Withstanding a Deluge

By Julia Niles Ranked #629 - Women's Technical Shells February 21, 2008

The Sawtooths Range in Idaho is not known for rain. It had also been a dry summer, so wet weather was the last thing I expected. The Quark went in the pack just because it was too light not to bring. It would at least serve as good wind protection high on some route at Elephants Perch. Little did we know, we had chosen the wettest weekend of the summer. We were three pitches up the beautiful rock climb, Myopia (IV 5.11), when we turned around and saw death by cloud moving in fast. Ten minutes after touching down, the rain and thunder started. We got to our floating tent and scrambled to lift it to high ground. It was raining too hard to get in the tent- so dawning the quark, I became the human water repellancy tester. I couldn't believe how dry I stayed. We cooked dinner in the deluge, I watched as our friend's ancient gore-tex soaked right through, meanwhile the 9 oz Quark kept me totally dry. I got in the tent that night cozy and dry. After twenty four hours of rain, the hillsides had slid down covering trails with 5 feet of debris. The floods caused a chaos of mudslides in the region, yet I remained in peaceful oblivion wearing the phenomenally dry Quark Jacket.
All that said, I would not choose this jacket on long expeditions where it might be subjected to lots of friction with rock or ice. It does not have lots of pockets for days of use. Its best attributes are that it is light enough to put in the pack when you might not need it. And it really works when you do. Now, all we need are Quark pants.

View Details: Mountain Hardwear Quark Jacket - Women's

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