Review: Jack Wolfskin Alpspitze Air 3L Jacket
What we liked
Incredibly light, supple and packable.
Great fit
Nice features - High neck for weather protection and integrated snow skirt.
What we didn’t
Slightly odd venting, but which still add something
Lack of pockets
The Verdict
THE SHORT READ…
The Alpspitz Air is a ludicrously light and packable 3-layer jacket which breathes, is wind and water proof, and has some smart design choices, allowing you to wear at any point in the season and be confident it’ll protect you from pretty much anything nature throws at you.
It’s got some ‘interesting’ venting option, but which are none-the-less useful. The only significant downside is that there are no pockets on the body. But, it’s upsides are so good that many you may still want to consider this as your go-to touring jacket, so long as you don’t want to stash anything bigger than you can fit in it’s one small lift-pass pocket.
THE LONG READ …
You may not know this but Jack Wolfskin are… a German brand. Not american, as I found out recently. A huge outdoors brand, they released their first ski touring range in the 22/23 season. It’s fair to say they have a slightly different take on it and Backdrop were lucky to get hold of a couple of items to test, one of these being this Alpspitze Air 3-layer Jacket. Very high-performing, yet not without some striking quirks - let’s dig in…
Material, Weight & Performance - The first thing you notice about this jacket - ok, probably the second thing, the first likely being the colour… ‘ carmine’ apparently, but which actually seems more like a ‘dark terracotta’, maybe? With a light sheen to it. Anyway, it really grew on me eventually. But anyway, the other thing you notice is how extraordinarily LIGHT the Alpspitz Air is. When I say light, I mean, the Large weighs in at 280g… 280g! For comparison the Patagonia Untracked jacket comes in at 620g in the medium. The “air” part of the Alpspitz’s name sounds about right.
Jack Wolfskin have teamed up with Japanese fabric manufacturer Pertex to use the Pertex® Shieldair fabric - lightweight, waterproof and windproof, it’s a full 3-layer jacket for goodness sake and still that light. It’s also soft and supple and is designed to give an exceptionally high level of breathability.
Check look it’s packability (right) - it’s scrunches down crazy small. Great for squishing into tiny spaces in your pack when it’s too hot to wear.
Wind-protection was tested on top of Mount Suphan in south-eastern Turkey - an isolated volcano living up to it’s reputation by being blasted with bitter gales on it’s summit - where the Alpspitz Air proved an extremely effective barrier against that driving wind.
Waterproofing, on the other hand, I tested on the mean streets of London - and it handled sustainted downpours well too - nothing getting in through the material.
Breathability was put through it’s paces in the Zinal valley in Switzerland, touring up on some blisteringly hot, still days - I absolutely did not need a jacket on, I was only wearing it to test it’s breathability claims - and it’s lightness and venting (see below) let me keep it on for far longer than my companions (stripped to their base layers) thought a reasonable level of sanity should allow.
And finally, toughness - it;s been raked by various pointy bits of my ice-axe and stabbed by a ski pole, with no damage resulting. Pretty phenomenal for such a light fabic.
So - tough, feather-light, waterproof, windproof, and amazingly packable - what else?
Fit - I’m tall (6 foot 2) and slim, and the Alpspitz Air in Large was a near-perfect fit for me. It’s got room to move, so could accomodate someone much beefier than me in arm, body and shoulders but doesn’t feel overly baggy (I think the lightness and suppleness of the fabric helps there).
Body length is good - and slightly longer at the back too.
Arm length is generous- when the cuffs are fully open the arms drop long enough to almost cover to the ends of my thumbs.
And - nice feature - as the image above shows, the neck is high and comes all the way up to bottom of your nose, rather than just up to your chin - brilliant for protecting your lower face from the wind and elements.
Hood - Helmet compatible and quite voluminous. The rear tightener is a very simple affair, it’s cords running forward to somewhere around your temples. Without a helmet it actually closes the hood around your face remarkably effectively. One minor gripe I have is that the hood’s peak is not very prominent, and not even stiffened more than the rest of the hood - something that projects a bit more would help protect the eyes in driving snow.
Snow skirt - In keeping with the rest of the jacket, it’s a very light affair - but effective. It has no adjustments (and can’t be removed) but is quite elasticated and it’s silicon is super grippy. One minor downside is that it can ride up a little around your waist, bringing the lower hem of the jacket up with it, so occasionally I find myself adjusting the whole affair back down and inch or so.
Cuffs - The arm cuff velcro strips work well though are quite narrow., but they do cinch the cuff down nicely - the supple material folding well.
So… I mentioned that the jacket has some quirks, right? Well now we can get into those…
Venting - The Pertex® Shieldair fabric was created to be super-breathable but even so, this jacket comes with a couple of venting options, shown above:
A zip just to the right of the main central front zip, coming down from the neck opens up a bunch of breathing holes. That zip opens all the way down to your chest, but the holes are only at the top, where your breathing happens. I never felt the occasion to use this - even with the neck coming up so high, it’s easy to lift your head a bit to breath above it. But if you are really hunkering down, I can still see the logic, though it only seems to need a zip half as long?
That zip on the left side of the body? That’s not a pocket, it just opens up an un-meshed aperture. I did use it to get more airflow on hotter skinning days. But why only provide one on the left side? There’s a white stripe on the right side, in the same position, but that’s just trim, no zip. Makig that a zip too would have made more sense, I think. Or, move the vent/s around the side more, laterally, down the side of the body, which would free up space for a couple of waist pockets… On which topic, see next.
Pockets - One solitary pocket is provided, for your ski pass, down low on the left arm. It works, I’m not sure if I’ve worked out a preference for having that sort of pocket high on the arm or down low, but it’s unobrusive even with a pass in it.
But - no pockets anywhere else. And I really feel the lack of them. When touring, with a backpack on, jacket pockets are so useful for holding all kinds of things so you don’t have to take your backpack off to get at them, or don’t want in your trouser pockets. I quite often found myself going for that left zip and then remembering it’s not actually a pocket. Yes, a couple of waist pockets or chest pockets would add more weight, but the jacket is so ludicrously light anyway that a light-weight pocket design wouldn’t add much, possibly using a mesh inner fabric so that they can double-up as venting?
SUMMARY…
I love the Jack Wolfskin Alpspitz Air’s Pertex Sheild Air fabric, which despite it’s incredible light weight and breathability also keeps the wind and water out brilliantly. Design aspects such as it’s snow skirt, high-neck, and it’s overall cut and fit all over are also excellent. Less great, but still adding something, is the built-in venting. The big downside for me is the lack of a couple of waist or chest pockets.
So, to sum the Alpspitz air, a super-light but super protective jacket but missing an important practical element. I’ll still be wearing it a lot as it’s upsides are so good, but you might hear me cursing as I continue to reach for those non-existent pockets…