Gear Review: Mountain Hardwear Phantom Hooded Down Jacket

If you see the Mountain Hardwear Phantom Hooded Down Jacket hanging on a rack at your local outdoors store, go up to it and give it a squeeze. Besides how soft it will feel, you will notice how much air bellows out of it. Once you let go, all of that air returns. It is this incredible amount of loft created by what Mountain Hardwear dubs Q.Shield DOWN 850-fill insulation that will keep you toasty warm on all of your outdoor adventures. The Q.Shield DOWN has also been treated with a DWR coating to allow it to keep it's loft, even when wet so that you get the maximum effect of down insulation.

The jacket is very light, only weighing 492 G, and will pack into it's own cavernous pockets (which will easily store bulky Winter gloves when you aren't wearing them). The elastic cuffs worked great at keeping any drafts from running up your arms, and I found no cold spots where down lumped up and cold air passed through. Inside there are two mesh pockets (one on each side of the chest), one zippered pocket, and two drawcords to pull the hood a little tighter.

Due to the soft nature of the 20D Nylon Rip fabric, it isn't suited well for dense bushwhacking or brambles. This jacket excels however during blustery Autumn days out backpacking to snowy retreats into the woods snowshoeing. The Phantom Hooded Down Jacket was always a tremendous source of heat.

The Mountain Hardwear Phantom Hooded Down Jacket comes in a version for Men and Women.