August 9, 2018

Ultralight Backpacking -- Arcteryx Rain Jackets

Some people say that choosing an Arcteryx Rain Jacket is simple. Just buy whatever you can get a great price on. Their stuff is expensive, and even at half price costs more than offerings from many other manufacturers. This sounds like a joke, but frankly almost anyone will be wildly pleased with any of their products.

Along with price, they offer a huge variety of products, with a naming scheme that takes some serious study to comprehend -- which is the purpose of this page. And I won't say that I have mastered their scheme, but it is starting to come into focus for me. Their web page could be better. If it was, I would just offer links to their resources and this would be much more brief.

Arcteryx shell names are a greek letter followed by a two letter abbreviation. Their flagship product, as an example, is the "Alpha SV". Here the "alpha" line are shells intended for full on alpine climbing. The letters "SV" stand for severe duty, so this shell is made from the heaviest fabric they use. In the same series they offer the "Alpha FL" where the "FL" stands for fast and light. In the discussion linked to above, a number of people who own both the FL and SV versions (if you can call them that) of the Alpha shell indicate that they use the "FL" 85 percent of the time and only haul out the SV when they are going to do something crazy. We are clearly getting ahead of ourselves here, but what the heck? The FL weighs maybe 12 ounces and the SV weighs 17, so this is not all about weight, but about comfort and packability. The FL is more comfortable and turns into a small ball in a backpack -- but it may get ripped up by bushwhacking or rought duty. The SV may also be well suited for a mountain guide or another professional who is using the jacket many weeks in a season. All this is worth mentioning, because a lot of people (myself included) can get "macho" and buy more gear than they need, spending more money than they should and hauling around more weight and bulk than they really ought to.

One article above says to forget trying to systematize the Arcteryx naming scheme and take each jacket on its own and look at the features offered. Cost, weight, type of fabric, number of pockets (and what pocket style), and type of hood. This is good advice. Pockets in the Alpha series tend to be "napoleon style" accessed across the jacket, while pockets in the Beta series tend to be the usual "hand warmer" pockets. You may get one or two pockets, and maybe an inside pocket too. They have three kinds of hoods. The simple clean "storm hood", the "drop hood" that includes a collar, and a "stow hood" that can be tucked into the collar. The Alpha series tends to stick with the "storm hood", but it makes its way into other models also.

Arcteryx uses an interesting set of symbols for the type of Gore-Tex fabric used in the shells. Something like N40p-X. Here is a quick explanation. The first letter "N" here indicates that the shell fabric is nylon, which is almost universal, but it could also be "P" for polyester. The number 40 indicates the denier or "heaviness" of the thread from which the fabric is woven. Bigger numbers are stouter. N40 is used on their lightweight pieces. The next letter (here a "p") indicates if the fabric is plain ("p") or ripstop ("r"). The optional suffix "-X" indicates that the fabric is extra tough (as I understand it) and is woven from thread with special tough properties.

My "product matrix"

Products with "SL" in their names use the 2.5 layer Gore-Tex "paclite", which I am not terribly fond of. I used to wonder what the difference between "SL" (super light) and "FL" (fast and light) was. This is the difference. The "FL" products use a lightweight 3 layer fabric. They say the Alpha SL is for "periodic emergency use".

The Alpha series all have cross pockets. All of the Beta and Zeta have hand warmer pockets. Here are some comments on pockets from a review of the Beta SV:

The zips are waterproof and positioned at your sides. This compared to the Alpha SV which has the primary zippers in the center upper chest. It's a compromise; the center design lets you easily access the pocket without throwing off your center of gravity, or sitting in a lift chair without disturbing your partners. The side zippers let you put your hands in your pockets to protect them from a chilly wind. All of the designs here work with a backpack.
There is a Theta line, but word is that it is going away.
The Beta SV line is made in China. Samples of Canadian-made Alpha SV and Chinese-made Beta SV showed no quality differences. Unless you work outdoors as a climbing guide or are going on a super epic multi-month expedition we feel the Alpha SV is overkill. Instead we would recommend something like the Editors' Choice winner Arc'teryx Alpha FL.

Note that the "AR" letters designate "all round". Also note that the only piece with a drop hood is the Beta AR.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org