Black Diamond Helio Shell – Performance

It’s a beautiful thing the BD Helio. Really nicely put together with impeccable laminating, welding and taping. Just a nicely-made object. It’s decently light too at a real world 360g for a medium, making ideal for stashing in your pack until needed.

The Gore-Tex C-Knit fabric gives it a nice feel. It’s softer and quieter than Pro, which will either bother you or not. We liked it, but we suspect that it won’t be quite as durable when faced with sustained mountain abuse.

Cut Of The Jib…

We were a little surprised by the cut of the jacket. It’s longer than average and there’s quite a lot of internal space thanks to a slightly barrel-ish fit. On the plus side it broadens its appeal beyond those built like pedigree mountain cheetahs and/or allows layering over bulkier insulation layers if necessary.

‘Need more cooling? The cuffs allow you to roll up your sleeves easily too. And did we mention those Cohaesive cord-locks, erm, oh, we did.’

Also unusual is the single-pull hood adjuster out back. It runs through one of those glove-friendly Cohaesive cord-locks – there’s another on the hem – and tightens both top and front cords with a single pull.

What’s more it works pretty well both with and without a helmet in situ and we felt nicely sealed up. If we’re being critical, we’d have preferred a stiffer and/or wired peak for UK conditions, but to be fair, used as intended for lightweight alpine stuff or ski-mountaineering, chances are you’d be wearing a helmet. It does limit its usability for more general stuff though.

Napoleon’s Pocketses

Everything else works well. The great big Napoleon-style chest pockets are perfectly placed to use with a pack or harness. The moulded zip-pulls are easy to grab with gloves. And the big pit-zips, give plenty of cooling, though you’ll only leave both zip-pulls at the back end once when out with a pack.

Need more cooling? The cuffs allow you to roll up your sleeves easily too. And did we mention those Cohaesive cord-locks, erm, oh, we did.