The Gear Spotter: 66° North Snaefell Jacket Review

Introduction
66° North is an Icelandic company, founded in 1926 to design and build clothing to protect Icelanders from the extremely harsh condition of their home. In 2014 it is a major player in modern technical outdoor apparel, with close connections to companies such as Polartec, YKK and eVent. All of their products are borne out of necessity and are designed for the Icelandic climate - so they are very demanding on the materials they use and many of the designs they come up with are innovative and well-thought through.

The Review

Around a year ago I managed to get myself one of the new Snaefell jackets (not to be confused with the down-filled, longer cut Snaefell Parka) through work - after reading up on the new fabric it used and several positive reviews (although from 66 staff...) I decided that i needed a new shell, and it was worth a punt. I mean, the Icelandic Mountain Rescue teams use the Snaefell jacket and they know a thing or two about existing in extreme climates. The jacket and its membrane also won an ISPO and Scandinavian Outdoor awards in 2011.

I've now had it for almost a year, and can safely say it was most definitely a wise investment. I've used many jackets over my time including softshells, hardshells, GoreTex, eVent, Windstopper and I can't quite place the Snaefell into any one category. One one hand it's fully waterproof (10,000mm hydrostatic head) over and above most of what the casual walker and climber would need, but it's also a semi-stretch membrane and extremely breathable, which are normally reserved for softshell. With the advent of these new high-breathable waterproof membranes I'd almost suggest a new term, between hard and softshell of 'firmshell'. It doesn't quite have the waterproofing of the solid hardshells or the breathability of a softshell but a bit of both to make it a great all rounder.

The cut is short, much like a softshell, with a good wide chest and shoulders for someone of my build (although the cut seems to narrow slightly in the smaller sizes, so you thinner ladies and gents won't feel like you're wearing a tent). The arms are pre-curved to give good movement, but a standout point must be the hood; it's got a solid peak to keep rain and snow out of the eyes, is fully 3-point adjustable for use with and without a helmet, has a high zip to keep stuff out of your neck and is also semi-mobile thanks to the stretch in the membrane, making looking around a far easier experience. It's got a good, heavy rubberised waterproof zip to keep bulk down and clean, velcro-adjusted cuffs. It's worked fantastically in both summer showers and around town in winter; the face fabric is hard-wearing and I haven't had any problems with it just yet, except for people thinking it's odd to see someone in a bright yellow jacket on the tube in the morning rush hour.

There are, however a couple of negative points; when using it climbing the jacket is cut very slightly too short and doesn't quite have the stretch to compensate; as a result it has a tendancy to rise up and out of the harness, which can be an awkward thing to correct halfway up a face. This could possibly be sorted by tightening the waist cinches, but I don't like that. It's all individual, after all. The pockets, although very well sited on the jacket have, I've found, been a tad too small to use with thick winter gloves; the massive pockets on my North Face Point Five jacket are I better and more useful for storing easy-to-reach spares when on the mountain. The pockets are mesh, so they don't affect breathability very much at all. 

All of these negative points are relatively minor, however, and I still believe this is an excellent jacket.

Conclusions

Overall, I'd definitely recommend the Snaefell jacket. Whilst being more on the pricey end of the scale, you get a very solid all-rounder of a jacket which can be used for pretty much everything from running in the rain to winter mountaineering. The cut is good and fitted without being tight (for me) but I would definitely recommend trying on for size before you buy.

They are available in both mens and womens in a range of colours. Check them out on the 66° website.

Pros

+ Very breathable with semi-stretch to aid movement

+ Pocket positioning is excellent

+ Fantastic, semi-mobile, 3-point adjustable hood

Cons

- Cut is slightly too short - tends to rise when wearing a harness

- Pockets are a little too small to get gloved hands into

For more in the Gear Spotter range of reviews, check them out here

Adventures in Scotland: Day 5 - Number 3 Gully

Sorry for the late post guys, yesterday was pretty busy what with unpacking from our jaunt and repacking and checking and all the things you do when you leave a hotel.

