Warm, Stylish, And Functional

I bought this during the summer to prepare for some high altitude and cold weather trekking and I just about worked up a sweat within a few minutes just checking out the fit and features. Very good warmth to weight ratio and packs down quite small (appreciate the bag in the inside chest pocket).The cinch cords at the hood/face and the hem work well to keep cold air out and body heat in. I love the bright Dynasty color, but it has weird darker shading at the seams and baffles and is possibly translucent to show some dark spots from the down inside. To me, it mostly looks like interesting shadows and character and changeable in different lighting situations. A lot of reviews have mentioned the zipper and that was the loss of a star for me. It is small and feel like it could be fragile, and also a tad difficult to seat if you are wearing bulky gloves. On a related note, I usually wear Arcteryx Mediums, but the bottom hem and thus the zipper was tight around my hips on this jacket. I was afraid that regular bending over and backpack use would cause the zipper to just fail, so I sized up to a large and now the zipper is much easier to manage. The jacket is still very comfortable, and I have adequate room for a midweight fleece underneath, but i do have a little more room in the chest and shoulders than I would have preferred so it is not as sleek and fitted looking as I would have liked. The pros vastly outweigh the cons though as long as you get a comfortable size for the zipper.