Rab Mythic Alpine Light Puffy Review

Fast Verdict

The Rab Mythic Alpine Gentle Puffy delivers distinctive heat in an impressively light-weight package deal. Utilizing premium 900-fill down, strategic insulation mapping, and a thoughtfully minimalist design, it’s constructed for backpackers and mountain athletes who need most heat with minimal bulk.

Greatest for

Backpackers prioritizing warmth-to-weight efficiency
Chilly-weather mountain adventures and alpine journeys on comparatively groomed trails
Ultralight hikers constructing a extremely packable layering system

Not supreme for

Finances-conscious hikers
Climbing, bushwhacking, and related high-abrasion makes use of
Excessive-output efforts the place most breathability issues

Standout function

Elite heat for the load. The mix of 900-fill hydrophobic down, body-mapped insulation, and an ultralight design creates spectacular heat at underneath 9 ounces.

Greatest downside

Sturdiness tradeoffs. The skinny 10D outer cloth helps preserve weight low however requires additional care round branches, rock, and abrasive terrain.

Backside line

In the event you’re searching for the lightest potential puffy that also retains you heat, the Mythic Alpine Gentle is an excellent premium choice.

The final thing you need to be while you’re backpacking is chilly. One thing about shivering at camp ruins the entire expertise; as a substitute of having fun with dinner and watching the solar go down, you’re dashing by your night routine to make it into your heat tent.

Having a puffy on a backpacking journey, relying on the place you might be, is sort of a non-negotiable. Puffies work to lure your physique warmth within the little pockets created by the interior insulation, which retains your core heat. Nonetheless, while you take the jacket off to place it in your pack, you may compress this insulation and get rid of the little air pockets. This helps the jacket keep extremely light-weight and match inside a small backpack with none sturdiness points.

The Rab Mythic Alpine Gentle Puffy has tried to optimize all these areas—insulation, weight, sturdiness, and packability—by an attention-grabbing insulation composition and jacket physique building.

Rab Mythic Alpine Gentle Puffy At-a-Look

MSRP: $355Weight: 8.8oz (Dimension M)Fill: 900FP Goose DownFeatures: Hood, Pockets, Hip Cinch Twine

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Circumstances of Assessment

I introduced this puffy on a late-spring hike of the 30-mile Artwork Loeb Path in North Carolina. Temperatures swung wildly, with daytime temperatures reaching the mid-70s and nighttime temperatures falling into the mid-teens. The second morning handled us to some snow and brutal winds, so I used to be in a position to hike within the puffy and see how nicely it retained warmth in addition to consider its means to breath as soon as I began warming up.

This jacket has a slim reduce; nevertheless, I sized up, leading to a looser match.

Supposed Use

Rab claims this puffy is nice for all winter mountain adventures, together with climbing, alpinism, ski touring, and mountaineering. At underneath 9oz, this puffy additionally definitely has a spot in a summer time backpacking equipment, particularly at altitude when the climate can dip low any time of yr.

Options

On the subject of a puffy, there are only a few issues that differentiate one from the opposite. The very first thing we are able to take a look at is the kind of insulation used, as that determines the climate circumstances greatest fitted to the jacket. Subsequent, we are able to take a look at the distribution of the down throughout the physique, earlier than shifting on to the little design additions, resembling a hood or any pockets.

900FP Goose Down with Nikwax End

FP stands for Fill Energy, which is a measurement of the standard and fluffiness of the down. Particularly, it implies that one single ounce of this down will broaden to fill 900 cubic inches of house.

900-fill energy is close to absolutely the prime tier of insulation high quality (the size usually tops out round 1000). As a result of these goose down clusters are extremely giant and resilient, Rab wants little or no bodily weight of feathers to fill the jacket’s baffles and lure your physique warmth. And, as a result of there may be much less bodily matter and extra open air contained in the jacket, a 900FP puffy will compress down considerably smaller than an equally heat jacket made with lower-quality down.

Often, the weak spot of down in backpacking gear comes from water. If a regular down jacket will get moist from rain or heavy sweat, the feathers collapse right into a soggy, clumped-up mess, fully dropping their means to lure air and preserve you heat. Nonetheless, the down on this puffy has been handled with a hydrophobic resolution earlier than being stuffed into the baffles.

In the event you get caught in a sudden drizzle, or in case your sweat pushes into the insulation, the Nikwax remedy forces the down plumes to repel that water. As an alternative of collapsing, the feathers keep lofted and keep their heat-trapping air pockets even in damp environments.

Baffles and Down Distribution

Down insulation will often all the time be a bit extra fragile and fewer sturdy than artificial insulation. Rab has countered this by creating small, down-filled baffles across the core, which is a very powerful a part of your physique to maintain heat, and baffles full of artificial insulation on the sides, cuffs, shoulders, and base of the hood.

The form of the baffles are additionally vital, which anybody who has ever tried to scrub a down jacket will know. Baffles are inner tubes in a jacket that maintain down in a selected place, stopping all of the down from clumping over time in several components of the jacket and creating chilly spots. The baffles on this puffy are largely little squares over the core, giving the down fewer locations emigrate.

In the event you select to scrub the puffy, and have to spend the time after manually re-lofting the down, it’ll be simple to do that with such small baffles. You’ll spend so much much less time coaxing down up and round lengthy, skinny baffles than in another puffies (I converse from expertise).

Hood and Pockets

Typically, when an organization chooses to create an ultralight piece of substances, little options enhancing the usability get misplaced. Nonetheless, the Mythic Alpine Gentle retains a stable hood and two, giant, zippered pockets with out compromising a lot on weight.

