Hunting for a high end insulated ski jacket - roomy XL

[bounceswoosh]

Well, the Patagonia jacket arrived - and it's wonderful! So I'm, *koff*, also ordering the insulated pants and the shell jacket.

No, hear me out!

Insulated pants: My current pants are old and frayed, and they are somewhat low-rise, so they expose my back to cold and wind. Just what you want on days when you need insulated pants. I had ordered Diva Snow Gear insulated bibs, because they were the only insulated bibs I could find (TNF makes one, but it's slim fit, which is mosdef not going to work). The DSGs are 200g of insulation. That's just a lot. I keep trying to convince myself it'll be okay, but they are HEAVY and BIG and just ... a lot. I'm hoping the Patagonia pants will be less trouble.

Now, on the shell side, I love my jacket - except for its teeny weeny single interior pocket, whose dimensions are literally smaller than a men's wallet. I can use it for chapstick and some tylenol - that's about it. The other thing is that the color has faded (story of my life), and seam is wearing down on the shoulder, where my skis go when I carry them. I'm going to reach out to Arc'teryx about what they can do about it - their warranty is no joke - but if the Patagonia shell fits as well as the insulated jacket ... well, I already know the features are great.

IF all this plays out, I would end up with:

Magenta shell over plum bib shell pants (options for teal and electric blue pants, as well).

Bright blue (but not quite electric) insulated jacket over magenta insulated pants.

I'm moderately annoyed about the risk of magenta/magenta, but I don't think it's a real issue because I've never been tempted to wear shell on one part of my body and insulated on the other. There's also the risk of blue/blue the other direction.

Fingers crossed that after buying all this XL gear, I will finally lose weight so that it doesn't fit ;-)

 

[VickiK]

I got the Outdoor Research catalog today in the mail. @bounceswoosh I know you are swimming amidst new gear and packing material in the living room, but here's something that might be interesting. The Offchute Jacket and Pants - both are Relaxed fit, and are offered in XL. Softshell, pit zips, adjustable hood, "Thermore" insulation, comes in a RED color called Flame/Scarlet, $285. Pants are $199. Very tempting, if I do say so myself.

 

[VickiK]

Re: the fit, the online product description is different from catalog description. Grrrrr.

 

[bounceswoosh]

I got the Outdoor Research catalog today in the mail. @bounceswoosh I know you are swimming amidst new gear and packing material in the living room, but here's something that might be interesting. The Offchute Jacket and Pants - both are Relaxed fit, and are offered in XL. Softshell, pit zips, adjustable hood, "Thermore" insulation, comes in a RED color called Flame/Scarlet, $285. Pants are $199. Very tempting, if I do say so myself.

Hah! Thanks ... I'm not into that color, so it's not too tempting for me =) Also I very very very much like the Patagonia insulated Powder Bowl. It's a keeper! Of everything I've looked at, the The North Face and the Patagonia have had the best features IMO.

 

[bounceswoosh]

While I'm frolicking in all this gear, I also reached out to Arc'teryx to see if they'll help me out with my Sentinel jacket. The shoulder where I carry my skis is starting to separate, scrape, something - there's black exposed where it should only be green. There's also sun fading, although that has no functional impact. The Sentinel is a ski-specific jacket - as such, and at that price, I expect it to be handle skis on shoulders.

 

[santacruz skier]

That's one good thing about Patagonia. They guarantee their product. For life.

 

[bounceswoosh]

That's one good thing about Patagonia. They guarantee their product. For life.

Arc'teryx does, too. We'll see what they say on this one. They've taken great care of me in the past. I shredded a pair of pants past usability on some shark teeth. Obviously user error. The pants themselves had been half price through REI. I reached out to Arc. The repair would have been $80, but they didn't have the color anymore - so they asked me to pick my favorite of the current season's colors, and they'd send them to me for $80. These were $500 pants. (I was bummed that I couldn't get another pair of bright yellow ... but my dad says into each life, a little rain must fall. This was more of a raindrop.)