So we had another crack at Ben Nevis today, after our abortive almost-summit on Monday. We decided to go for a proper north face route, attempting one of the numbered gullies (we eventually settled on No.3 gully). As we'd been hampered by time and my slowness on our last attempt, we decided to start even earlier, and we found ourselves at the start of the walk in for 7.40am. It seems my fitness has improved over the week, because we were up to the fork in the paths almost 20 minutes quicker than monday, which meant we had more time to play with on the face itself.

After making the long, laborious and somewhat scrambly walk along the north face access path we reached the CIC hut at the bottom of Ben Nevis' north face. The CIC hut is pretty much the start point for every route on the face. The Charles Ingis Clark memorial hut has been around since the late 1920s and has served as a home and base to many north face ascent parties over almost 100 years of continuous use. It is entirely self-sustaining and solidly built. You can stay there overnight - as we arrived a group of 5 climbers were leaving to return to home after a week in the hut. I was sort of jealous - at least they got a bit of a lie-in when climbing, no walk in for them...



Having taken a break and assessed what the snowpack felt like, me and Charlie geared up and headed out onto the approach slopes of the gullies. Initially progress was good; overnight rains and freezing temperatures had formed a thick, solid crust of snow that made progress in crampons quick and relatively easy. Every now and then Charlie would check back over his shoulder, double check I was okay and crack on - no hunched over my ice axe this time - I was feeling fit and the progress was good.

As we got higher, however, conditions worsened. The snowpack got thicker, more powdery and significantly less stable - even with crampons and axe I kept slipping and having to clamber out of knee-depth snow on a 45 degree slope. Charlie stopped about 30 meters ahead of me and I could tell he wasn't confident by the way he was prodding at the snow with his axe.

"I don't like it" he called over his shoulder, prompting me to quickly catch up to discuss with him.

"What don't you like?" I replied, settled below him on the slope.

He cast his gaze over towards the immediate approach to Number 3 gully "The snow is getting worse, conditions are getting worse. This is sketchy for me, so it'd be difficult for you. And if the snow is like this in the gully we are going to have no fun, and your lungs are going to fall out"

I immediately nodded; Charlie is the one with four seasons of mountaineering experience. It was his call. "Okay. Let's back off this thing then" I replied. He kept apologising for not being able to complete the route. Honestly, and as I told him, I didn't care - better retreat and stay alive than attempt a route, get stuck in conditions that were beyond my capabilities.

So, unfortunately our last day on the mountain and last attempt at the Ben for this trip was over; just a long walk back to packing up for our return drive home. I can't lie and say I'm not dissappointed we didn't summit, as I was feeling fit, strong and willing to go ahead. But there was literally nothing we could do about it. Maybe if we'd both had more experience we could have battled through, but I didn't want my ambitions to put either of us in danger.

Just means we'll have to return. I don't see that as a bad thing.

Adventures in Scotland: Day 5 - Ice Factor

Indoor climbing has always had several advantages over outdoors, especially when it comes to ice. Firstly, the condition of the ice is always guaranteed - you never have to bank on good weather for safe climbing. Secondly, they are easy to get to - the walk in is only ever a few feet from the car, rather than a two hour uphill slog. And lastly, you can source yourself a lovely hot chocolate to warm up when you take a break.

With that in mind, we decided that if we were going to get some actual winter climbing in on this trip, we should head over to the Ice Factor National Ice Climbing Center in Kinlochleven for a try on their indoor ice climbing walls. The walls are graded from Scottish winter III to VII, so everything is technically beyond what I've climbed so far, but in some ways pure ice is easier than mixed climbing - you can properly sink the axes, not hold the points on narrow, iffy rock holds!

We had a bloody early start this morning - because of my lack of bolt-tightening abilities we had to make a trip in the dark to Jewsons to source some temporary replacements for the last couple of days of our trip. Not suprised to say, Charlie wasn't hugely impressed and I was left with death-glares until breakfast. I've ordered an official DMM replacement set, but I need something to keep me going, so Jewsons it was.

