Scott A. Wilburn

My ski jacket purchasing adventures

November 14th, 2006

Ski season is just around the corner and I felt it was time to invest in a new ski jacket. On Saturday, I went down to REI to shop for a new jacket. Little did I realize that I would visit REI two more times before I could find the right jacket.

Jacket #1: The North Face Alpine Jacket ($269) + The North Face Pumori Jacket ($99)

I picked this combination because of the waterproofing and flexibility. The Pumori fleece jacket fit me very nicely, but I had a couple of problems with the outer shell when I got it home. First of all, there was no powder cuff in the shell. Second, the snaps on the hood were so flimsy that whenever I had the hood down it would come undone. I decided to return this combination to REI on Sunday.

Jacket #2: Columbia Sportswear Valdez Parka ($270)

I had originally decided I didn’t want another parka, but I found this 3-in-1 jacket to fit me well (and it didn’t come in a crazy snowboarder color like orange or puke green). I brought the jacket home and tried the powder skirt with the liner in the shell… and that’s when I discovered a huge problem. The powder skirt could not be used with the liner installed! I decided to e-mail Columbia Sportwear about this problem and here is the response that they gave me:

“Hi Scott — You have to zip the liner up a couple of inches on each side in order to use the powder skirt with the liner attached. I know, it is not a perfect system. Sorry about that”

I decided that this was not an acceptable answer, so on Monday night I returned to REI and explained the problem to the customer service representative. She laughed with me about this ridiculous problem and gave me a full refund without any further questions.

I then went downstairs to the ski department and talked to the salesperson there about the Columbia jacket and we both wondered what they were smoking at Columbia Sportswear when they designed that jacket. I showed him the jacket and we compared it to another 3-in-1 jacket manufactured by The North Face… and it had the same powder cuff/liner incompatibility! If one company was borrowing jacket design ideas from another, then it sure was a bad idea.

Jacket #3: The North Face Falcon Stretch Jacket ($289) + The North Face Prodition Convertible Pant ($229)

I ultimately decided on a black & grey jacket from The North Face and also bought the matching ski pants… a bit of a pricey purchase, but should be well worth the money to stay dry. Plus, both the pants and the jacket have a Recco System reflector. The Recco System can help rescuers find a skier in the event of an avalanche.

The snow is already falling in the Cascades and the ski areas should be opening soon. See you on the slopes!

Entry Filed under: skiing