My (new) dream jacket

Yes, I know.

I posted back in Oct 2011 that my dream jacket was the Arc'teryx Alpha LT in the glorious "Squid Ink" purple colour. That colour still is the best jacket colour of all time, ever.

BUT. I'm now actually serious about entering the world of Gore-Tex Pro Shell ownership, and with great power comes great responsibility, as we all know well.

As such, I have been inspired to study like hell the details of Arc'teryx's line of epic jacket marvelousness, and as it turns out... I am not an "Alpine Mountain Climber" who would benefit from the specific features of the aforementioned purple jacket in all of its magical feature-heavy bounty. Rather, I need something which doesn't sacrifice durability for light weight, and the length of the Alpha series is actually a little short. Theta is too long for me, and Beta - quite like the last of the 3 Bear's Porridge's - is juuuuuuuussst right.

You little beauty

So, I think the Arc'teryx Beta AR may just be my (new) dream jacket. And that dream has almost come true. Gonna look for it over the break and also compare with a few of the newer jacket types. Gore-Tex Pro Shell seems to come in this newer smooth format too, which I will look into, but I suspect I'll stick with the classic style. "AR" in this case stands for "all around", and this is a super-versatile beast which is going to make rain run from me in light conditions, or when combined with my wool hoodie, in more wintery conditions like skiing. I guess I better take this puppy skiing this year!

Look for another excited post when I buy the heck outta this amazing piece of future camping/hiking/backpacking/skiing gloriousness.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh MAN!!!!!!

Also: I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy vacation. :)