hey man it looks like beecee hasnt been on for a few days, and i feel bad that my reccomndation didnt go as planned ...if you can still wait for a few days for a true expert opinion then you could ask another question adressed to beecee, but ill just answer this from a simple mans point of view. -almost all of arcteryx's shells are made out of gore-tex pro shell, have almost all the same features and are definitly of the highest quality -3 have powder skirts: the Stinger jacket, Sidewinder AR and sidewinder SV, if that is a neccesary feature then you could go with one of those. I reccomend the SIDEWINDER AR still, because from a pricing perspective it is the best choice (its almost the same as sidewinder SV but $100 cheaper), and i like the way it looks too...however it may be made in china so if thats important to you then look to the SV, which is made in canada. Also the sidewinder AR has a stowable hood where the SV has a fixed hood. -I had an INCREDIBLY hard time finding any differences bewteen the stinger jacket and the sidewinder AR, besides the huge price difference. -If you dont need a powder skirt then you can look to one of their technical shells, they are made of the same materials and are the same quality, the one that caught my eye was the Beta LT jacket, completley waterproff, helmet compatible hood...but the kicker is that even though it is made out of Gore-Tex PRO shell, it only weighs 13.3 OZ, which amazes me. -through all of this i found that most arc jackets are essiential the same with a few bells and whistles added or removed depending on the jacket, and most people seem to make a huge deal out of where they are made...no matter which one you get you are going to get a completley waterproof Gore tex pro shell that will be of the highest quality. the rest is all on your prefrence of price, colors, and small features like powder skirts and fixed hoods, i hope that helps and i hope BeeCee will come on soon and help you (us).