Mountain Hardwear – Dry Q first look

Gareth    Clothing     Autumn / Winter 2011, Dry Q, Mountain Hardwear

It’s here. Our first look at the Mountain Hardwear Dri Q product and good god is it a thing of beauty. The images are rather poor having been snapped hurriedly on the old iPhone, but they hopefully give you a flavour of what is to come.

There are three Dry Q products, and then different variants within each of those for soft shell, 2 layer fabrics and 3 layer fabrics. It’s a measure of Mountain Hardwear’s confidence that they are not making any Gore-Tex shell when Dry Q hits the market later this year – a pretty bold move. The one fabric out of the three that is garnering all the attention however is the Dry Q Elite as the competitor to Polartec’s Neo Shell, and Gore-Tex’s active shell. It’s all about the breathability baby when it comes to this fabric. Dry Q’s claim to fame is that it is an air permeable membrane, so it doesn’t just wait for you to get hot and sweaty before it starts to work. It claims to be at least a third more breathable than current fabrics and up to twice as breathable on the 2 – layer version.

We got our hands on the Jovian Jacket, first impressions were good, very light, the fabric feeling like a half way house between a hard shell and soft shell. You had the usual Mountain Hardwear attention to detail, helmet compatible hood with a single pull adjustment system, welded watertight pockets, super long pit zips, some lovely zip pulls they are debating whether to keep or not (please do guys, they are ace) and garages for the zips as well.

Sadly we didn’t get to use it in anger, but as soon as we do, you will be the first to hear about it and let you know how it performs. If it goes on the feel of the fabric though, it’s a big thumbs up from us feeling noticeably lighter and more pliable than existing materials.

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