If you're looking for a casual hybrid that offers insulating warmth and breathability, without weighing you down, then the Rock Ridge is a good option to consider. Outdoor Research Ferrosi Hoodie - Women's, Fjallraven Bertagen Stretch Half-Zip - Women's, Black Diamond Dawn Patrol Shell - Women's, impressively constructed Arc'teryx Gamma MX, exceptionally water-resistant Apex Bionic, stretchy Black Diamond Dawn Patrol is great, the world's most carefully tested and objective gear reviews, Excellent mobility, great weather resistance, breathable, durable, harness-compatible hand pockets, Lightweight, durable, breathable, affordable, premium features, quick drying, Very flexible, flattering fit, long torso, comfortable cuff, Inexpensive, stellar mobility and breathability, stow-away pocket, harness-friendly pockets, excellent fit, Insulated, highly breathable, moisture-wicking, comfortable, warm, wind resistant, Below average water resistance, baggy fit, hand pockets inaccessible with harness, Gets wet very easily, thicker fabric is heavier, Not very warm, below average water resistance, Spendy, no pocket that doubles as a stuff sack, some sleeve slippage between fleece and shell, A feature-rich, aesthetically pleasing technical softshell with great mobility, breathability, and excellent weather resistance, This lightweight and breathable jacket has an arsenal of premium features for an affordable price, This comfortable jacket will keep you protected and stylish, from climbing with friends to hanging at the coffee shop, This wicked light softshell has great mobility, is highly breathable and well-tailored - a perfect layer for fair-weather climbing or hiking, A fantastic fleece-lined hybrid that is great as an outer softshell or insulating layer, Wee Burly Double Weave (56% nylon, 34% polyester, 10% elastane), DWR finish, Body/hood: 86% nylon 14% spandex 90D stretch woven ripstop, Schoeller w/Eco-Repel Bio (93% nylon, 7% elastane), Lightweight Matrix single weave with 2-way stretch and DWR, Fortius Air 20 (84% nylon, 16% elastane) Octa Loft knit insulation (100% polyester), Whether alpine climbing, mountaineering, or hiking, this layer is breathable, moves well, and effectively protects from the elements in style, This versatile jacket is a well-priced layer for many mild weather applications, This versatile jacket can take you on grand outdoor adventures or just around the town, This jacket is lightweight, breathable, easy to move in, and affordable - a great combination for the active outdoorswoman, A nimble, lightweight, breathable softshell that is fleece-lined and features great mobility, A breathable but water resistant hybrid with adjustable cuffs, soft fabric, and harness compatible pockets, A fairly lightweight and water resistant active softshell anorak that features quick-drying four-way stretch fabric but is abrasive against bare skin, Whether ice climbing, mountaineering, or heading to dinner with friends, this layer effectively protects from the elements in style, With incredible four-way stretch material and a generous fit, this jacket is one of the most comfortable pieces in our softshell review, An urban-styled, casual hybrid softshell that pairs synthetic insulation with plush fleece panels, though is not the most breathable or mobile, A weather-resistant casual softshell for urban adventures or staying warm around the campfire.
(mens medium) Finally, it does not come with its own stuff sack, as previous generations did. 
They aim to split the difference between comfort and weather protection, all without hindering movement. If you're checking out a softshell at your local gear shop and you're not sure how breathable it will be, look for mesh-lined pockets. It is lightweight, wind-resistant, breathable, abrasion-resistant, and highly stretchy. It has a thicker lining than most active softshells but is nowhere near as warm as most technical softshells. The close cut of the hood permits wearing it under a helmet; while the hood isnt adjustable, it stays put on your head in wind. Softshell jackets are designed for backcountry adventures like climbing, skiing, and trail running all activities that demand unhindered movement. It has great features for the price including a pocket that doubles as a stuff sack, so you can clip your jacket to your harness when not in use.
