Rain Gear
Frogg Toggs Xtreme Lite (7.2 oz men's medium)
This has become an unexpected favorite of ours. Fully seam taped, no DWR coating that your pack straps rub off after three days of use, and a really reasonable price. It also performs really well, its made of an impervious plastic material, so it literally can't wet out, but yet I've never found it to be any more swampy then most rain shells. It's also light weight and surprisingly durable, the major failure point being the external seam tape peeling after a number of years, but I still get a longer life expectancy out of this then many more expensive two or three layer shells relying on a DWR. Is the hood cut and tailored, not exceptionally, but it has a function brim and I need this to be light and packable, not fit me like a NASA spacesuit. This is now our standard shell for long distance hiking with expectations of regular precip, as long as it's not torrential, cold downpours (the hypothermia inducing kind). I'm also aware my listed weight is different from the manufacture but this is what my scale read.
(Jacket worn by me on the Catwalk approaching the Bailey Range Traverse in the interior of the Olympics. This shell kept me dry and physically comfortable, even after my climbing partner and I became separated in thick fog...)
Arcteryx Beta LT (now just Beta)
This my winter and PNW fall shell. It's a 3 layer Gore-Tex shell, and performs exceptionally well in cold and humid conditions that we have so often here in the Washington mountains. With large and generous pit zips the jacket is easy to ventilate on those uphill slogs and the hood really encompasses your head. There's a little peripheral vision reduction, but synched down it's pretty limited and this thing keeps you dry. Is the high vis orange my favorite color? No, but it was on sale and it works well in the fall when my backpacking can overlap with seasonal deer and elk hunting. Even though Arcteryx offers jackets for more severe weather, this model holds up well and is my winter workhorse.
Black Diamond Stormline Stretch (now Fineline Stretch)
(It's the red shell on Moose, seen in the Selkirk range in Northern Idaho on the Pacific Northwest Trail)
This was my shell for the Pacific Northwest Trail thru-hike. And late spring and early summer in 2019 where wet, in Montana, Idaho, Eastern Washington... And again on the Washington Coast in early September at the end of the hike. My point is I put this jacket through the wringer, wearing it more days then not for the first month of this hike. It did a great job keeping me dry, even in a sudden downpour during an off-trail bushwhack in Northern Idaho. It really does stretch like the name implies, making it feel a lot "softer" when wearing it and noticeably less crunch then other hardshells. Eventually the DWR will wear off, but after about 500 miles of use my pack straps wore the shoulder material paper thin but this was under extreme conditions. I would definitely use this jacket again.
