Down and Insulated Jackets

Mountain Hardwear Ghost Shadow Hoody | Review

Vegan-friendly and a decent price tag. What about the performance though?

Why We Chose The Mountain Hardwear Ghost Shadow: Good value, durable, good eco creds

This is one of those synthetic insulated jackets that you can count on; the kind that’ll withstand a bit of rough and tumble and that’ll carry on keeping you warm even if it happens to get wet.

Mountain Hardwear have also taken some admirable steps to make sure that this won’t cost the earth either. That actually happens to be the case in a monetary sense as well.

Who Is The Mountain Hardwear Ghost Shadow Hoody For?

We can see this as being one of those jackets that Scottish mountaineers will like. It’s that hardy option that functions so well as part of a layering system, keeping you warm even when you’ve got spindrift creeping in every gap in your waterproof jacket. Less specifically, it’ll also serve anyone who just wants a day-to-day jacket, one they can commute with, walk to the bouldering wall in, or wear to the crag.

Materials

A 10 denier fabric is used inside and out here, one that’s made from 100% post-industrial recycled nylon. Inside narrow baffles that line the torso and arms there’s a PrimaLoft Silver Ultra synthetic insulation, also known as 70% recycled polyester mixed with 30% standard polyester. The feel of this is quite similar to down; padded, slightly lofty and light. Those already familiar with PrimaLoft, a fabric initially developed for the U.S. Armed Forces, will know how well this performs even when it gets saturated, unlike most forms of down fill (at least the untreated type anyway).

The main zip, it’s worth pointing out, is also made from recycled materials, same goes for the trim on the hood, as well as the cord and toggle on the hem.

Panels at the armpits for extra ventilation and articulation. Photo: Mike Brindley

The hood has a back cinch for volume adjustment. Photo: Mike Brindley

It stuffs into its own pocket. Photo: Mike Brindley

Overall the Ghost Shadow weighs 330g. That’s not that light but also not heavy either. In fact, it’s a fair bit lighter than it’s most similar competitor, the North Face Thermoball Eco (440g). Still, you can certainly get lighter and warmer jackets but they’d more often than not cost a few bucks more than this does.

Features

It’s fairly simple on the features front. You have a hood that will fit comfortably underneath a climbing helmet, elasticated cuffs that can be pulled over gloves and a full length zip with a storm flap, beard guard, toggled hem and then four pockets altogether: two in and two out. The outer handwarmer pockets, one of which doubles as a stuff sack, are zipped and are big enough to fit an OS map while the two dump ones on the inside are nice and deep – perfect for sticking your gloves.

Tester’s Verdict

Will Renwick, Outdoors Magic editor

“I’ve never really been let down by any PrimaLoft-filled jackets. The ones with PrimaLoft Gold fill are particularly good. Silver, as you can guess, is second-rate in comparison. It feels less lofty than Gold and more like standard sheet insulation. It’s still good though.

“The feel of it is quite similar to down; padded, slightly lofty and light.”

“This is a decent jacket. It’s warm but not super warm. For instance, I’d be happy to wear it as my sole insulator for any wild camping evenings in the summer, but in winter, especially in freezing conditions, I’d want a much thicker insulated jacket on top of it, or perhaps a thick rain coat. Fortunately, I found that it does have the kind of trim that will allow you to comfortably fit another layer over it. I’d say you’d only really struggle to get a very close fitting waterproof on top of it.

On the subject of the fit, I did find it a bit boxy on me – as if it’s cut for people who might have bit of extra bulk around the belly.

OM editor Will trialing the jacket on a wet and cold trip in the Brecon Beacons

“I do have a couple of other small gripes. First of all the fabric is very noisy. It kind of crackles. Then there’s the fact that the handwarmer pockets, while big inside, only have short-ish openings which are tricky to access when you’re wearing a hipbelt or harness. Still, at £100 you can’t really complain too much can you? That’s great value for a PrimaLoft jacket, especially one with such impressive eco creds.”