{"id":2677,"date":"2008-03-04T08:46:09","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T03:01:05","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-02-15T19:21:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T02:21:44","slug":"montane-feather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/montane-feather\/","title":{"rendered":"Montane Featherlite Smock"},"content":{"rendered":"

When folded into its stuff sack, this Pertex windshirt is the size of a small apple and weighs only about 100g. Unlike a “real” coat, the smock can disappear into a jacket pocket or cargo pocket of your combat pants or it can lurk, weightlessly, for weeks in a backpack until needed. Other than being a carry-all-the-time item allowing minimal bulk, it’s extremely versatile. It blocks the wind, preventing windchill, while still feeling as breathable as a lightweight cotton t-shirt. Pull up the neck zip and the smock will trap a layer of air around your body. Because the smock keeps this air dry instead of letting it saturate with sweat, it’s a superb insulator: the ground outside has been white with frost recently, but I’ve been quite happy walking around with the smock over my sweater (about 0 Centigrade). Shower resistant, but not waterproof, it’s much more breathable than anything I’ve tried that is waterproof — while Goretex may transmit about 25% of water vapour in even ideal circumstances, Pertex scores closer to 100%. As such, the windshirt is a great outer layer for hikers, cyclists and runners to wear in all conditions where real rain wear isn’t essential. It’s also terrific for commuting and tourism, especially when added to a light umbrella, which allows you to leave heavier-to-carry and sweatier-to-wear just-in-case clothes at home. I have read that if you soup up the water resistance with Nikwax DWR<\/a>, it makes an acceptable waterproof, but I haven’t tested this. Serious outdoor adventurers in serious conditions might want to look at the Featherlite’s grown-up, bulkier, heavier cousins like the Montane Extreme, Paramo, and especially various Buffalo products. These combine Pertex with insulating material to provide single-layer high performance clothing for skiing and mountaineering in very harsh conditions. Other brands like Paramo and Marmot offer products similar to the Featherlite. I went with Montane because of their reputation. They’re the kings of ultralight, which is what this type of windshirt should be about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ultralight windbreaker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10227,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2677\/revisions\/10227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}