The Kinetic 2.0 has soft, supple, and supremely water resistant fabric, making it hard to beat on long days in the backcountry. These drawbacks aside, this hoody is a great lightweight wind layer that moves and breathes well for all manner of alpine activities. You can unzip these during strenuous activity to help dump heat. No cherry-picked units sent by manufacturers. On the flip side, if a jacket says that it's fully windproof (as opposed to just wind resistant), it's a safe bet that it won't be super breathable. We loved the Arc'teryx Gamma LT for its high performance across the board and for striking the proper balance between opposing metrics, which is why it earns top honors.
They can leave you feeling swampy, suffocated, and stuffy. The Arc'teryx Proton FL Hoody is a jack-of-all-trades hybrid for those who want something extra from their softshell. The revised version of the jacket has some sleeve slippage between the fleece lining and the shell fabric when you pull it over long-sleeved shirts (especially fleeces). After looking On the hunt for a new women's ski jacket? It has comfortable cuffs, a two-way adjustable, helmet-compatible hood, and a flattering alpine-style fit that is equally at home in the alpine or at a brewery. Across the desert southwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierras, our testers climbed, scratched, scrambled, hiked, ran, and cycled, to put every aspect and feature of these softshells to the test. We have tried to distill the main types of softshells into three broad categories: active, technical, and casual. Unlike potentially life-saving layers such as waterproof hardshells and insulative baselayers, a softshell is great to have but won't keep you as warm as an insulation layer (like a puffy jacket) or as dry as a hardshell if you get caught in a serious storm. We also appreciate the harness-compatible pockets and two-way adjustable, helmet-compatible hood. We love the versatility and style of this jacket for cruising around town or on the trail, and we never felt weighed down by it. These layers are less stiff, noisy, and suffocating than hardshells, making them more pleasant to wear, despite not offering the same level of weather protection. We still haven't found that perfect unicorn jacket free from drawbacks, and the Alpine Start is no exception.
It is everything a hybrid should strive to be. That said, given their mobility, breathability, and weather protection, softshell jackets are an ideal layer for many backcountry activities and mountain athletes.
The Gamma MX is an awesome layer for cold and blustery winter days. When it is fully zipped, the collar is too snug and stiff to be comfortable, and it poked us in the neck. By and large, softshells are only water and wind resistant. Privacy | Cookies | Terms, We played in all manner of terrain and weather in women's softshell jackets from Arc'teryx, Rab, Black Diamond, The North Face, and more. The stretchy Schoeller fabric is abrasion-resistant, highly breathable, and moves well regardless of your activity. Early morning approaches to long routes are an ideal match for a softshell. Read review: Black Diamond Alpine Start Hoody. Finally, it is rather spendy. GearLab is founded on the principle of honest, objective, reviews. The reason the Proton FL doesn't earn higher marks is that while it is warm and highly wind-resistant, it is among the least water-resistant of the jackets in our review. It still features unbeatable water and wind resistance for a softshell with unbelievably soft fabric. If ice climbing is in your future, then you will want to seek out a technical softshell, as these provide the best warmth to mobility and breathability ratio. While there are some windproof softshells available (we have a few in this review), the designation of waterproof is mostly reserved for hardshells.
Each of our highest-ranked active softshells also earned favorable marks in this category. We love the Rab Borealis for striking a similar balance between excellent features and affordability. The Ferrosi is so stretchy, it will have you jumping for joy! Thanks for hanging on with us. Got feedback? It has a flattering cut while not skimping on the features you want out of a softshell, including Napoleon-style harness-compatible pockets that are mesh-lined for extra ventilation and a two-way cinched helmet-compatible hood for an excellent fit while climbing, hiking, or ski touring. Wearing the Boreas in chilly wind while hiking across snow on the Ptarmigan Traverse in the North Cascades, dayhiking in the Columbia Gorge, and on cool-weather trail runs, I found it delivers a perfect blend of super breathability to prevent my shirt from getting soaked and cuts the wind just enough to keep me from feeling cold. We ended up with a diverse set of contenders whose performance spread all over the board. And, to assure complete independence, we buy all the products we test ourselves.
rab insulated nimbus australia hoody synthetic jacket The zippered chest pocket doubles as a stuff sack when you want to stash your jacket on the back of your harness or in your backpack.
