Reviews > Clothing > Jackets > Ibex Icefall Jacket > Steve Nelson > Field Report

Field Report: Ibex Icefall Jacket
January 11, 2005

Reviewer's Information

Name: Steve Nelson
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Weight: 155 lb (70 kg)
Jacket size: US size 39-40 Regular (generally on the border between Small and Medium)
Email address: nazdarovye at earthlink • net
City, State, Country: San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

Backpacking Background:

As an interface design and usability consultant by trade, I'm always excited by analyzing and improving designs and processes; backpacking provides a fertile and fun arena for that. I have been backpacking since I was a kid growing up in upstate New York: we backpacked and canoe-camped in all seasons, throughout the Adirondacks and nearby areas, ranging as far as La Verendrye Wildlife Reserve, Quebec. As an adult, I've backpacked and hiked extensively in California, but also have taken trips throughout the West, from New Mexico to British Columbia, and return often to the Adirondacks.

In the past year I made the transition to lightweight and ultralight backpacking. I like moving fast, and lightening the load facilitates that. I also enjoy urban strolls, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, kayaking, and aviation in addition to hiking and backpacking, so my gear gets exposed to a wide variety of uses and conditions.

Product information

Overview

The Ibex Icefall jacket is a fully-zippered, lightweight jacket constructed from Ibex's Climawool® Lite wool-backed softshell fabric. Meant for three-to-four season use for active outdoor pursuits, the jacket has handwarmer pockets and a small chest pocket, a hem drawcord with toggles, and a large, stand-up collar (but no hood). Here's a picture of me wearing it atop Castle Peak in California:

I provided much more detailed description, including pictures, in my initial report, which you may wish to reference.

Field Locations and Conditions

I've now used the Icefall for dozens of days and nights of hiking, backpacking, travel, and around-town wear. Altitudes have ranged from sea level to 9,103 ft (2,775 m), temperatures from 4° to 75° F (-16° to 24° C), and weather conditions from balmy to rainy or snowy, in calm to gale-force winds.

Locations have been in the San Francisco Bay Area, central Colorado, upstate New York, the central Sierra Nevada, and Flagstaff, AZ, as well as many locations in between these while driving or traveling. I've used the jacket for all kinds of activities, from strolls around town and seashore day hikes to snowshoeing, backpacking and snow camping in the mountains. I even wore it throughout a nine-day Wilderness First Responder course in Arizona, which including laying out in the snow and on rocks for extended periods as a "patient" for mock rescues, as well as running around performing mock rescues on others in a wide range of conditions (including an extended night rescue in a snowstorm on the lower slopes of Humphreys Peak.)

Test Results

Well, so far so good...maybe even great! I've used the Icefall in some challenging conditions, including those mock rescues, gale-force winds on the shoulder of Castle Peak in the Donner Pass area of California, and wind chills well below 0° F (-18° C) in Flagstaff, and it's met every challenge I've thrown at it.

As noted in my initial report, I ended up choosing to stick with the size M jacket. As a result, it's a bit more capacious than the other softshells I use, and therefore I've treated it a bit more like an outer shell, sometimes even putting it over another softshell top and a synthetic fill vest. While this is not how I normally think about using a softshell top, it in fact has proven quite effective.

On its own, just layered over a shirt, the jacket has provided good protection from wind and precipitation, and I've been comfortable down into the 30s F (0° C) while active. For colder temperatures, adding another softshell, or a GoLite Core vest, or both, has let me be comfortable down into the teens F (-10° C) while active. Standing around, especially in windy conditions with the hand warmer pockets unzipped, I get chilled in somewhat warmer temperatures.

So far the usability of the jacket has been good. While I still don't like that the zipper pulls tend to stick straight out, the pockets are placed well and the zippers operate smoothly. One small note: since the tops of linings of the hand-warmer pockets are open, things can fall out of these pockets, even when they're zipped up! I've had that happen twice, though I noticed it both times and recovered the items that had fallen out.

The fabric has a nice hand to it and has resisted light precipitation quite well (in heavier precipitation, the top shoulders and seams start to wet out). I especially like the feel of the wool mesh that lines the two hand-warmer pockets.