 

[Sparky]

Magenta shell over plum bib shell pants (options for teal and electric blue pants, as well).

Bright blue (but not quite electric) insulated jacket over magenta insulated pants

Love all these color combos!

And good luck with the other Powder Bowls!

 

[bounceswoosh]

Love all these color combos!

And good luck with the other Powder Bowls!

Definitely keeping the insulated blue Powder Bowl jacket.

The insulated pants are on backorder, so it'll be a while before I know for sure.

Unsure about the magenta Powder Bowl shell jacket. I think it might actually fit too big (same shell size as insulated, I think, but the insulation takes up a lot more space). I'm going to try on a large in the store (they don't have that color, but I can check out the size). But ...

In the meantime I also sent in my Arc'teryx shell (the green one in my profile pic) for evaluation. The seam is separating on one sleeve, and the color has faded (you can see if you open up the velcro at the wrist, for example, or the pits or behind the hood). If they decide to replace it, well, the new version of the Sentinel has better pockets than mine. If the fit is the same, it's gotta be a no brainer to replace it (even if there's some charge) rather than to buy a new shell jacket. The price of the Arc Sentinel is astronomical. I bought it in Dec 2014 and probably have > 100 days in it. DH says that with so much use, it's silly to RMA. I say that one of the reasons I spend so much is because they stand behind their products - and I've had experience with them doing so.

 

[Sparky]

This isn't a Powder Bowl shell and it may be too close in color to the insulated one you just got , but have you seen this Powslayer jacket? Looks nice and functional, though a little pricey for a non-insulated jacket (not sure why, thicker and maybe 3L gortex vs 2L?). This might go well with plum (and possibly electric blue?) pants. But if you like it, maybe keep an eye on the price to go down more? Then you can have similar color combos for both shell and insulated!

https://www.evo.com/outlet/shell-jackets/patagonia-powslayer-jacket-womens

 

[bounceswoosh]

This isn't a Powder Bowl shell and it may be too close in color to the insulated one you just got , but have you seen this Powslayer jacket? Looks nice and functional, though a little pricey for a non-insulated jacket (not sure why, thicker and maybe 3L gortex vs 2L?). This might go well with plum (and possibly electric blue?) pants. But if you like it, maybe keep an eye on the price to go down more? Then you can have similar color combos for both shell and insulated!

https://www.evo.com/outlet/shell-jackets/patagonia-powslayer-jacket-womens

That looks very nice! I didn't realize there was a higher-end shell in the Patagonia line .... kinda wish you hadn't told me! .... but I'm really hoping that Arc'teryx fixes up my old shell, one way or another, and I can return the Powder Bowl shell.

 

[Sparky]

That looks very nice! I didn't realize there was a higher-end shell in the Patagonia line .... kinda wish you hadn't told me! .... but I'm really hoping that Arc'teryx fixes up my old shell, one way or another, and I can return the Powder Bowl shell.

Oh you did order it already? Lol. I've also heard Arcteryx is very good about replacements so hopefully it'll all work out!

 

[bounceswoosh]

Oh you did order it already? Lol. I've also heard Arcteryx is very good about replacements so hopefully it'll all work out!

Yeah, I ordered the insulated and shell jackets from Patagonia at the same time.

I'll share my experience with Arc'teryx service - they really are great. A couple of years ago, I bought a pair of Arc shell pants at like half price, maybe less, on the REI clearance rack. After only a few days of skiing in them, I fell on a huge section of sharktooth rocks and, amazingly, the only damage was to my pants. Ripped clean through, enough to tear open the pocket as well. I contacted Arc customer service. I fully explained that it was user error, but would they be able to recommend someone to repair them for me? They said, send them in for evaluation. So I did. And they got back to me - "Hey, we don't have fabric in that color anymore. The repair would have been $80 - would you like to pick a color from the current season, and we'll send you a new pair for $80?" Mind you, these pants were about $500 new.