Anyway, the Ice Factor is bloody good fun - there are both rock climbing areas and an ice room, which we had all to ourselves for the few hours we were there for the measly sum of £25 each. We kicked off with some easier stuff, then steadily moved harder and harder - the routes didn't seem to be graded as we were used to, but I reckon that I completed at least one Scottish IV and Charlie a V or VI. They were made easier by the fact they were all top-roped, but still. It's something. We made some good shapes and had a lot of fun as we did so.

Climbing on pure ice was fun, and required a different kind of thinking - axe placements aren't necessarily as bombproof as you'd like, as I found out to my cost when my adze blew out and smacked me in the nose, leaving me dazed and smarting, and Charlie cracking up with laughter as he lowered me down. It's a little bit more think-y than mixed climbing, but it some ways it's nicer than rock climbing because every foothold is solid and every handhold is a massive jug, so it's easier to hold on. It does pump your forearms quite quickly though, with some of the longer routes giving you a bit of numbness.

We had a bit of fun with the cameras taking some video, so I should be able to put up some interesting stuff when I get back and my internet connection is a little faster. It's not movie-quality stuff but it's still fun to look at.

Anyway, today was a bit of fun and a confidence boost for tomorrow - it's our last day in Scotland and we're looking to go out with a bit of a bang and summit Ben Nevis via an actual north face route. We need to complete something whilst we're here...

Adventures in Scotland: Day 4 - I'm an idiot

Only a short one today.

It's our (well-earned) day off, so we had a lie in, a hearty breakfast and shot into Fort William with the single-minded task of sourcing Charlie the brightest, lariest pair of softshell trousers possible. Now, before I go on I must say that Fort William is quite probably the most depressing place in the world. It's uniformly grey, there's absolutely no colour and it's just...bleak. The kind of place you get into and out of as quickly as possible. The place doesn't even have a coffee shop, to Charlie's extreme dismay.

We didn't get lairy softshells, but Charlie did get a rather loud Haglofs midlayer, which he was very pleased about. He hasn't yet shut up about it.

We got back to the B&B, and after planning our final climb on Friday (conditions being good, we're looking to do No.3 Gully on the north face of Ben Nevis) and started to sort our kit out. I went to file down the pick on my ice axe when I discovered that one of the bolts that hold the pick to the handle had...gone. Fallen out at some point, probably from being under-tightened. So bugger.

Thankfully it's not the crux bolt, so in an emergency I could climb on it, but I really don't want to be climbing up No.3 gully with a wobbly ice axe pick. It's hard enough without worrying about the positioning of a specific axe. So tomorrow morning, before we go for a spot of indoor pure ice climbing at the National Ice Climbing Center, we're headed to Jewsons to pick up a pack of bolts. It's odd how rare stubby M8 bolts seem to be in Scotland. I've got to buy a pack of 100 bolts, to replace one for a short period. Got to love this economy.



Bugger.



(The Adventures in Scotland series is a collection of all my posts from my first foray into winter mountaineering. Find all the others here)

Adventures in Scotland: Day 3 - Curved Ridge (again)

Another day, another mountain. The previously planned day off after our attempt on Ben Nevis went by the wayside thanks to a friendly little weather forecast; having popped into the pub for a meal and talking to the barmaid, we checked out an accurate forecast which told us Wednesday would be awful, but Tuesday would be clear and dry. So the decision was made for us.

As we'd been held up by my slowness on Sunday, we decided to have another crack at Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor and actually summit this time. We set out far earlier, catching breakfast at our B&B and getting onto the walk-in for 9am just as the sun came up, in near-whiteout conditions with low lying fog blocking out the mountains, but undaunted we set off.








Eventually we reached the start of the route, after some fun but sometimes sketchy crampon-less front pointing and losing sight of Charlie (and the ascent route) several times. At about the same height (but further across) as we finished on Sunday, we started actually climbing the route, with Charlie leading the first pitch up and over the ridge. After he got safe I followed. The route was really good fun; not overly technical but challenging for someone new to mixed climbing. There was very little ice or decent snow, so most of the time my ice axe picks and crampon points were teetering on very thin rock seams or torqued into little cracks. I did have one fall, though - a bit of a swinger as I finished removing gear from the wall. My precariously positioned crampon points slipped off their hold and my only placed axe blew under the pressure. It was a bit of a tumble, and I ended up horizontal, facing the wrong way but it wasn't all bad; the line it put me on was a far easier climb, and after burying my axes in some frozen turf I hauled myself up to Charlie's belay position.

