Marmot Alpinist Jacket - Men's

Here it comes ... I use this for everything ... snowboarding, winter cycling, hiking with a pack, and even just walking around in the rain and cold and commuting on the train.

Sizing: I'm 5'10 and 165lbs. I got a large. Fit is perfect for me.

Pockets: The side pockets are more incredible than people give them credit. They sit higher than normal and that works really well for wearing a trekking or day pack with a hip or waist belt. You can still get into them easily with the cross straps. I've also gotten into the habit of sliding my hands all the way into them (halfway or more up my forearm in the pocket) and because of how high they are, you can rest your arms snugly with elbos bent to around 90 degrees. The little napoleon pockets are perfect for slipping in your phone/mp3player and or keys or wallet. The internal water bottle pocket, while nice, makes you look sort of demented if you stick a bottle in there and zip up the coat.

Powderskirt: fits pretty well for my waist (32) with enough room to move around, but not so much that snow can get up underneath there. I'm no expert, so I do my fair share of falling on the ground and I didn't get wet.

Hood: It sits high on the back, which is great if you're carrying a backpack since it's not as much of a pain to clear it from the pack. It also is really incredibly nice in pouring down rain. The draw strings are a bit funky, but if you take five seconds to figure them out, they are just fine.

Length: The slightly longer length has a few advantages that people touched on in terms of skiing. I think this is also true for cycling. I ride around in the rain and that slightly longer length when you're arched over your bike is great to cover your backside. Mind you, if you don't have anything to stop spraying from underneath that's a different story.. but the longer length is pretty useful.

Sleeves: Lots of talk about sleeve length. Yes, great for climbing. I'd also argue it's great for cycling where your arms are outstretched. Just my two cents.

Cuff Size: I like the curvature of the cuffing and the slightly smaller cuff. It prevents things from going up into your sleeve and while it can be annoying to get your watch out to see the time, it's not a big deal.

Layering: I layer it over a Westcomb Chillko down jacket. It's marvelous, and the interior material slides on and off really easily (not much said here about that feature, but it does make a difference!). That said, I regularly wear the Alpinist alone down into the low 40's. Add a down layer underneath and you can get as chilly as you like and still feel incredibly protected.

Oddball City Wearing: It was pouring rain and I actually put this on over top of a fancy suit to go to a meeting. It did a great job, didn't screw up the suit, and I got a bunch of compliments on it.

I have had & shopped for dozens of shell jackets & this one has come up trumps. Fit is perfect (i'm 5'9", 78kg and athletic / stocky and the medium is perfect). Love the stretch Pro-Shell fabric, moves the way you want a shell jacket to move. Full complement of features / pockets without being excessive. My only negative comment would be the cuff diameter - a little tighter around the wrists than you'd hope, but only marginally so. All in all this is my perfect shell jacket for backcountry skiing and peak bagging; yet to see how it stands to long term abuse in Tasmanias wild off track scrub, which is notoriously brutal.

I beat this jacket up for a season in Aspen and I loved it. I also have the Marmot La Grave Jacket and I only wore it a couple days because it just didn't fit as well and it wasn't as light. The construction held up well but I did manage to do some light damage here and there running through some trees. Featherweight, big vents for spring skiing, solid construction

Cons: I feel like the neck needs some adjustments. It seldom felt right completely zipped up as it was either too tight around my mouth or I was having to scrunch it up under my chin. Often times your warm breath can even fog up your goggles because of the way it outlets up the neck.

I'm 5'10" and I bought a large. I tried a medium but it wasn't roomy enough for me to layer.

