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Reviews > Clothing > Jackets > Ibex Icefall Jacket > Rick Dreher > Initial Report
Initial Report—IBEX Icefall Jacket Product Information Name and Model: IBEX Climawool
Icefall Jacket Tester Information Tester: Rick Dreher Sleeve Length: 34 in. (86 cm) Report date: October 31, 2004 Introduction There are jackets for lounging in, jackets for being active in, jackets for fending off wind and rain, and jackets for protecting proceeding princesses from pesky puddles, and to date, no one jacket does it all. The last few years have seen the foray of so-called softshell jackets into the backpacking marketplace. If I understand the softshell premise correctly, it’s a garment intended to fend off all wind and a certain amount of rain whilst providing warmth and quickly jettisoning perspiration and all other forms of moisture. Softshell jackets such as the test IBEX Icefall strive to accomplish all this with but a single fabric layer, and perhaps this is where they establish their niche. A plain fleece jacket provides little wind or rain protection, and a wind or rain shell provides no insulation. Combined at once as layers of course, they do, but at the price of weight and bulk, not to mention the fuss of donning and doffing them on the trail. Shelled fleece jackets can perform the trick, as can jackets made of windproof fleece, in which the fleece has an integral waterproof-breathable membrane. I suppose they’re proto-softshells. IBEX, a company specializing in wool and wool-blend outdoor garments, makes a softshell outerwear lineup they call Climawool. The test Icefall jacket shares this line with a vest, another jacket, pants and knickers. The IBEX Icefall Blurb “Climawool® Lite softshell fabric (a little lighter & more breathable than Climawool®) is light enough for crossing summer mountain passes, upgradable to full-on winter with the addition of our midweight baselayers. Clean in design, the Icefall skis, climbs, hikes. Zippered hand warmer pockets, half-elastic sleeve cuffs. Bottom hem drawcord. Semi fit. -3- season Climawool® Lite softshell for: Product Design and Description The IBEX Icefall is a straightforward jacket design that resembles many a “casual wear” jacket design (they call it “semi fit”). It’s waist-length with a slight hem extension in back (approximately 1 in./25 mm) and has raglan sleeves. The storm-flap backed front (one-way) zip extends all the way up the t-neck collar; the soft-lined collar itself can stand up for extra warmth or lay flat when not zipped up. There’s no hood. The Icefall has three zipped pockets: two hand-warmer pockets with slanted openings and a single side-opening chest-height pocket on the left side. Pockets are lined with soft, open-weave wicking nylon to aid in wicking and ventilation. The cuffs are half-elastic and the bottom hem has an adjustable elastic drawcord. The two hangtags describe the Climawool series, emphasizing the fabric itself and highlighting suggested activities. There’s no detail specific to the Icefall; for that, one must travel to the IBEX Website. Materials, Construction and Details The Climawool Lite fabric comprising the Icefall is a nylon (74%), merino wool (20%) and Spandex (6%) blend. It has a smooth, tightly woven exterior and a soft, somewhat fuzzy interior. It is unclear whether the fuzzy interior is wool bonded to a nylon-Spandex skin, or whether the wool is woven into the fabric throughout. The fabric stretches, and seems to do so more in one direction than the other, which doubtless poses some interesting challenges to the designers. Certain panels stretch farther “north-south,” others “east-west.” Applying a moderate amount of lungpower I can blow through the fabric, so I hesitate to call it wind*proof*. Held under a faucet, water rolls off the fabric until the stream is made fairly powerful, then it wets through. It makes a bit of a “zzzt” sound when rubbing against itself: less noise than slick nylon; more noise than fleece or wool. The test jacket’s cilantro green, a middle-green in hue and intensity, is pleasant to my eye and will be stealthy in the woods without resorting to military surplus olive-drabdom. Certain jacket detailing, such as the fuzzy inside collar face, pocket lining and inside bias tape, is black. There’s a hang loop at the collar seam in back. Zippers are of the non-waterproof variety and have metal pulls with fabric grab-tabs attached. These tabs have a bit of foam sewn into their tip, which makes them easy to hold—a nice little touch. The pocket zip sliders fit inside little fabric covers when closed; this should prevent them from whipping in the wind. The elastic drawcord has two cord locks attached to the hem on either side with bits of nylon grosgrain. The arrangement makes it possible to tighten--by grabbing and pulling a small plastic bead--and loosen--by releasing the cord lock--the cord one-handed. Sewn seams appear to be straight and even. Some seam edges are serged, some are taped and some are folded over and finish-stitched. In an interesting style detail, the raglan sleeve panels end about halfway down the forearm, giving a sort of sleeve-patch look. Recalling that the fabric doesn’t stretch equally in both directions, this may be to accommodate the different stretching forces applied to the shoulder and sleeve areas. Care instructions are to machine-wash inside out on gentle cycle at 88 F (30 C) using mild detergent, and to hang dry. This is similar guidance to other wool-blend garments I own. Fit I left it to IBEX whether to send me a men’s large or medium, based on my measurements. My experience with other companies is that some make mediums that are the same size as other companies’ large. The result is that my closet contains a mix of jackets labeled either large or medium but, in fact, are the same size. The IBEX on-line size chart has me teetering