Backcountry

x Flylow Grizzly Gulch Jacket - Men's

Every morning, Backcountry is represented by Gearheads touring all over the Wasatch in search of the snowiest stashes before work starts. Chances are good that, if you're on a dawn patrol in the same region, you're probably sharing a skin track with us. You might also share our opinions and preferences about ski gear, and our collaboration with Flylow Gear on the Backcountry x Flylow Grizzly Gulch Jacket indicates that you're in good company. Flylow solicited some design feedback from us, and we told them we wanted a jacket that’s reliably waterproof for the best powder days, ridiculously breathable to keep us comfortable while skinning under heavy snowfall, and ultra-lightweight to pack down small when dawn patrol gives way to a bright winter morning. They agreed that those are all important traits, and we think you will, too.

The Grizzly Gulch's thin, light, 3-layer construction includes a waterproof, air permeable Polartec Neoshell laminate—one of the few waterproof membranes that’s actually air permeable. Unlike standard breathable membranes, Polartec Neoshell starts to breathe the moment you put the shell on. Standard breathable membranes don't start breathing until after you work up a sweat, which can be detrimental when you're sweating on a skin track in freezing temperatures. The Grizzly Gulch Jacket doesn’t exactly eliminate all the sweat dripping down your face when you’re tackling steep skin tracks, but it does allow all that moisture to vaporize off your body so you don’t freeze and sweat at the same time. And as for the downhill, the Grizzly Gulch Jacket sheds all the powder shots and snowspray coming your way, so you feel comfortably dry and fresh for another lap.