The impressively constructed Arc'teryx Gamma MX earns top marks in this category. marmot softshell We paid attention to how well each jacket performed relative to its retail price and considered their value in terms of jacket features, weather protection, and the niche they fill in your backcountry kit. The mens Boreas and womens Aurora are ideal for all of those pursuits.
The Borealis is Rab's lightest weight softshell and it certainly provides in terms of premium breathability and mobility, all while being incredibly affordable. In terms of mobility, it even outperformed some of the active jackets. The Borealis moves so well that you barely notice it while climbing or hanging out at the belay. This includes activities such as climbing (rock, ice, mixed, or alpine), skiing (backcountry or cross-country, although for alpine/downhill, you'll want something warmer), snowshoeing, mountaineering, trail-running, peak-bagging, or hiking. With stretchy Schoeller fabric, comfortable cuffs, an "alpine" gusseted fit, and a helmet-compatible hood, it provided incredible mobility so that we barely noticed we were wearing it.
Casual softshells offer great features for urban adventures but are durable enough to use in the backcountry, while hybrids attempt to triangulate between sub-categories and move between seasons. We looked for softshells that layered and fit well, were comfortable, and those that had stretchy fabric or other features to enable movement. Both of these layers are quite thin though for thicker liners made for more inclement weather, you'll have to pay more. In our review, we do have one jacket that nearly proves the exception to this rule: the Rab Kinetic 2.0. That said, the stretchy Black Diamond Dawn Patrol is great for some applications like downhill skiing (when paired with extra insulation) and casual snowshoeing on a packed trail. Our review team maintains that while versatility is important, it is the least important metric we consider. In this testing round, jackets were put to the test shimmying up granite chimneys and jamming in Indian Creek splitters. Many of the softshells in this review come with excellent features that we thoroughly enjoy and regularly use. If you're working hard and keeping your core temperature high, these are all perfect layers for cutting the wind on brisk mornings, windy summits, or high on a wall.
After more than 100 hours of rigorously testing these jackets, we've got some expert advice to offer about the best softshell jacket to match your needs. We tend to associate ultralight gear with wearing out ultra-fast, but not so with the Alpine Start it bucks the trend by being ultra-light and ultra-durable.
Part of why this jacket is so light is that it is a half-zip pullover, a feature we love for when you don't want to deal with a zipper underneath your harness. Jackets in this review ranged from 6.5 ounces at the lightest to 22.5 ounces at the heaviest.
The only jacket that bucks convention in this category is the Gamma LT. Each of these stretch easily and move more like a shirt than a jacket.
Each of these jackets provided more warmth than all but the best technical softshells without sacrificing too much in terms of breathability or mobility. The jacket that earned the highest marks in this category was the Gamma LT. This jacket was designed with alpine climbing and cool-weather mountain activities in mind, but it would be well-equipped as a light jacket for travel, hiking, or any activity where you move from warm to cool temps. Technical softshell jackets are ideal for surprise technical pursuits like ice/mixed climbing, winter mountaineering, backcountry skiing, etc. I found the sleeves a little long but easily rolled up. They proved durable and, could withstand the abrasion of granite walls and sandstone cracks and wouldn't disintegrate at the mention of crampons and ice tools. We love it for shady mornings in the desert and windy summits in the summer.
