User Review: Patagonia Storm Jacket

Patagonia Storm Jacket
Above: The current Storm Jacket, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed September 23, 1999 by Chuck

Rating:
Fabric: Patagonia's propirietary H2NO Storm
Price Paid: $299

The previous reviewer trashed the classic Patagonia Storm, so I'm going to stand up for it. I have a 6 year old Storm that has been all over the world with me. A few weeks ago, my son and I travelled to Newfoundland to camp in that province's MAGNIFICENT Gros Morne National Park. On the day we left the States, we were confronted with a HEAVY, constant driving rain. My son's Gore-tex jacket leaked through almost immediately, so we stopped at the Patagonia Outlet in Freeport, Maine, and I bought him a Storm Parka on the spot.

Well, the rain continued as a heavy drenching rain for the next thirty six hours, but we trusted our gear and our Patagonia Storms kept us bone dry, except for the sleeve-ends which quickly got soaked unless we sealed them down using the velcro cinch-straps, even though the fabric of the parka saturated almost immediately. However, no water got through the membrane at all, and we stayed dry for those first 36 miserable hours of or trip. We travelled across Nova Scotia and then had another 36 hours of constant HEAVY rain, so hard that fish were falling from the sky, and again, our Storm Parkas kept us bone dry. They saved the trip for us (along with our wonderful Mountain Hardware and Sierra Designs tents).

Now, my Storm is over 6 years old, and in anticipation of this trip, I re-Nikwaxed it on the advice of Patagonia. My son's Storm was brand new on the first day of the trip, and both seemed to perform the same; that is, the fabric would seem to saturate almost immediately in a heavy rain. But the mesh lining did its job and we never felt clammy, had NO condensation on the inside and the H2NO Storm membrane performed flawlessly keeping us comfortable in the face of "extreme wet weather!!!"

I have just bought a Northface Aconcagua 2-ply goretex that I am looking forward to using as a winter shell. But my Patagonia Storm is still cherished and is my shell of choice for 3 seasons. Its simply NEVER let me down!