Norrøna Falketind Gore-Tex Paclite Jacket - Men's - 2010 BCS

Extremly light and waterproof jacket. I always throw it in my back pack - just in case. You don't notice the weight.
The sleeves are long, which is good when ice climbing and reaching out a lot.

Wow... this jacket is packed with features and NOT with weight. Gore-tex is bomb, even pac-lite so enough said there. This thing will sinch down around the collar, the hood in two places, the waist and then has velcro to tighten up the cuffs. The pit zips have two zipper pulls to go in both directions. The brim of the hood keeps rain out of your face well. Around the collar of the jacket there is a softer more comforatble material. I like this because it is soft and it keeps my beard from snagging on the zippers. The inside pocket is a nice one up on arc-teryx alpha & beta sl. I'm not sure how they manage to get all of the features into this jacket and still have the low weight. The only thing I am still uncertain if I like or not is the length of the sleeves. The sleeves and cuffs are huge and cover my entire hand and fingers. This is great for gloves, I am just uncertain about my preference on that. All in all... arc-teryx does have a great product but Norrona has more features and a weight that is competitive. If you can get one for $197 like I did, it is a steal.

**Update**
It is now 2011 and the only problem I have had with this jacket is with the drawstrings. There are several and they are positioned niclely. Today the one on the hood just came out and now I cannot sinch the hood down around my skull. I can still sinch it around my face though but the clips on the end of those cords tend to come off every now and then. They are easy to put back on though.

I picked this jacket up on SAC a year ago and have no complaints. It worked great as my outer layer backpacking keeping me dry during some summer storms. It also worked well when it was pressed into use as a ski coat on a couple of occasions. There is no internal warmth to the jacket but has room for layering underneath. The hood is deep enough to fit my size XL helmet with no problems. I am 6'4", 215lbs and tried the XL and XXL and they fit almost exactly the same. The sleeve length is definitely on the long side.

I have owned this jacket for about 3 months now. It held its own this winter with the crazy snow storms across the mid-Atlantic. It has also held true in the handful of downpours I have been in recently.
High points:
= Had it out in blizzard conditions, 45mph winds and heavy snow, and it blocked the wind beautifully!! I couldn't feel a thing
= It passed my out of the box test, put it on and get in the shower for several minutes. Perfectly dry!
= The hood is a bit big but adjusts easy enough
= Several vents (2 front, 2 under arms)
= Zippers are holding up great and let absolutely no water in
= Sleeves are pretty long and extremely wide at wrist; however, the velcro adjustments are easy to use (the velcro could potentially wear out however and in this case you would be left with giant baggy sleeves that hang past your hands)
= The green is really, really green. Kermit the Frog type of green, but I still like it

One thing to consider, many likely already know this but I didn't think about it before I ordered. The zipper will be backwards from the standard US mens style jackets. Meaning, you will have to get good at zipping with your left hand. Again, many may know this with this brand and others may not care at all but I wasn't expecting it.
All in all this appears to be a great jacket that I would certainly recommend. I work in the rainforests in Madagascar so I will provide an update on its true worthiness when I return!

Norrona makes great jackets -- definitely in league with arc'teryx -- possibly even more core. I like the fit of this Norrona Falketind jacket. It's super light and minimalist -- you could stuff one of these jackets in your pack and not know it was there. Definitely a high end well thought out jacket. A couple pros and cons: if things get ugly, the hood really closes in tightly to protect you against the gale (been there). The down side is that the hood design isn't ideal for skiing as you can't just yank it up over your head when you're all the way zipped up (you must unzip a few inches first). Arms are longish and roomy at the cuff which is handy as it's real easy to pull the sleeves over your gloves or mittens (with your mittens on), and then just adhere the little goretex rubber piece for a tight fit. All in, the Norona Falketind gets my thumbs up for a high end mountaineering jacket (and I'm impressed with Norrona in general).

This thing is about as waterproof as it gets, and the breathability is clutch so you wont get overheated if you're doing some adrenaline hiking or some intense alpine climbing.

This Norwegian designed light weight jacket is in the elite category of waterproof, breathable outer wear. Normally a large, I found that with the European sizing that an extra large was the right fit as I have a long torso and arms. the sleeves are very long but are easily adjusted with the nice velcro cinches. It allows for more mobility. It is very comfortable in the rain while active. The features are well integrated, not adding much extra weight for the utility. Really well made structurally.

This jacket is fantastic for lightweight backpacking. For a light jacket, it is very waterproof, but it will still get damp in a heavy downpour. It fits pretty slim and has some nice features like extra-wide cuffs so you can fit gloves through when its cold. The pockets are placed high enough that you can get at them when you have a backpack strapped on. The waterproof zippers do a good job of keeping maps and such dry, and the hood has a semi-stiff brim that keeps rain out of the eyes. It is light enough and well ventilated enough that you can hike long distances without really thinking about your rain jacket. Just a well thought out technical jacket.

(Very good) Breathability, (very good) water resistance, (so so) durability and the (extremely light) weight is exactly the same as all other good quality Gore-tex Paclite jackets. If you have used Paclite before, you would know what to expect.

What makes this jacket better than most other Paclites are the slim but non-movement-restricting cut, smartly designed pockets, and very protective hood.

I would only add a pass pocket to the sleeve and maybe some 3M reflective material here and there.

It is true that you cannot take off the hood without first unzipping the front zipper a little, but the hood's perfect fit and protection against wind and water is more valuable to me than a few seconds that I would lose unzipping.

If you can catch a good deal and need a Paclite, this should be the jacket to get.

Excellent, well-constructed, light and compact jacket. Loved the orange-ketchup color and the soft material at the neck. However, there was one, and in my mind fatal, flaw: it's really short. Granted, I'm 6'4'', but it was shorter than an XL t-shirt, and 2 inches shorter than my XL north face denali fleece. I might be missing something, but I'm not sure why something that's in large part a rain jacket needs to be shorter than a t-shirt. Otherwise a PERFECT jacket.

Let me completely retract my previous review. I have last year's model in neon yellow (Gorton's Fisherman) that I purchased on Backcountry Outlet. It is light. And the both the breathable and waterproof ratings are through the roof at 30K a piece. As far as sizing goes, I'm 5'9 and 140lbs and the small fits perfectly, and has enough room to put a technical fleece, long shirt, and undershirt on. That combination seems to be good to about 28F for me. Anything colder I just put on a [heavier] hard shell.

Now the bad. I do courier work on my bicycle, so neon yellow was a good choice. Yet, for some reason, in the month I've infrequently used it, it's almost black. It attracts dirt like a day job. The pockets are a bit small, a trapezoid shape, and zip from the top down. The problem with this is that the space at the top is not adequate to get your hands in, only when the zipper is all the way down. So I have to unzip the entire 9" pocket to get my hands dry. This is the complete opposite of my MHW Technical Windstopper Fleece.

Now for the guaranteed / 30K waterproof rating. I don't know who the hell rated this jacket, but that is a blatant lie. I wanted something highly breathable and also waterproof so I can do deliveries in the spring and summer while staying dry without sweating 10 gallons. Yesterday I was caught in a fairly heavy shower, and I came out soaked! Since it was early in the morning, I hadn't worked up enough sweat for that to even be a possibility of how drenched I was. Lastly, while I certainly don't baby my gear, I'm not trying to destroy something I paid this much for. And the jacket already has a tear in it!

I thought getting this at 40% off was a good deal at BCO, but it's not even worth that... I don't know what these other gear heads are talking about, but in the real world this straight up sucks. Thank god for BC's return policy.