Cloudveil Outdoor Enclosure Hooded Jacket

I treat my outerwear harshly. I have a tendency to coat my jackets in quesadilla cheese and crush them into my pack with my muddy boot. It's why I prefer synthetic-insulated jackets to higher-maintenance down. They're tougher. They don't break down easily, and even a sudden rainstorm can't infiltrate the warmth of their synthetic fill. This past March, I traded in my ancient, synthetic parka for Cloudveil's new, handsome Enclosure Hooded Jacket and wore it heli-skiing in the Chugach Mountains, mountaineering in the Alaska Range, climbing at one of my favorite crags and salmon fishing on the Copper River. Initially I was skeptical that the Enclosure, weighing in at a mere 1 pound, 5 ounces, would keep me warm heli-skiing in the Chugach—where temperatures were hitting -17 C and below—so I packed two extra layers as insurance. But I never had to use those insurance layers—even on one brutally cold day when I spent an inordinate amount of time standing still, belaying and short-roping a client into a steep couloir from my shaded perch. The yellow parka's 100 percent recycled Polyester fabric crinkled in the chilly air and conserved my body heat. It saved my butt that day—and my client's, as I was able to take my time lowering him down to safety.