I was sad because I LOVED the color of those pants, but as far as I'm concerned, Arc'teryx customer service is amazing. They didn't have to do anything for me, after all - it was my own fault. (Hint: when you see untouched powder in the trees next to a completely skied out bump field, there's a reason no one sampled that powder.)

 

[Obrules15]

I was hoping that if my current jacket is TNF, maybe this XL will be equally roomy - but I suspect that's wishful thinking.

I've found TNF to have stable across the board sizing. For 4-5 years the fit seems to be stable.

Have you seen their new bibs?

 

[bounceswoosh]

I've found TNF to have stable across the board sizing. For 4-5 years the fit seems to be stable.

Have you seen their new bibs?

The new TNF was smaller than my old one. Also tight in the shoulder. I returned it.

I saw they had a slim fit insulated bib. Slim fit doesn't sound good to me. Not interested in shell bibs - I already have the perfect one.

 

[RedinChicago]

I have a marker in a 14 that I bought from Sierra Trading Co 2 or 3 years ago. It’s one shade off construction worker neon. Markers come up in various sizes on Sierra periodically. I wore it through polar vortex when we skied regularly in subzero weather.

It fit over my boobs well even pre-reduction.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Okay, thread drift after all the ordering I did -

I have ants in my pants. I shipped my shell to Arc'teryx to see what they can do for me about some seam separation and fading.

In the meantime, I ordered a Patagonia Powder Bowl shell that fits and has WONDERFUL pockets. I could still return it.

And then I realized that Patagonia has an even higher-end shell. And I'll admit that it got me thinking, wait, should I be in a LESSER shell? Don't I deserve the BEST?

I tried on the PowSlayer in an XL at the Patagonia store, and it seemed a smidgy smidge too tight around the hips. But then I tried on the Powder Bowl at home again, and maybe it was the same.

So I'm waiting now for Arc'teryx to tell me what they want to do about my shell. It was delivered Friday, but they said it can take up to 5 days to get it from there to the place that evaluates the shell (why don't they just give you THAT address??) If they just want to repair it, the internal pocket situation is so bad that I would probably want the Patagonia shell, and then I'd have to decide about whether to "upgrade." If they offer to replace it somehow, the pockets on the new version of the jacket are much better - still not as good as the Patagonia pockets, but good enough that I'd almost certainly keep the Arc'teryx and return the Patagonia. But I also am not sure if the fit is as generous as my old jacket.

Complicating matters, I got a great deal on the Powder Bowl, and I'm not sure if I could get a discount on the PowSlayer.

Meantime, the insulated pants are still on backorder. Life is hard.

The insulated pants that I sent back to DSG arrived at their facility mid last week, but I haven't gotten a refund yet. Same with my returned TNF jacket, although that only arrived Friday. That's a lot of money I want back! I also paid DSG through paypal (amazon pay wouldn't work), and I'm not sure if the refund will go to my card or (probably) just into my paypal account. Meh.

 

[VickiK]

Whew! That's a lot of shopping.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Whew! That's a lot of shopping.

Well, when you can't find the stuff locally ....

I have a document tracking return status for all of it!

 

[kiki]

@santacruz skier - Stio 's only insulated jacket uses down, which is a no-go. Flylow doesn't even bother carrying XL. Trew only has a shell for women, nothing insulated.

So, to reiterate - I am looking for a women's XL insulated jacket, and it has to be synthetic - no down whatsoever. It also needs to be a bright, Skittle-y color.

I have ordered a TNF and a Patagonia that appear to hit all marks, so that I can try them on and compare them.

Part of me thinks "You just need to lose some fat." The other part laughs at the word "just" and points out how well I've done with that in the past.

I too just keep telling myself to just lose fat.
Today i broke down and bought a size L jacket
Bey bey medium
Sad day
:-(