Western Mountaineering Meltdown Jacket – first impressions

Gareth    Clothing     Western Mountaineering

When you’ve been doing it for a few years hill walking and mountaineering have a degree of “second nature” you become familiar with and many of the brain numbing decisions become semi automatic. Nowhere is this more apparent than kit selection, and the chances are that if you know someone who’s been getting out on the hills for a while they’ll be wearing the same brands as they were 5 years earlier. When it comes to kit people build up loyalty based on their own personal experiences, and tend to stick with what they know works well – it’s not that familiarity breeds contempt, but familiarity building confidence.

Once that brand loyalty has taken root it’s hard to change the momentum that drives decision making, after all why should anyone deviate from what they know is reliable and does the job? This was the dilemna I faced last week when my trust Rab Neutrino Endurance suffered from the chaos of trying to decorate a new house, and got a little paint splattered. The automatic reaction was to simply replace it like for like. I know the Neutrino well, and it’s been a number one choice for years, but by pure coincidence I’d been hearing glowing references to a brand from across the pond that promised something special.

Taking the plunge, I decided to give the Western Mountaineering Meltdown Jacket a chance – and I’ve certainly not been disappointed! Yes it’s a down jacket that at first glance looks like a neutrino, but the moment you pick it up the difference smacks you straight in the face and questions start flooding your mind. First inclinations were to add a mid layer beneath the Meltdown to bulk it up a bit closer to how the Neutrino feels as it just doesn’t “feel” substantial and reassuring in the way my old familiar Rab did.  While the technical specs shout out that this is a quality product it’s hard to get your head around how something that feels so lightweight can give the same level of protection as you’re accustomed to. Pull the jacket on and you still feel almost half prepared, but once you step outside the misgivings soon start to fade. Despite its miserly weight this jacket is up there with the big boys when it comes to keeping you warm. 

The Meltdown uses 850+ fill power down inside an ultra lightweight shell, giving the kind of performance you’d expect from a more substantial feeling product but at a fraction of the weight. Yes there are compromises, but in reality the compromises take nothing away from the overall performance. The Meltdown has a classic short cut, with hem adjusters to pull the jacket in tight to the waist and neat velcro straps at the cuffs. The hood appears to be missing at first glance, being rolled away into the collar and hidden behind a zip so narrow it appears to be just a fabric join. There’s no inside pocket, but the hard warmer external pockets are insulated inside and out and have the same soft-to-touch lining as the main inner fabric.

It’s early days for the Western Mountaineering Meltdown, but it’s already taught me a valuable lesson; It’s all very well to stick with something you know does the job, and it won’t let you down, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something that does the job equally well or better!

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