Hikes and trail runs on crappy fall and spring days, fast-changing mountain weather in summer, highly aerobic activities in winterfor all of these things, nothing beats a highly breathable, lightweight pullover or jacket. All of our hybrid and casual jackets earned competitive marks in this category. Let us know! While it is a little heavier than our favorite trail running jackets, the Gamma LT provides excellent breathability and warmth for cool weather trail runs. The Rab Kinetic 2.0 is an upgrade to the previous generation of the Kinetic jacket. And the Ferrosi has 4-way stretchy fabric, and the lack of bulk means that it's a fantastic option for layering over a thin fleece or under a big puffy. Many of the technical and casual softshells make up for their heft by providing extra warmth, something that is critical when you're miles into a backcountry winter adventure. The deep partial front zipper offers good venting. We've tested 45 unique jackets in the last 8 years, with the best 11 in our current review. 
If you're looking for a lightweight jacket that is ideal for long granite routes, then an active softshell like the Gamma LT, Borealis, First Ascent, or Ferrosi are the ones for you! Some of our favorite pieces in this review could move seamlessly from the trail or crag to dinner with friends (as long as you don't mind rocking brightly colored gear at the pub), a clear bonus in our book. The Black Diamond Alpine Start is a lightweight and supremely breathable active softshell. Another unstoppable contender in this category is the Proton FL. Mobility is one of the most important elements of a softshell jacket. Enter the softshell. Hopefully our review will help guide you to the best softshell for your next adventure. The stretchy Schoeller fabric allows for unhindered mobility on or off the rock. Softshells are ideal during the shoulder season when temperatures vacillate wildly or for aerobic backcountry activities in the winter when you need premium breathability to avoid getting chilled by your sweat. outdoorkit rab borealis Even some of the burlier active softshells, like the Gamma LT, have a fairly average weight relative to the other jackets in our review. This jacket offers exceptional wind and water resistance. When hybrids are well executed, they tend to be the most versatile of the jackets in our review, but sometimes adding bonus functionality backfires and makes them uncomfortable or less useful than the jackets they're trying to mimic. Most of the jackets were tested in size small. The Black Diamond Alpine Start Hoody is an incredibly lightweight jacket that bridges the gap between softshell and windbreaker.
However, it does come close to accomplishing both. Add to all of this the fact that it is a very affordable jacket, and it is no wonder why this jacket is the staple softshell for most outdoor adventure nerds.
We assess versatility by considering features, durability, style, and ease of use between various activities and climates.
To be honest, there is very little this jacket can't do: it is lightweight, has great mobility, and with an ultra-soft fleece lining, it is super cozy, even next to bare skin.
One of the only reasons it did not garner higher marks in this category is that it lacks a hood, so if you're caught in the rain with this jacket, you better hope you have your umbrella to keep your noggin dry. When you click on links to buy products we may earn money to support, Number of Pockets (zippered unless otherwise noted), How to Choose a Softshell Jacket for Women.
It is also not the most versatile jacket, mostly because it is not as warm as some of the other technical softshells. The cuffs are non-adjustable which could be a feature or a deficit, depending on whether you prefer gauntlet-style gloves or cuffs that cinch over your gloves. Whether you need a layer for alpine or multi-pitch climbing, insulation for ice climbing, or a breathable but decently warm layer for backcountry or cross-country skiing, mountain climbing, or hiking, this ingenious mid-layer is a great one to add to your kit.
It is breathable and weather resistant, but warm; durable without sacrificing mobility; and all with a flattering fit!
Perfect for blocking the wind on top of long multi-pitch routes.
The exceptionally water-resistant Apex Bionic is one of the warmer softshells in our review, and it did well in our water-resistance test making it a great option for a winter jacket in an urban environment. Active softshells are ideal as wind layers while summer or alpine climbing, trail running, or hiking, while technical softshells are best for ice and mixed climbing, winter mountaineering, snowshoeing, and backcountry and/or cross-country skiing. Our review team noted very few drawbacks to this otherwise feature-rich jacket. Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products.
We even wore these jackets in the shower to test how they performed under pressure (water pressure, that is). The Kinetic offers more weather protection and is the most water-resistant jacket in our review.