We quickly changed over gear and I belayed him on the next pitch. However, as he went up, he realised that the rest of the ridge was poor quality snow and difficult climbing - even the gully that followed next to the ridgeline was full of slushy, partially melted snow and as such was a no-go. After a bit of a discussion we decided it was best if we just cut our losses and descended. Charlie directed that instead of down-climbing the pitch we'd just ascended, we'd traverse around to the snow field we'd played on during Sunday's practice.

Despite being disappointed that we didn't complete the route, we were pleased with our maturity in making the decision to descend (the right one apparently - as we drove away an hour later the entire north face was blanketed in thick cloud) at the right time and the competence we'd both shown in both ascent, traverse and descent was a solid achievement.

Now Wednesday will definitely be a day off. We're going to go into Fort William and spend money on things we don't need. That's the best fun you can have on holiday, isn't it?





(The Adventures in Scotland series is a collection of all my posts from my first foray into winter mountaineering. Find all the others here)

Adventures in Scotland: Day 2 - The Ben

Holy mother of god. Scotland is cold. Mountaineering is hard. My body hurts.

Today's target was to summit Ben Nevis via one of the north face routes, doing some proper climbing and not using the tourist track that winds its way up the easier south face. Although it's called the tourist track, it's still quite an undertaking - especially in winter. Our walk-in from the Glen Nevis Youth Hostel took us on the bottom section of the path, and it's long and sloggy and thigh-testing. We got going at around 8.20 in the morning, just as the sky was brightening - a proper alpine start. Despite the early hour and the cold weather I stripped down to my baselayer on the walk in - it was such hard work that I was sweating enough for water to be freezing on the surface of my shirt. Gross, eh?

Our route however would take us up the north face, so instead of going up we followed the smaller path around, slowly dropping into the freezing line and feeling the reason why the north face is regarded as the harder of most north-hemisphere mountains because the weather sucks. It's windy, it's blowy, it's snowy and it's raining - the reason why over thousands of years the north face has been turned into a vertical, rocky wall whereas the south is a very long, very hard hill. This weather would end up scuppering our initial plans - when we got around to seeing it, the north face looked covered in windslab and about ready to avalanche in places - you could almost feel the tension of the snow on the face, just waiting for the magic amount of vibration or snow to fall for it to go. So, we decided on going up the slightly less vertical west face, summiting the smaller mountain at the edge of the Nevis range and then walking across the plateau, heading up to the summit, topping out and heading back down the tourist path. It shouldn't take anything more than a few hours and we could be home and dry before darkness closed in at around 4 in the afternoon.

However, I am fat, unfit and with little practice in the use of crampons in the ascent over long periods - so I was awful. My technique was off, I had absolutely no energy and my legs started cramping up in muscles that weren't used to being used. It was painful, it was sloggy and I was extremely slow - which (understandably) pissed Charlie off no end. I'd take between 3 and 15 steps and then be out of breath or cramping up and have to stop, and as we were roped together, so did Charlie. If it'd been me I'd probably have untied and just left or retreated off, but being the bloke he is Charlie kept going, kept yelling abuse at me and eventually we got up to Carn Dearg (1,221m) after around 3 hours of climbing, which in reality is far too long. We were only around 100m below the summit of Ben Nevis though, so there wasn't much more slogging left to do before we could summit.

At the stop I took on a massive amount of liquid and forced some food into my body despite my total lack of appetite and eventually felt a bit better and we trudged up towards the summit of Ben Nevis. We were extremely lucky with the weather - absolutely clear skies and bright sunshine greeted us on the plateau, something Charlie (who has summited the Ben 4 or 5 times) has only seen once before. It was truly beautiful, especially with the view out over the south face of all of the snow-capped peaks and the clear valleys. It felt very special. However, as we started to walk towards the summit we watched dark clouds descend and obscure the summit ridge and we decided it would be mature, prudent and the right thing to back off from the summit bid and descend.

