User Review: The North Face Mountain Jacket
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Rating: 
Fabric: 2-ply Gore-tex with Thermastat lining
I have found this web site very good when you are looking for some new outdoor gear and because the reviews that I have seen here have helped me much I want to help other readers. I know there are people looking for new jacket, and I want to tell my opinion.
I have used TNF Mountain jacket for one winter. I must say that it is the best jacket, if you are looking for multipurpose jacket for mountaineering, backcountry skiing, everyday-use and other winter sports. I have used the Kichatna too, and but I think there are many reasons to choose a 2-ply jacket instead of 3-ply.
A 3-ply jacket is a mountaineering tool for very hard core mountaineering or skiing thru Greenland etc. The material of the jacket is not as soft as in 2-ply jackets because of the third laminate, and using such a jacket creates ugly noise. 3-ply jacket might breathe little better but the difference is so little that it doesn't matter: if you run fast for an hour you are totally soaked wether wearing a 2-ply or a 3-ply jacket. Of course there is no liner that would be wet and cold in 3-ply jacket, but I have found that the ThermaStat liner in Mountain jacket dries up very fast.
A 3-ply jacket wears much faster than a 2-ply jacket. The outer ripstop fabric looses fast it's DRW water repellent, and then your jacket gets cold and heavy, because the water gets thru the outer fabric and in a rainy day when sun doesn't shine it takes very long time to dry again. I have found that the DRW in 2-ply jackets stays somehow better, or maybe it is the outer fabric of Kichatna, I don't know, but the fact is that after few years of use, the DRW is finished, and it doesn't help much to add it as spray etc. Also the gore-tex laminate in the edge of gore seam tape seems to wear faster in 3-ply jackets, and that means that the jacket is not waterproof anymore.
In very challenging conditions, the advantage that there is no liner that would be wet and cold for half an hour after hard work can be so important that it is vise to buy a new Kichatna after every other year (I think it's the same thing with Marmot Alpinist Climbing Jacket III and all that kind of jackets). But be a realist, few of us are North Facce Athletes or Himalayan climbers, If you are looking for a jacket to be used in mountaineering few times a year, ice climbing, backcountry skiing in Lappland once a winter, in your Annapurna trek in Nepal, then I think you should buy the Mountain Jacket or some other 2-ply jacket. It has so many advantages, that for normal user it is the best jacket available. Good Luck!
Where to Buy
Buy Online We found the Mountain Jacket at 1 online store:
| Store | Product Description | Price |
 Moosejaw | Girls Mountain Jacket (Fall 2006 Discontinued) | $69.30 | Buy Now |
You may also want to check availablity with these other The North Face retailers:
- Campmor
- Backcountry.com
- Altrec Outdoors
- RockCreek
- REI
- Ramsey Outdoor
- Oregon Mountain Community
- Teton Village Sports
- Massey's
- EMS
- Sierra Trading Post
- US Outdoor Store
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