GearFlogger

Mountain Hardwear Dome Perignon hat

I like the nightlife. I like to boogie. I like to wear hats made from Polartec Thermal Pro. It's a simple life, and the Mountain Hardwear Dome Perignon is a simple hat. In any case, it simply kept my brain bucket warm on Denali this year, so I'm sold.

Thermal Pro is a 200 weight fleece with a nice subtle waffle weave. Mmm. Waffles. The Gore Windstopper fleece earband keeps your flappers toasty, and an elastic section at the back stretches for optimal fit. Unlike some hats it comes in small, medium and large sizes so you can dial in the fit exactly where you want it.

There's just enough of a curve around the bottom to cover your ears, and the piping is a nice fat roll that makes it easy to pull on. Peak hats like this are more than just a random design. A little bit of air space up top facilitates moisture working its way out the top and evaporating, until those little drops of water are just so much vapor, like Sarah Palin's presidential chances.

$30.00 at REI

Mountain Hardwear Power Stretch glove

Spring is in the air, and numb fingers can't be far behind. As usual the glove bin is full of mismatched gear. If you're in the same boat and looking for a lightweight glove for casual or liner duty, the Mountain Hardwear Power Stretch gloves are a great candidate.

Power Stretch recently won a Nobel prize. OK that's not true, but it could be the way they're giving them away these days. MH's gloves are a standard light but not too light design. Their big advantage is the snug cuff; it feels secure while jogging and keeps them on your hands when you pull your mittens off.

Another nice touch is the snaps, which can help prevent lost-glove syndrome. But only if you actually use it. Oops. Keep in mind these are not grippy gloves. Power Stretch is a fairly slick material - not for driving! - designed for light insulation and high breathability, i.e. medium wind blocking. Also these are not constructed like a work glove, so if you're looking for traction, weatherproofitude and durability look elsewhere. For jogging, hiking and liner applications they're great.

$27.00 at REI

Mountain Hardwear Epic women's rain jacket

Epics make great stories but the thrill is usually lost in the middle of the experience when you're soaking wet and full of pain. Twelve ounces of prevention can prevent the wet part at least, with Mountain Hardwear's back-to-basics Epic rain jacket. The Epic is an inexpensive way to keep the hitch out of your giddyup in wet climes.

We tested the women's version in retina-burning Green Flash and as advertised, it is fully waterproof courtesy of Mountain Hardwear's Conduit Silk shell material and taped seams. The material has its ups - it's lightweight and tougher than dinosaur crap - and its downs - it gets pretty clammy if you're planning on firing up the boiler, so wear a base layer. The Epic has pit zips and venting mesh pockets to compensate, but if you're looking for serious breathability you'll need to move up to one of MH's more technical materials.

The Epic has a roll-away hood with one-pull adjustment and a reinforced brim, rip-and-stick cuffs, dual hem drawcords and two hand warmer pockets with zips and flaps. Instead of a chest pocket there's an zippered arm pocket on the upper left sleeve. It's just big enough for credit cards and an iPod. The front zipper is fully flapped with top and bottom snaps and a microfleece chin guard. A trim womanly fit rounds things out; although the jacket is a tad larger than the size would suggest the waist is definitely anatomically correct. If you're looking for a modern take on a classic hard-shell rain jacket at a reasonable price, check out the Epic.

$58.95 (on sale from $99.00) at Mountaingear

Mountain Hardwear Advance Lightweight Zip T

Hands-down one of the most useful pieces of mountain wear is the long-sleeve zip-t. Mountain Hardwear's Advance Lightweight Zip T is state-of-the-art, unbelievably thin and light with excellent durability and serious wicking power, thanks to a channel weave construction.

The Zip T weighs in at 5.8oz, the lightest piece of this kind that we've seen. My first concern was durability, but the Zip T shrugs it all off. If you're truly ham-handed and like to rip your clothing off you might want something thicker, but for normal wear-and-tear and abrasion-resistance the Zip T has no worries.