On our butts.

It's the best way to get down a mountain.

Not an overly brilliant day as I was, to put it mildly, shit, but we eventually got something done and we realised I really, really need to work on my endurance and leg strength. Hard work paid off with some beautiful views and cracking weather, although it kind of smarts that if I'd been fitter and faster we probably could have made the summit before the weather turned, but I couldn't have physically given any more - I was exhausted. It's a day off tomorrow, so I should be able to get a good meal in me tonight, a good rest and use the pain and suffering I went through today to improve my fitness over the next few days. Let's hope so anyway.

Here's some other photos too:

(The Adventures in Scotland series is a collection of all my posts from my first foray into winter mountaineering. Find all the others here)

Adventures in Scotland: Day 1 - Buachaille Etive Mor

It's been coming for some time, it's been planned, everything had been bought and now finally, after all that, it is winter and I am in the Highlands.

Today is a good day.

We arrived last night at about 6 having driven past the snowy highlands in absolutely beautifully bright moonlight and clear skies, and got set up in our (frankly for the price, palatial) B&B and got a good night's sleep. This morning, it was up at 7.45, a full cooked breakfast and then to the mountains (with a quick detour to Kinlochlaven to get me some crampons).

As today was my first day out on snowy hills, we decided to take it easy and do a simple route on a mountain we'd seen on the way in the night before. It wouldn't be too taxing - conditions aren't perfect but they are far from truly awful - but it would give me a chance to get some solid practice in on a proper ascent and a summit on my first day. We didn't get onto the mountain proper until around 11am, which we would later work out was far too late.

As it turned out it wasn't quite like that, with my inexperience, complete lack of technique and initial lack of fitness and confidence slowing us down quite significantly. One section on the walk-in was rather sketchy and after vainly scrambling on verglassed rock and frozen turf, experiencing a couple of slips and being absolutely 100% convinced I was about to die I grabbed out my ice axes and hauled myself up. Trapsing up to where Charlie was waiting I was met with a little bit of abuse, which to be honest I probably deserved, but it was time to do some proper winter stuff. Now it was onto the first snow field on out chosen route (Curved Ridge, for those wondering), a wide vertical band of snow maybe 150 meters from bottom to top, where we donned crampons and had some practice at self-arrests, ascending, descending and traversing with crampons and ice axe technique.




After all that and having climbed the height of the snow field, we decided that the delay we'd experienced would prevent us from summiting and descending safely before last light. As such, we said we'd do a single pitch route then descend and head home. The route itself wasn't taxing, but climbing with axes and crampons is a new experience, and it was initally a bit uncomfortable using tools on bare rock, but we eventually made it to the top for pasties and a glug or two of hot ribena. Then it was an abseil back down the route which unfortunately a little bit short, necessitating some incredibly sketchy down climbing. After that it was a front-pointing escent of the snow field, crampons off, down the footpath and home for hot ribena and dark chocolate hobnobs.

Looks like we're headed for the Ben tomorrow.

Keen.

Glorious.

(The Adventures in Scotland series is a collection of all my posts from my first foray into winter mountaineering. Find all the others here)

Happy 2014!

Happy new year from TGM!

So Scotland is only a week away.

What!?

Oh christ...

I have an ungodly amount of preparation to do before I go. I've got to buy the bits of my kit that I'm still missing, I have to confirm accomodation, get updated on conditions in the Glencoe area, sort maps, plan plans with Charlie. Oh, and do essays, finish my dissertation draft and work. Time isn't exactly on my side...

Oh well, if this whole affair wasn't expensive and stressful and time consuming it wouldn't be worth it would it!?


Oh, you might also notice that the blog has gone under a slight re-brand. Now that we've been around for about a year, I thought it was time for a bit of an injection of maturity and experience into this whole affair. Things are going to change a little over the next few weeks, so if you're someone who doesn't handle that well...find a coping mechanism. I want to introduce a weekly 'feature' piece too; I'm undecided on what subject, but it sounds cool and seems to be what real-world bloggers do. Plus it'd force me to update more often...