Featherlite Down Vest : BAIML Tested

As part of our BAIML Test Team, Kirsty travels the world guiding people in a wide variety of challenging terrains and climates.  Here, she reflects on a piece of kit that finds its way into her pack a lot more often than not:

Kirsty atop Mount Olympus

I would hazard a guess that anyone who works in the outdoors owns at least one down gilet.. possibly two..?

A hasty search through my kit store (ok, the stuff shoved under my bed) revealed that I own 2 down gilets and 3 (yes 3) synthetic filled ones, although, to be fair one of those is my ‘going out’ gilet, you know, for posh occasions when I need to not be wearing something with a hint of gaffer tape?

So, when I started testing out my featherlite down vest this year I genuinely expected it to become like the others and a bit interchangeable.

Not so! In fact I think my Montane down vest has possibly become one of my favourite pieces of clothing and, apart from the delightful Indian Summer we have had over the last month or so, it has rarely been off my back since I got it in the Spring.

Superlight and able to pack down to pretty much a handful size, it has been my emergency layer in my pack for trail running , its been fantastic to throw on at the end of a race and saved me from a miserable , shivery walk back to the car, (well, that and jelly babies).

Warm, a flattering cut (you don’t look like a marshmallow) and super quick drying it has been with me this year on the trails of Sweden, the volcanoes of Sicily, to the home of the Gods (Mount Olympus) and trekking in the Swiss Alps, and will be an item that will most certainly be at the top of my pack as I head off to the mountains of Romania and Bulgaria over the next few months.

Enjoying a moment’s calm whilst trekking in Sweden

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