulk and bunch can translate to discomfort and hot spots under a loaded backpack.

As for sizing, it runs small. I am a solid size small but I found that the arms are on the shorter side and it is definitely tighter in the shoulders. This isn’t as bad if I’m wearing a form-fitting baselayer underneath. But if I’m wearing something bulkier, like a mid-weight baselayer or a down sweater, I felt constrained in my shoulders and chest. A size medium would really be ideal for me. So size up!

Both Waterproof and Insulated

The Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket comes with Polartec Alpha Active Insulation. This technology was developed for the U.S. special forces who required a synthetic insultation for extreme temperature variations and the “start/stop” conditions of combat. Lofted fibers in the insulation are hydrophobic and continuously release excess body heat before it builds to prevent any overheating or sweat from building up.

Polartec Alpha Insulation will not stop a bullet but it will keep you warm when the skies spew bone-chilling rain on your hike. In terms of temperature, the coldest which that I wore the Gore H5 GORE-TEX hooded jacket was about forty degrees (and it was drizzling). That day I was wearing just a mid-weight merino wool hiking shirt under the jacket and I was actually a bit too warm.

Backpack Friendly Design

More and more jackets are being designed as “backpack friendly”, and the Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket is no exception. But what does “backpack friendly” mean? It means that front pockets are placed higher to be useable while wearing a backpack with a hip belt. Seams on the shoulders are flat to avoid any discomfort or chafing under the shoulder straps of a loaded backpack.

Gore certainly achieved all those points. But in typical Gore fashion they did just a little bit more by eliminating the shoulder seams altogether and placing the torso seam to not interfere with sternum straps. A drawcord at waist cinches down while preventing the jacket from bunching.

Breathable

What makes GORE-TEX fabric in a league of its own is the billions of tiny pores that are 20,000 times smaller than a water drop but 700 times larger than water vapor. This brilliant design keeps out rain while allowing perspiration to vaporize. In addition to the GORE-TEX fabric, Gore added a two-way water-resistant front zipper for torso venting.

I found its breathability to be good, despite its lack of pit zippers and mesh liner fabric. Certainly its breathability as a rain jacket is light years ahead of non-GORE-TEX jacket. Since my review period was September and October in Minnesota, the lack of pit zippers wasn’t critical. But if I was hiking in warm or humid temperatures, I wouldn’t be wearing an insulated rain jacket anyway.

What Could be Better

Fit

As I stated earlier, I recommend sizing up. The “form fit” is not skin-tight and works amazingly well in removing any excess fabric that could uncomfortably bunch up under a backpack; however, this comes with a few limitations.

I found the Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket size small a little too tight in my shoulders when wearing a mid- or heavy-weight baselayer and the arms and hem on the short side. When hiking in the rain with hiking sticks I like more arm length to reduce exposure to my hands. I also like my rain jacket hems to hit at the hip. The Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket hits right at the tip-top of my hip bone.  

Packablility

This is more of a “head’s up” than a “what could be better”. The Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket does not pack into its own pocket due to the Polartec Alpha Insulation. It’s not excessively bulky at all but its insulation is not nearly as compressible as down.

Final Thoughts

The Gore H5 ShakeDry Insulated jacket is without doubt the most impressive rain jacket I have come across. Like all Gore products, it is well-made of high-quality, durable materials. Its construction and materials also commands a $400 price tag. It’s also worth noting that it isn’t designed as a multi-sport jacket. It is niche rain jacket, designed for cold-weather “fast hiking”.

Fast hiking is moving quickly for long distances or over technical terrain, rather than taking your time watching birds, etc. If this describes you as a hiker, and you have opportunities to hike in high elevations or where the climate is colder, this is an absolutely ideal rain jacket.

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