One nice touch is no pocket; since base layers by definition go on under layers I've never understood why some vendors insist on putting pockets everywhere. The Advance Zip T has a few subtle but truly appreciated touches. A zipper garage at the neck protects your gullet from zipper bites, a longish hem will provide good overlap with your bottoms as well as not leave a seam under your harness and hipbelt, and an anti-microbial Chitosan finish made from crustacean shells keeps the reek at bay.

$44.95 at Backcountry

Mountain Hardwear Nitrous jacket

Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that you are a man and you are in the doghouse. I mean you really screwed the pooch this time, bro. Figuratively speaking, I hope. So what are you going to do? Here comes the SheFlogger, think fast!

I'll give you two choices: (a) engagement ring or (b) Mountain Hardwear Nitrous jacket. If you're married, no choice (a) for you, but take comfort: the Nitrous will assist you in undoing your head-ass inversion. It's eco-sensitive, made with recycled polyester blend, and beautifully minimalist: just two flapped hand pockets, a full-length zipper flap with chamois chin guard, elastic cuffs and a hem drawcord.

The cut is flattering with a curvy waist and nice, tall neck. The weight is nonexistent at 8oz for a small. The 800 fill down compacts down to nothing in the included stuff sack, and the downproof DWR nylon shell keeps the feathers on the inside. The women's Nitrous is overly quilted on the top front leaving lots of uninsulated seams, but guess what? She Doesn't Care! And you're Golden! The Nitrous is also available for men, sans paisley quilting, but since women are never in the doghouse that's not important right now.

$220.00 at REI

Mountain Hardwear Glisse ski pack

The Mountain Hardwear Glisse is the pack formerly known as the Huckster with a few useful updates. It's an odd little pack designed specifically for skiing, with a slim profile and some other nifty features helpful to backcountry Bobs and Betties.

At just over 2,000ci capacity the size medium Glisse weighs in at a respectable 3lb 5oz. Skis are meant to be carried diagonally, tips high and right, on the beefed-up front panel, but you could go a-frame if you chose. The next pocket in holds snow safety gear, skins, shovel, etc. The main compartment has a couple of zippered mesh pockets and a fleece lined compartment for eye pro.

There's an ice axe quick-release toggle so you can remove your axe without taking the pack off, a feature that is insanely useful when you inevitably need it. Hydration pocket, side compression straps, a vertically adjustable sternum strap and two Ice Clipper loops for gear on the right waistbelt round out the features. Overall the pack carries the goods and comfortably so. What more do you need?

$74.98 (on sale from $120) at Mountain Gear

Mountain Hardwear Pack-A-Day Giveaway

This just in from your friendly neighborhood outdoor gear manufacturer. In other words, this is a press release, but it involves free gear, so we know you cheap bastards want to read it. Note: link not active until August 1:

Mountain Hardwear wants to support your pack-a-day habit. Mountain Hardwear, a leading outdoor equipment and apparel company, is out to prove not all habit are necessarily bad ones. Throughout the month of August 2008, Mountain Hardwear will give away one pack, each day, everyday.

During the month of August go to http://packaday.mountainhardwear.com, answer a couple of easy questions and you'll be entered into the daily instant-win sweepstakes. Winners will choose one of the following packs from the new Urban Reality series: Paladin, Guardian, Defender, Sentinel, or the Natural 22, a limited pre-release destined for stores in Spring 2009.

Mountain Hardwear Offwidth women's jacket

Attention, men behaving badly (yes, this means you): this item has a get-out-of-the-doghouse rating of five out of five. It's a svelte, 18oz soft shell with just a bit of stretch, and it comes in a SheFlogger-friendly style that is equally at home at a Nordic half-marathon or a Nordstrom half-yearly.

