PH Designs Kappa Jacket – Performance

Down is lovely stuff when warmth to weight ratios are a priority and it doesn’t hurt that classic down construction looks effortlessly stylish and classically warm. But even with the development of water-resistant down, synthetic fills like PrimaLoft are still the best solution for cold, damp, UK-style conditions – think Scotland in winter.

Where the UK-made Kappa takes things a stage further is by using a fully waterproof lightweight shell fabric called HS2. Because the fabric’s not seam taped, the jacket’s not technically 100% waterproof, but it’ll take a fair bit of rain to get past it and even then, the PrimaLoft fill copes well.

The Heaviest Jacket You’d Want To Carry

It’s not a light jacket, but at 660g for a medium, it’s somewhere around the ‘heaviest insulation you’d want to carry point’ and the pack size isn’t too bad at all. And it’s warm too. Properly warm in a way that lighter synthetic jackets simply aren’t.

Pull it on and you get an instant turbo heat boost. The cut isn’t sophisticated in an Arc’teryx style, but still pretty good in a trim-fitting way. It could, we reckon, do with a drop-tail for added butt protection. And if you’re planning to use it as a belay jacket, you might consider going up a size depending on what you’re planning on layering it over.

Function Over Fashion

The zip-off hood’s similarly functional rather than svelte, but works pretty well in practice. Depending on your clothing choices, you an add or remove it easily according to preference. If it really buckets down, for example, you might prefer not to have an insulated hood under a waterproof shell. Your call.

It will take a helmet, but we found it slightly tight in that mode despite the simple volume-adjusting Velcro strap being at ‘peak open’, but it’s reassuringly warm and snug over a bare head.

Simples

Other stuff just works: simple Velcro cuffs, glove-friendly pulls, hand-warmer pockets with a micro-fleece liner – the actual insulation is the ‘wrong’ side of the hands though, and an adjustable hem-cord.

It has to be pretty cold for you to wear it on the move and it’s sweaty if you do, but for slinging on during stops and on belays regardless of what else you’re wearing, it’s spot on.