Jöttnar Asmund Hardshell Jacket – Performance

If breathability matters to you, then NeoShell should be high up on your tick-list of shell essentials. It’s simply the waterproof material that, in our experience, comes closest to working like a windproof, to the point where you can often use it as one.

In real life it means you can go harder and hotter without drowning in a horrible, sweaty, hot jungle-style fug inside your jacket. That doesn’t mean you can’t overwhelm it working hard, but it takes longer and when you do get warm and wet, your layers dry out faster afterwards.

It’s great stuff and it feels nice too, getting progressively softer as you use and wash it. The down side to that is that psychologically it feels less reassuringly protective than a stiffer, heavier fabric.

And while we haven’t damaged our test jacket, it’s common sense that a lightweight fabric is ultimately less durable than one with a heavier face.

Standby Shell?

The Asmund’s not really about that though. It’s more a ‘throw over your softshell when the weather gets gnarly’ sort of jacket, than a go thrutching up chimneys one. The cut is significantly slimmer and neater than the original oversized effort, but there’s stiff plenty of room in there for a mid-layer and some lightweight puffy insulation.

‘The cut is more functional than slick compared to, say, Arc’teryx or Mountain Equipment’s more tailored fit, but it’s a definite improvement on last year’s version’

It packs small enough not to be burden on the move too, but it’s still fully featured. We love the big, easy to access, Napoleon-style chest pockets – no interference from harness or pack straps.

The hood works well without a lid and still gives plenty of facial coverage even with a helmet in place. No complaints there. Plus hem and cuffs have full and easy adjustment.

The cut is more functional than slick compared to, say, Arc’teryx or Mountain Equipment’s more tailored fit – there’s quite a lot of spare fabric in the upper arms for example – but it’s a definite improvement on last year’s version.

Oh, one last thing. The welded inside pocket, sized to fit an iPhone 6 no less, gets a funky snowflake pattern just to make things feels a little bit special. Nice.