Make no mistake, the Offwidth is first and foremost a backcountry performance soft shell constructed from Mountain Hardwear's latest concoction, TufSstretch: 58% nylon, 31% polyester and 11% elastane, which is an extract made from ground-up elves. The zip handwarmer pockets are placed high to accomodate a harness, and there's a shoulder pocket as well with a nicely concealed zipper. The tailored fit not only looks nice but layers efficiently. Underarm gussets allow flexibility on the pitch, and the Velcro wrist tabs and collar and hem drawcords keep the nasties out.

On the move this shell breathes wonderfully, which along with its streetsmart good looks make it suitable for a very wide range of conditions. It was not easy to pry this one off the SheFlogger long enough to write a review, yet despite almost daily use it still looks off-the-rack new. All this for less than the cost of a written apology, dinner and flowers. A very minor quibble: the hand pockets are not sewn to the shell on the inside, so don't try to store items between the pocket and the shell like you might in some jackets.

$99.00 at Mountain Gear

Mountain Hardwear Splitter pack

Ever on the lookout for a place to keep my stuff, I was intrigued by Mountain Hardwear's Splitter crag pack. Packed full of rock climbing features, the frameless 2,150ci Splitter makes a few odd design choices that are easily overlooked if what you want is a tough, capacious gear slut of a bag that you'll take to a climb but not necessarily up it.

The Splitter is thusly named because you can zip it fully open so it lies flat with all its innards gloriously exposed. There are pouches for harness, shoes, chalk bag and other stuff. Better are the triple gear loops for organizing your rack and the compression pouch that snugs your heavy rope against your back. Best is the generous nylon tarp that flips out to protect your lifeline from the dirt. A single center daisy chain terminating in a gear loop dresses up the workmanlike exterior, as do the oversized metallic zipper pulls that are a blessing for clawhand operation after a day of power crimping.

Externally there are two mesh pockets and a single slash zipper to a pocket running the entire front of the pack, but it's not bellowed so if the main compartment is full the pocket won't hold anything bulky. There's also a zippered hydration pouch accessible from the top. The odd design choices are the ice climbing features: dual ice tool loops instead of haul points on the main bag, and four ice clipper sleeves on the waist belt instead of gear loops. If you're looking for a roomy rope-bag on steroids that carries a lot of gear comfortably and will stand up to some serious abuse, the Splitter will serve you nicely.

$159.95 at Backcountry

Mountain Hardwear Dihedral pack

One word best describes Mountain Hardwear's new Dihedral technical alpine pack: burly. This beefy ruck tips the scales at 4lb out of the box, which although far from obese is still a tad on the heavy side for a 2,450ci/40L pack. Luckily you can strip it down to quickly lose a pound for lighter duty.

Why the weight? One more word: bombproof. The Dihedral and its bigger brother the 3,200ci/52L Direttissima have MH's new "Hardwear Tarp" on the front panel. That's the white part in the photo at left, and it's certified Borg technology. You can drag it over rocks and beat your climbing partner's face with it and it won't get damaged. Crampon points and ice tool teeth? No problem, just strap 'em on.

Features are fully fluffed. MH's cool dual Axe-S toggles slip through the 'biner hole on the head of your tools, and with a bit of practice you can remove the tools without taking off the pack. There are conventional loops as well, plus ski loops/gear slings, center daisy chain, under-lid rope strap, three-point haul loops, tuck-away compression straps, hydration sleeve with dual ports and a nice fixed (instead of floating) buckle design that is easy to operate one-handed and with gloves on. There are even two little sleeves per waist strap that will accept plastic ice screw 'biners, very handy when your hip belt is riding over your harness.

The Dihedral carries like a champ, with great balance and plenty of room to work your chicken wing on Bridalveil. We really liked the fact that you can carry it stripped down and clean for fast and light days, yet still strap every accessory known to man (but not to woman, don't get all crazy) on it for gear days. If you're the type who likes to abuse your gear, or if you're just looking for a backcountry ruck that has a place for all your stuff, the Dihedral is beckoning. And with a nice price too.

$160.00 at REI