Note: Integral Designs list the Dolomitti as 21 oz (595 gm) without the hood, and 24 oz (680 gm) with the hood. Assuming these are measurements of the size medium that most manufacturers use to list weights, I believe the weights of my test Dolomitti are in line with what an XXL should weigh. This works out to about 1.6 oz (45 gm) weight gain per size. For the weights of other sized Dolomitti jackets, take a look at the other testers' reviews.

Loft of Jacket at Chest: 1 7/8 in to 2 1/8 in (4.8 cm to 5.4 cm)

2. Integral Designs Dolomitti Field Report

A general description of the Dolomitti can be found in my Initial Report.

Over the past couple of months, the Dolomitti has seen quite a bit of the cold and wet weather the Pacific Northwest is famous for. An unusually cold and wet start to winter and the arrival of ski season have found me reaching for the Dolomitti on a regular basis. I estimate I have used the jacket about 40 times thus far.

The Dolomitti has been my primary insulation in both cold and rainy conditions. I use it almost daily in temperatures around 40°F (4.4° C), and it has been in temperatures as low as 17°F (-8° C) four times.

Most of the usage so far has been walking for approximately 40 minutes, or standing relatively idle for up to half an hour.

Much of the cold and idle time has been at Snoqualmie Pass at or near the ski areas. We did venture down to Roslyn, Washington (Cicely, Alaska for you Northern Exposure fans) on one particularly cold day over the holidays. What I consider to be the best testing so far, however, has been in Seattle on my daily walks. It's during these times that I subject the Dolomitti to conditions I generally do almost anything I can to avoid in the backcountry. It has seen numerous trips into a perfect recipe for hypothermia: 35°F (1.7°C) with steady rain. Here is how it has fared so far:

Function

The Dolomitti is a warm jacket. It's certainly not the warmest you can find on the market, but it's not a summer-weight jacket or meant for shoulder season either. It can handle winter weather. For its light pack weight and considering it has synthetic insulation, this is impressive. In low activity use, I have been quite comfortable down to around 32°F (0°C). By comfortable, I mean that I am able to stand for up to half an hour or so and not get any kind of shivers or start looking for the nearest heated location. With just a small dose of misery, I would take this jacket well below this temperature without hesitation. With mild activity - like walking - I am comfortable down to around 20°F (6.7°C). Again, this refers to essentially indefinite warm comfort. As an active-use synthetic jacket, I would be quite willing to take the Dolomitti down to around 0°F (-17.8°C).

Of course, there are more factors to comfort than just temperature. I have used the Dolomitti in drizzle, snow, hail, and genuine downpours. All of these affect the comfort of the jacket, but only slightly. I can honestly say that in a half hour downpour in cold temperatures, I noticed no significant drop in the jacket's insulating ability.

The jacket dries quickly, has lost no noticeable loft, and is as warm and cozy as it was 3 months ago.

Fit

The fit has presented no problems to date. As I mentioned in my Initial Report, it is not quite snug, but certainly not roomy, either. I usually wear a layer or two of thin synthetic clothing underneath the jacket, and this is fine. A 200 wt. fleece, however, feels very constrictive and makes anything requiring upper body movement a pain. Winter enthusiasts looking to push the Dolomitti into very cold temperatures should probably look into vapor barrier clothing or size up when purchasing the Dolomitti. When layered with a windshirt, the Dolomitti is particularly comfortable, as it slides easily over the nylon underneath. Reaching overhead is smooth and simple without exposing bare bellies and wrists. The jacket is cut short, so folks looking to cover their butts may want to consider something else. For active use, the Dolomitti is nearly perfect.

Features

Hood - The hood is becoming a love-hate thing for me. It is so big, and so cozy, that I often find myself wishing for it as I climb into a chilly bed at night. The silky smooth Pertex fabric and soft insulation combine to make this the warmest hood I've ever used. It is not shaped, however, and a lack of any kind of size-reduction mechanism or vision-improving cord leave me swimming in the hood and blind on occasion. Peripheral vision is almost completely eliminated with the hood on. Wearing a ball cap improves this a little, but it's still not very reassuring. Wearing a beanie or helmet also improves the size problem, but these are things I rarely have on my head. A way to reduce the volume on the hood and improve peripheral vision would be welcome improvements to the design. Other than that, the only thing it could use would be some kind of chin/mouth wrap-around. As it is now, cinching the hood's drawcord pulls the front edge closer to my face, but leaves everything from my eyebrows to my Adam's apple exposed. There are times when I would like to completely retreat into the hood for maximum warmth and protection. In wind chill conditions, a balaclava is needed with the current hood design.

Cuffs - The cuffs on the Dolomitti are too tight, in my opinion. They are intentionally snug, and Integral Designs makes it known on their website that the cuffs are tight, but for me, this is a bit overdone. I do have large wrists, and this may affect my use, but it is difficult - if not impossible - to pull back the cuffs to check the time or altitude on my watch when wearing gloves. I don't even try with mittens. Finding the right balance on cuff tension is probably something that is different for everyone, but I find the cuffs too snug. To be fair, I do appreciate them when it's really cold as they do a fantastic job of sealing in heat.

