User Review: The North Face Sentinel WindStopper Jacket

The North Face Sentinel WindStopper Jacket
Above: The current Sentinel WindStopper Jacket, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed May 2, 2001 by an anonymous hiker

Rating:
Fabric: gore windstopper fleece

i've had this jacket for about four years now and i thought i'd contribute to the gear reviews after having read other peoples' reviews on the same jacket.

generally i'm not that impressed with it. when i'm out doing highly aerobic activities it is usually sufficient - but not what i really wanted. when i am active, i use it in conjunction with a midweight base layer and a shell (depending on the likelihood of precip). once the activity stops - i usually have to throw something else overtop.

it is not the type of fleece that you bring backpacking/touring and throw on when the evening chill sets in.

there are some good things about the jacket though:

the windstopper IS effective even though the fleece is not thick enough.

also, it does compress into a smaller bundle than "normal" fleece. (although by no means as small as a lightweight primaloft/down/polarguard jacket)

summary:

this was not the jacket for me. i thought that the sentinel was going to be similar to the patagonia retro-x jacket (extremely warm windstopper WITH pit zips) but it was only a light microfleece with windstopper. its reasonable effective when i'm working hard - but then i start to wish for pit zips...

hope this helps.

final trivial note:

so many TNF jackets and fleece have zippers that work WITH gravity (zipper down means pocket closed) however for some reason the sentinel's works in the opposite way.