I purchased this Gore-Tex Pro shell to wear heli-skiing in Alaska. I decided to test it ahead of time at Big Sky, MT. The jacket was incredible and was the envy of all the mountain's instructors. The color (Cayenne) is amazing, as I was easily spotted by all. It's more orange than red. I went with XL, as I am 5'9" and 215 lbs. The "Large" felt a little too snug and I'd rather a looser fit. The sleeves are obviously too long, but it's not a problem with the velcro at the wrists. The jacket has every feature you could possibly want, including a zip-off powder skirt. The pocket locations are great, plentiful, and roomy. While fully zipped, the material that comes into contact with your chin is very soft and comfortable. You feel like a turtle! I can't wait to get this bad boy in the white room in Alaska to test its ability to really keep me dry.

This jacket is great. The fit is really nice, not too big and baggy. I'm 5'9" 155lbs and a small fits me really well. I have a perfect amount of room for a thermal and my marmot leadville softshell underneath the the right amount of room to spare for flexibility.

The pockets are all in very good positions. The front zipper material is fairly stiff as is the hood (meaning there is a lot of structure to the material). The hood sits fairly high on the back of the neck when not worn and can be a little annoying when not being worn. That is my only qualm with the jacket.

Great jacket. I live in the PNW, so even on what passes for a "powder day" round here you would be soaking wet if you wore one of those soft-shells from the Rocky Mountain biased companies eg Patagonia Cloudveil Dead-bird. I like the stiff feel of the Pro Shell and the cut that makes the stiffness work without feeling like you are wearing a tent. (I like the fact that it's stiff because hard rain bounces off better, underlayers don't get as compressed, and the jacket interior provides some airspace for breathing and not vaporing up.)
Zippers including the pitzips are well built as far as the balance of stiff enough so that can get leverage with one hand and not so stiff that they are hard to work.
Some people might be thrown by the length - is cut a little longer to almost cover your butt. But I really like that cut, because it makes it a better wear with something like softshell pants so that the runoff has chance to run up and over the pants rather than onto them.
I could probably do without the wire in the rim because I prefer wearing a baseball cap under and having a full visor to keep rain off face but whatever.
I would have rather had a napoleon style for the main exterior pockets, so could warm hands in there, but that is just a quibble.

I have a small frame weighing in at 135 lb and standing at 5’6”. Naturally, all of my winter jackets are in size small. My own rule of thumb for a cold weather shell that fits well must be able to accommodate a regular base layer along with a puffy down jacket like the TNF Nutpse as a mid layer, and have a snug fit but not overly tight. I had acquired a small Marmot Alpinist recently and was totally disappointed with it even though I am a big fan of Marmot. The Alpinist had excessively long sleeves and it fit extremely tight with a TNF Nutpse down jacket on. It was sized completely different than a small Marmot Pallisades Gore-TEX Performance Shell that I have been wearing. I did try a size medium and the body was perfect but by golly the sleeves were even longer, making it extremely uncomfortable in the arms. I know you can lock them down but still there is a lot of extra material there to roll up. This problem was made even worst by the small opening of the sleeves. I have a slender build for my weight class so I don’t think my arms are too short for my size. Why the heck in the world did Marmot make such long sleeves for this technical piece? Had they used the Pallisades size template, the Alpinist would have been great. My small Pallisades Gore-TEX Performance Shell has plenty long sleeves too for my arms but they are not too excessive like the Alpinists. I am not a technical climber (I am a runner, cyclist, skier, and hiker for now) but I would think if the sleeves were too long, they would interface with the functioning of your hands when climbing. I can see the sleeves may be 1” or so longer than the normal length to accommodate a climber to reach up but the sleeves of the 2010 Alpinist were definitely way beyond the normal extended length, at least for my arms. With that said, everything else on this jacket was right on. I especially like all the front pockets. The chest pockets had a protective hood even though zippers were the PU coated water resistant type. The same thing goes for the pit zips. The removable powder skirt is definitely a plus for skiing, as there are very few Alpine style technical pieces have one. The “stretch” fabric can be felt a bit if you pull on it but this shell definitely did not feel like a “soft” shell at all, as I was hearing that nylon creaking sound when moving around. It is definitely a hard shell with a more compliance fabric.