MONTANE ICARUS/PHOENIX £140

DOES PRIMALOFT’S THERMOPLUME FILL SUCCESSFULLY BRIDGE THE PERFORMANCE

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Choosing between natural down and synthetic insulation is quite a challenges for hillwalkers. Down is exceptionally efficient, so you need less of it to stay warm, which results in jackets being lightweight with a small pack size. Synthetic insulation, however, performs better than down when damp, is lower priced and there are no concerns around animal welfare during its production. Perhaps the ultimate insulation is one that combines the benefits of both materials, and PrimaLoft believes it has achieved that with its ThermoPlume insulation.

  The Montane Icarus for men and Phoenix for women are the first jackets to use PrimaLoft’s innovative insulation. Packed into microbaffles visible as horizontal lines of stitching across the garments, the insulation consists of individual, down-like plumes of synthetic material which allows it to be blown into the baffles in the same way that a down jacket is constructed. It’s these individual clusters of material that make down and ThermoPlume far more efficient at trapping warm air (there’s more space around each fibre) than the matted material that’s conventionally used for synthetic insulation.