[4 of 4 customers found this review helpful]

REI Shuksan Jacket with eVent Fabric - Men's Review

Awesome, BUT needs a chin guard

"I will start off with the negative, since I can only come up with one, and it is bearable. This jacket needs some kind of chin guard. I have contemplated sewing or gluing in a piece of fleece, and will most likely do so very soon. In cold weather, where this jacket excels, especially in cold and very windy weather, the material scraping against your chaffed chin is incredibly uncomfortable. When my skin is not wind-chill-chaffed, I have no problem with the somewhat rough material scraping me every so often. BUT, this is a very small thing to fix and I expect that it will be taken care of in the next version of the jacket.



I have no problem with the zippers, though they were a bit tight at first. They have loosened up enough to satisfy me with extended wear.



The sleeves are quite long, but I love them that way. They drape nicely over my gloves and give me extra protection against wet weather as well as wind.



I have not worn this jacket yet in a downpour (though I have worn it in 15 minutes of moderate to relatively heavy rain) but it has performed exceedingly well in my Northeast winter outings. It keeps wind out quite well, and deals with snow as would be expected.



The material is very durable and has stood up to abuse by evergreen needles brushing by fairly consistently, as well as the occasional scrape from nearby branches.



Perhaps most importantly, this jacket really, truly, breathes. I have no problem with condensation or sweat building up, even in moderate to high activity, provided I have the right insulation layer on beneath the shell. On nearly all of my winter descents, I end up wearing a very lightweight fleece under the shell (almost always fully zipped with the hood off below the treeline) and make my way down at a healthy clip. I usually keep it off for ascents unless it is snowing or there is a lot of wind, until the last leg just before the summit. Then I put it on and it stays on from the summit all the way down to the trail head.



The hood is roomy but cinches down very well even if you are not wearing a helmet yet remains comfortable and will not get blown all over the place by high winds.



I highly recommend this jacket, despite the lack of chin comfort."

On the summit of Mt. Tom, braving -25˚F wind chill

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