Pockets - The hand warmer pockets have also become a bit of a love-hate thing for me. They are warm - the warmest I've ever had on a jacket. There seems to be a full-layer of insulation on the both the palm and the back of the hand when in the pocket. They are cozy and warm almost immediately. The problem for me is that they are too small. They will hold very little, and are probably intended as hand warmers only. They will fit only the smallest and thinnest of spare gloves and mittens. Perhaps my biggest frustration with the Dolomitti pockets, however, is the black flaps that cover them. They make getting into the pockets even more difficult, force you to bring your fingers up to get down into the pockets, and then stay in the way when your hands finally do get there. For me, the small amount of extra protection they provide to the pockets is not worth it. If I were ordering a Dolomitti, I would try to get one with these flaps removed. If I owned this test Dolomitti, I would get out my seam ripper and carefully remove them myself. At the end of the day, the pockets do their job - they keep my hands warm. I do believe it could be a bit easier to accomplish this.

Little Things - There are some nice little touches to the Dolomitti worth mentioning. First of all, almost everything can be done with one hand. Cold drafts from below? Both sides of the drawcord at the waist are secured to the jacket, making one handed pull-and-seal a very simple and quick proposition. The hood drawcord is the same way. One-hand pulls. Also nice is the main zipper flap. I haven't caught it in the ultralight fabric yet. It's stiff, but still very light. It does its job and stays out of the way. I can't say this about most jackets I own. Finally, the simplicity of the jacket itself is greatly appreciated. There aren't cords hanging everywhere, logos plastered on every surface (in fact, there are no logos anywhere except the size-tag), and unnecessary features cluttering up the Dolomitti. In my gear, simplicity is a high priority, and the Dolomitti definitely meets my expectations in this regard.

Quality - I have experienced absolutely no durability issues so far. No loose threads, no open seams, no holes, no tears, and no wear-spots. The Pertex fabric is very light, but doesn't seem to suffer from fragility. Granted, I don't trek through blackberry bushes in the Dolomitti, but I don't fret and worry about where I take it and what I run into with it, either. I have not noticed any appreciable loss of loft to date. The Dolomitti is only a few months old, so I expect it to have near-new loft and it does. There will be much more stuffing and re-stuffing and a few washes before the Long Term Report, so final measurements of loft at that point should tell the tale of loft retention in the Dolomitti.

High Points

Very high quality materials and flawless construction
Cozy, warm, and a fit that allows activity with comfort
Excellent wet weather performance

Concerns

Tight wrist cuffs
Small hand pockets
Lack of adjustments on hood, which significantly affects volume and vision

3. Testing Plan and Location

The remainder of my usage of the Dolomitti Jacket will be in the Puget Sound lowlands, the Central Cascades, and the Central Washington steppe. Weather is quite changeable and many more opportunities to use the Dolomitti Jacket will be available. This test should run into the heart of the Cascade ski season, and I will use the Dolomitti in the Cascades a couple of times a week during this period. In the Central Washington Steppe, single digit temperatures (minus teens C) and crisp air are common, which will present a nice contrast to Seattle's stormy and wet winter.

Western Washington is probably the most appropriate place in the nation, excepting parts of Alaska, perhaps, for synthetic outer insulation. Constant drizzle, wet snow, and good old-fashioned rain conspire to create the perfect recipe for hypothermia. In fact, I recently learned that Washington has the most deaths by hypothermia in the nation! This was interesting to find out, as I grew up in Minnesota where -20F (-29C) temperatures were no big deal. The +20F (+7C) temperatures with moist air that are common here have an entirely different kind of chill, however, so this statistic isn't all too surprising. The fear of wet down is a real concern here, not an unlikely worst-case scenario as it is in many parts of the country during winter. Synthetic makes sense in this climate, and this product appears to have been made with the Pacific Northwest in mind.

I'll be testing the Integral Designs' Dolomitti jacket with a focus on the following questions:

1) Is it durable? With normal use, including exposure to foul weather and stuffing in the provided stuff sack, does the jacket lose loft? Is the loss significant? Does the loss of loft, if any, affect the warmth of the jacket over time?

2) Are the features functional and necessary? Are the pockets useable?

3) Perhaps most importantly, does it do a relatively decent job of insulating in moist conditions? I wouldn't expect any jacket to be comfortable in a saturated state, but the ability to stay reasonably warm during drizzle and wet snow is a claim that insulation makes over down. Is it true? Is it enough to warrant the weight difference between synthetic and down? Ultimately, is it safe to rely on a jacket like this in wet backcountry conditions?

4. Contact and Background Information:

Review by Curt Peterson:

Age: 32
Gender: Male
Height: 6'3" (1.91 m)
Weight: 270 (122 kg)

I live in Seattle and do the vast majority of my outdoor activities in Washington State. During the summer I try to head to the backcountry at least every other week, averaging 3 to 5 multi-day trips in July and August. In the fall and early winter, I usually do a couple day hikes a month and probably one overnight per month. In the winter, I ski 1 to 2 days per week, and backpack in the Central Washington steppe 1 to 2 times over the season. Spring and early summer I usually climb, most often on the Cascade volcanoes. I usually go to the coast in Olympic National Park at least once a year, and try to summit at least one big volcano a year, so the range of locations that I test gear is pretty broad. I also do a 3-mile (4.8 km) walk each day with my dog, no matter what the conditions are, and I often evaluate gear during that time.

I played football in college, and have been pretty active my entire life. I have been camping and backpacking as long as I can remember. First in Utah as a child, in Minnesota until I finished college, and here in Washington ever since. I served on the Product Test Committee for Seattle's biggest outdoor gear retailer for a two-year term in the mid-90s, then guided backpacking tours with my wife in Olympic National Park for a few summers. I've been interested in the most recent shift to lightweight thinking for the past few years and really enjoy checking out new ideas and approaches to backpacking.

Read more reviews of Integral Designs gear
Read more gear reviews by Curt Peterson

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