The North Face Flight Jacket

I bought this jacket as a light stuffable climbing layer. I liked the hood, stretch fabric, design and price. To go to a Gore-tex jacket anywhere near it feature-wise would have cost me $500 plus. Of course we all want Gore-tex XCR and fleece-like beathability, but hey, you can't have everything for small dough.

I've never found pit zips did much for my sweating, and the jacket's front mesh pockets work really well, especially in wind, as well as being super easy to reach. The DWR is great so far, I feel like a newly waxed car. Rain made fun, hey. I've slipped it on, on belay and haven't taken it off so the fabric has taken some pretty rough chimmenys and so on.

On its first cold climb, my body was dryer than in my old gore, but as usual, my arms got damp; perhaps if I'd opened the cuffs...? By the summit, the jacket was covered in frost, so that says something. I dried out fast too,and was warm enough to eat some half frozen sandwiches. I wanted a light packable, reasonably tough single layer climbing jacket for a price I could afford, and I think I got it.

Similar products; Helly Hanson, MEC, Lowe Alpine

I recently bought the Hyvent Flight jacket from North Face, and must admit I am not too happy with it. On my first trip out with it the fabric seemed to wet very quickly, and the jacket became cold and clamming within the first half hour. This must have reduced the breathability as it also became wet inside very quickly. I have also noticed this when wearing the jacket in normal use (i.e. on my bike etc). I've sent it back to North Face for testing as at the moment I would only consider wearing it as a windstopper. £150 for a windstopper is a bit much...

Bought as a a packable windproof waterproof layer as an alterntive to Gore-tex.

Disappointed as inside got very clammy and froze up in winter.

Outside did not shed water very well. Dried quickly.