The hem additionally options a bit cinch twine, letting you tighten the underside of the puffy towards your physique to retain much more warmth whereas on the transfer.

Utilization

Heat

I discovered this jacket to be exceptionally heat. I ended up utilizing a bigger dimension than I’m sometimes used to, however was shocked at how nicely the cinch twine on the hem labored to seal off any drafts. Moreover, because the sleeves prolonged over my arms a bit, I didn’t even discover myself lacking thumb holes; the jacket itself did a ok job of making a bit cylinder of heat that the tops of my arms stayed toasty as nicely.

At night time, in my quilt, I used the puffy as a pillow and, as soon as it was time to begin mountaineering, the jacket lofted again up rapidly to place it on. It solely took a couple of minutes of carrying the puffy inside my tent earlier than I actually observed my physique warmth being retained round my core, and the jacket saved me comfy although the primary few frigid miles of my morning.

Packability and Weight

This jacket weighs nearly nothing and compresses down simply as a lot. At underneath 9oz, there actually isn’t a lot to complain about right here. For in regards to the weight of two.5 Snickers bars, I used to be in a position to have a jacket that saved me extremely heat, acted as an insulating pillow, cinched round my neck and chin to get rid of drafts, and simply disappeared into my pack.

The outer cloth on this puffy is 10D Pertex Quantum, which is a elaborate, branded means of claiming the jacket is created from an extremely skinny, tightly woven nylon. Whereas the jacket isn’t extremely fragile, I’d nonetheless suggest storing the puffy inside your pack or inside a mesh pocket versus simply bungee cording it to the surface of the pack. No matter you are able to do to reduce snags from branches will definitely prolong the puffy’s lifespan.

Consolation

This jacket match nicely and was a really comfy layer. Once more, possibly it’s as a result of I sized up, however I didn’t take any difficulty with what Rab calls a “Slim” match. Often, with outer layers, I need them a bit saggy so they’ll match over each my solar hoody and my fleece midlayer.

The options on this jacket are considerate and nicely designed; the hood zips up simply with the remainder of the jacket and feels safe on my head. Even throughout a very gusty morning, the hood didn’t fall away from my face.

Moreover, the pockets are deep, although they have been a bit arduous to entry underneath the hip belt of a pack.

Rab Mythic Alpine Gentle Down Jacket Execs

Distinctive Heat-to-Weight Ratio

Weighing lower than 9 ounces, this jacket punches far above its weight class. By pairing 900-fill energy goose down with an ultralight shell, it lofts up nearly immediately to lure core physique warmth with out including noticeable mass or bulk to your pack.

Comfy Match for a Layering System

Although tailor-made with a technical slim reduce, the jacket accommodates a base layer and a mid-layer fleece comfortably when sized accurately. The graceful inside cloth slides over underlying layers with out binding or bunching, permitting for uninhibited motion whereas mountaineering. The sleeves didn’t experience up my arms, nor did the again of the jacket experience up my again.

Considerate, Helpful Options

Rab refused to chop corners on utility to avoid wasting weight. The jacket retains deep zippered pockets, a high-zipped hood that stays safe in brutal winds, an adjustable hem cinch to seal out chilly drafts, and barely prolonged sleeves that present additional heat on your arms (supplied you dimension up).

Rab Mythic Alpine Gentle Down Jacket Cons

Not the Most Breathable

As a result of the shell cloth is tightly woven to behave as a windproof protect, it naturally limits airflow. In the event you put on this jacket whereas actively pushing up a steep incline, warmth and sweat can construct up rapidly, making it higher fitted to stationary time round camp use or freezing mornings.

Premium Worth Tag

At an MSRP of $355, this puffy prices greater than some ultralight tents. Whereas the elite 900-fill down and technical hybrid building may justify the associated fee for devoted backpackers, the value barrier could also be powerful to swallow for informal hikers.

Ultralight Outer Materials Weak to Snags

10D face cloth requires a excessive stage of path consciousness. Whereas it handles inner down strain completely, it’s extremely vulnerable to sharp branches, thorns, and tough rock faces, that means it ought to all the time be packed inside your pack moderately than strapped to the surface.

Ought to You Purchase the Rab Mythic Alpine Gentle Puffy?

Not everyone seems to be backpacking in the identical circumstances, so puffies actually usually are not a one-size-fits-all state of affairs. For those who do a variety of technical actions exterior within the snow, I believe this puffy is nice. It doesn’t limit motion and does a fantastic job retaining warmth, so it will be nice for ski touring, backpacking, and every other mountain sport.

Nonetheless, it does include some flaws. Due to how mild it’s, it additionally shouldn’t be essentially the most sturdy. I’d not suggest this jacket to a climber, or somebody who would usually be bringing it into harder circumstances. The jacket is susceptible to snags, and I’m undecided it will coexist nicely with an ice axe except that axe is used sparingly and with nice care.

Additionally, we have now to actually confront this price ticket. Whereas it’s similar to different puffies of this caliber, it’s costly sufficient to warrent a tough look within the mirror to query if you really want one thing this mild, this technical, and this heat. In case your solutions to these questions are sure, sure, and sure, then I believe you’re taking a look at a reasonably stellar jacket within the Mythic Alpine Gentle.

Nonetheless, if you happen to assume you may get away with a less expensive, bulkier, and heavier coat with out actually noticing the distinction, that’s one thing to consider.

All in all, this puffy is splendidly constructed, clearly thoughtully designed, and could be an unbelievable asset to any backpacker throughout a chilly night time at camp or freezing morning on the path.

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