The Outdoor Research Ferrosi Hoodie is both a great value and a top-performing jacket, a match made in outdoor gear heaven. Hybrid softshells are relatively new on the scene, and they attempt to bridge the gap between different jacket types be it by providing extra insulation or water resistance. Another great option, if you want a warmer jacket that still delivers on the breathability front, is the Arc'teryx Proton FL. No ads. This is because it splits the difference between a technical and an active softshell.
With almost as many jackets to choose from as there are stars in the sky, it can seem overwhelming to find the right one for you. They're incredible layers for warm skiing in the spring or cool climbing and hiking in the fall when you're unlikely to encounter an all-out torrential storm. They are also ideal for activities where you need wind or weather protection but are likely to build up a sweat, so breathability is a must.
When you're miles deep in the backcountry, you don't want a heavy softshell weighing down your pack. We were especially impressed by the plush and warm Arc'teryx Proton FL and the PrimaLoft insulated Athleta Rock Ridge. The Alpine Start features a lightweight and stretchy Schoeller fabric that ensures you can move well without being stifled by sweat.
Next up, we have the Borealisand the Kinetic 2.0, which all weigh around 9-9.5 ounces. Versatile enough to be used as an insulating layer while climbing long granite routes or as a mid-layer while ice climbing. A softshell jacket will never be as impenetrable to water and wind as a hardshell (aka a rain jacket) because hardshells are waterproof and windproof.
When evaluating each jacket's weather protection, we consider wind and water resistance, as well as warmth and sun protection. but also shockingly breathable.
Our team tested each of these jackets side-by-side in various climes, from blustery days climbing ice in the Rocky Mountains to surprisingly frigid desert climbing days in Indian Creek, Joshua Tree, the Black Canyon, and Red Rock. The ideal softshell should triangulate between weather protection, breathability, and mobility all without weighing down your pack. While the Proton is not made to be an ideal layer for activities like ice climbing, it is among the most versatile because it can be worn as an outer layer on warmer days or as an insulating layer on colder ones. A few models constructed with very thin material scored well in this category. Like the two before it, this metric tends to favor active softshells and active/hybrids, with the Proton FL and the Ferrosi being the next lightest softshells weighing 11 ounces and 12.5 ounces, respectively. Given that the Kinetic 2.0 attempts to triangulate between a shoftshell and a hardshell, there are some minor things lost in translation. It is a feature-rich active softshell that offers great wind protection, making it a perfect option for rock climbing, peak bagging, or backpacking. No sponsored content.
All these concerns aside, the Ferrosi is a great breathable, wind-resistant option at a fantastic price for hiking, climbing, and cycling. Material on GearLab is copyrighted. It is also the most subjective of our review criteria.
The plush fleece-lined Proton FL strikes a balance between a warm insulating layer and a breathable softshell.
This review is brought to you by a team of amazing women, headed up by Mary Witlacil. This active softshell moves incredibly well and is ridiculously comfy, all without breaking the bank. The four-way stretch fabric allows an athletic fit without inhibiting range of motion. Looking for the best women's softshell? We love the top-shelf features on this jacket, including pockets that are accessible when you're wearing a harness or the hip-belt of a backpack and an innovative hood with an inner gasket to keep your face dry. That said, these drawbacks are minor, and for someone seeking a durable, weather-resistant softshell for alpine climbing, peak-bagging, cool-weather hikes, or ski touring, the Gamma LT might just be the one for you. GearLab is reader-supported.
All that aside, if you need a cozy mid-layer with breathable insulation, the Proton is an excellent choice. The Kinetic 2.0 earns top marks in this category for being a silky-smooth, highly water-resistant jacket ideal for summer mountain adventures or traveling. Its not coated for water resistance, so expect it to wet out in anything more than a light rain or snowfall. Compared to other softshells, it has below-average water resistance, but it does dry quickly and offers great 3-season protection. Americas Best Backpacking and Outdoor Adventures, Lightweight Soft Shell
It is durable enough to climb scratchy granite cracks and long alpine routes while providing sufficient protection from wind and water without sacrificing any breathability.
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