Overall the fit of the jacket has been fine. The arm and torso lengths have proven to be good—while the jacket is a bit loose around my torso, the longer cut of the size M means I can move my arms for climbing and paddling and reaching, yet remain fully covered. The front zipper bunches up quite a bit when I sit down, and also sometimes bulges just in regular use (again, possibly due to the slightly loose fit of the size M). Here's a picture of me in the Icefall showing that happening while I was just standing around on a hike:

These are all minor quibbles. The jacket is comfortable, it looks nice, and it does its job. On top of that, it's proven quite durable—I've noted no pulled seams or abrasions, no stains, and no evident wear, despite the extensive and none-too-careful use. I'm quite pleased.

Long-Term Test Locations

I'll continue the Icefall extensively in the coming months for backpacking, hiking, snowshoeing, winter camping and all the other kinds of local and travel wear I've mentioned.

Specific trips planned include:

• Confirmed backpacking and snow camping trips in Lassen, Yosemite, Henry Coe State Park, and Sequoia National Park
• Car camping in Mendocino and Big Sur during the rainy season; possible car camping at other locations this spring (Colorado, New York)
• Planned additional winter camping trips and day snowshoe outings in the Lake Tahoe, Mt. Shasta, Yosemite and Snow Mountain Wilderness areas
• Likely overnight backpacking trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Lost Coast, and Ventana Wilderness
• Business trips to Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles and other locations, plus home in San Francisco and family visits to New Mexico, Colorado and upstate New York will give me a wide range of conditions and locations for testing the Icefall on daily walks

Altitudes on these trips will range from sea level to over 10,000 ft (3,050 m). Weather will range from cool and crisp fall and winter weather in less extreme locations to wet and windy winter coastal Pacific storms and active snowfall in the Sierra Nevada and Adirondacks. Temperatures will likely range from as low as 0° F (-18° C) to as high as 80° F (38° C).

Long-Term Test Plan

I will continue to use the Icefall a wide range of activities, including overnight backpacking in varied conditions, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, canoeing and kayaking, day hikes and general city wear. Many of these activities will involve wide ranges of exertion—for example, going from sitting in camp to fast-hiking up a steep, icy slope, so I hope to be able to really push the Icefall to its limits.

In addition to the already-noted points, I will continue to monitor:

• General usage: are pockets well-placed; do zippers work well and without snagging; are the hem drawcords effective and easy to use; does the hang loop work well?
• Comfort: how does the jacket feel; what temperature and exertion ranges does it seem best-suited to?
• Qualities of the Climawool fabric: how well does it hold up to wind, wet and wear?
• Moisture management: how well does the Icefall wick moisture (or retain it), and how quickly does it dry out, from both internally- and externally-generated moisture?
• Temperature management: how flexible is the Icefall in the field; can I easily regulate my temperature with it; is it easy to adjust it for varying levels of exertion?
• Durability: how well does it hold up to general use; do the wicking and water-resistance properties diminish over time; does the material sag or stretch with use; do zippers and cord toggles hold up well; how does it hold up to abrasion and snagging (especially for bushwhacking and winter slips and falls)?
• Layering: how well does the Icefall layer with other clothing (especially noting that Ibex suggests doing so for winter use, and that the fit of the jacket I ended up with is on the capacious side); how does layering affect the performance of the jacket (including base layers such as winter underwear and top layers such as a mountaineering shell)?
• Odors and stains: how well does the Icefall resist odors, stains and soiling; do any of these affect the performance of the fabric?

I'll continue to take photographs of salient features of the Icefall Jacket in the field, and also will have friends snap shots of me actively wearing it. For each test I'll also provide some basis for objective analysis by recording weather conditions, location, elevation, and other clothing layers used, along with my subjective impressions.

Summary

The Icefall Jacket is a sharp-looking, thoughtfully-designed jacket that brings unique wool-based materials and Ibex's eye for quality to the softshell arena. I've found it to be a durable and useful companion in the two months I've had it.

Things I like so far:

• Sleek design
• Nice hand to the fabric, especially the pocket linings
• In general, excellent construction and quality
• Useful but not overdone set of features
• Excellent durability

Things I don't like so far (nothing consequential):

• Small imperfections in sewing and trimming on my particular jacket
• Somewhat large sizing (especially in the neck), combined with the fact that I seem to fall between sizes
• Location of plastic toggles at hem
• Zipper pulls that stick out
• The big orange logo on the back (people continually ask what it is but don't seem to particularly like it!)

Thanks to BackpackGearTest and Ibex for giving me the opportunity to participate in this test.

Reviews > Clothing > Jackets > Ibex Icefall Jacket > Steve Nelson > Field Report