betwixt the two, and I had nowhere local to try an Icefall before ordering. The medium they sent fits well, with a couple of minor glitches. The length and torso girth are fine. The shoulders are a little snug, but due to the raglan sleeve design and the stretchy fabric, this seems to not be a problem. The sleeves are about an inch (2.5 cm) shorter than I prefer, most noticeably when I’m extending my arms either to the side or straight ahead. As an example, when using trekking poles, the sleeves have a tendency to crawl up my arms. My decision is to keep the medium rather than gain more sleeve length and shoulder room along with unwanted extra length and girth. For certain outdoor activities such as cycling, lose-fitting clothes aren’t the best choice, and a snug fit will help when using the Icefall as a mid-layer. When the jacket is fully zipped, the collar extends to my chin and covers most of my neck. The handwarmer pockets are plenty roomy. The chest pocket is pretty small though, big enough for a pair of glasses, a tube of sunblock, a small GPS or a cellphone, but too small for, say, a checkbook. (Of course I write a lot of checks in the backcountry, who doesn’t?) Test Plan The Icefall looks nice enough to wear around town, so that’s where I begin. We’ve gone straight from summer to winter in less than a week’s time here in Northern California, with not a hint of fall between the two, so this test’s timing couldn’t be better. (I leave the house without a jacket from roughly May through October, most years.) The Icefall should be fine for all but the coldest local conditions (wintertime temperatures here range from as high as the 60s F/17 C to a bit below freezing). We’ll be receiving most of our annual rainfall within this test period as well, so I anticipate plenty of chances to see what Climawool Lite can do in the wet stuff. Getting slightly more ambitious and farther afield, I’ll have plenty of regional outdoor activities to attend to, from local hikes, to cycling, to family and photography excursions. Conditions will be similar to those in town, with added wind and fog once one wanders beyond all the pavement. Several feet of new snow over the last week has ended high Sierra backpacking for the year--we’ll not see those trails again until late next spring. The good news is a few more storms like we’ve been getting will usher in snowshoeing season. I anticipate the Icefall will provide an excellent jacket in the snow, especially on milder days. My winter test area/playground will be the Tahoe Sierra, with elevations between 6-8,000 ft (1,830-2,440 m) and temperatures perhaps as high as the 50s to as low as the mid-teens F (+11 to –9 C). On mild days I expect to wear the Icefall with a wicking short-sleeve t-shirt as base layer, on moderate days with an added midweight long-sleeve tee and on cold days, perhaps with a layer on top (a parka or vest). What headgear to take will be an issue, given the Icefall’s lacking a hood. Test Questions Is Climawool windproof? Initial Conclusions I’ve already worn the Icefall in moderately heavy rain. Echoing my sink test results, water beads and rolls off…to a point. Bringing it inside after a good shake-off, I noted that across the shoulders there was wet-spotting, indicating the fabric was beginning to wet through. Turning it inside out, I found that the inner fabric face remained dry and warm. My time in the rain was only ten or fifteen minutes, so I can’t draw any conclusions about Climawool Lite’s performance in extended wet conditions. Upside: The Icefall is nicely designed, well-made and the Climawool fabric feels good. It has few features and no frills, and all that are provided are welcome. I’ve noticed a recent trend to minimize clothing care instruction and to make it as miniscule as is conceivable. Hooray to IBEX for making their care label comprehensive, easy to read and sewn where anybody can find it. Downside: The fickle fit. Suggestions: At this early date I can’t think of anything. Brief Hiking Bio and Experience with Similar Products I learned camping and hiking in Boy Scouts, tramping the Washington Cascade foothills (lugging canvas pup tents, Trapper Nelson and BSA aluminum-canvas backpacks, kapok sleeping bags and always an axe). From these beginnings, I eventually learned backpacking as a singular pursuit and found a home away from home in the Cascades and Olympics. I’ve carried a vast, probably absurdly so, array of jackets into the mountains. Early on I’d take just one jacket to do everything—from keeping me warm to keeping me dry. When this didn’t work in the soggy Northwest I’d also take a poncho. Once I outgrew my wool allergy, I was lead to the fact that it was unique among fabrics in its ability (back then) to keep me warm even when wet. Many, many fabric and fill advances have come since my early days, and I’ve tried most: polypropylene, pile, various synthetic fills, fleece, Goretex, etc. My jacket choices always revolve around a layering system (base, insulation, shell). Living in northern California most of my hiking is in the Sierra Nevada, the trips ranging from overnight to weeklong excursions. I’ve been fairly successful shedding pounds and ounces from my pack the last three or four years. I’ve been doing this for several reasons: traveling easier and farther, freeing myself from as many trappings as I’m comfortable discarding, and extending the duration of my backpacking career. My total pack weight for three-day summer excursions, including food and water, is now roughly 25 pounds (12 kg), longer trips see pack weights ranging into the mid to upper 30s (17 kg) with water. My thanks to IBEX and BackpackGearTest for the privilege of participating in this test. --RTD 10.31.2004 Read more reviews of Ibex gear Read more gear reviews by Rick Dreher Reviews > Clothing > Jackets > Ibex Icefall Jacket > Rick Dreher > Initial Report | |||