Bushwalk Australia

waterproof breathable jackets can only shift your body moisture through them when you're sitting still or doing light exercise on a cold day, hiking usually drenches the inside with sweat.. neoshell is the most breathable membrane out there, and in dry cold conditions i can saturate that on the inside,, i still need pitzips to help vent it..

GrahameR wrote:...and cutting in some pit vents. They seem to be the best regulator of internal humidity.

Pit vents are under-appreciated, but the provide an elegant solution to internal humidity. Your body heats up the internal air, which can then absorb more moisture. The pit vents expel that moisture-laden air to the outside, and it's not your problem that the expelled air will cool down and dump its excess moisture as condensation somewhere else.

I have done a lot of walking over nearly 3 decades in Tasmania, including a fair amount of scrub bashing. I have gone through at least 3 long cut, 3 layer rain jackets in that time. First one was a Wilderness Equipment goretex jacket from over 25 years ago. It got used for work in really wet west coast conditions, often in scrub. Performance was only ever so so from memory, even when brand new. Current day stuff from them apparently may be better. The second was a goretex jacket from a different Australian manufacturer and the most recent one was a Mont jacket.

In all 3 cases I would descibe the performance of the jackets as being disappointing. They were never really anything better than water resistant at first, and they would wet through in prolonged rain. In the last 2 cases the internal waterproof breathable membrane completely disintegrated over time and the jackets became essentially see through when held up to the light, particularly along the back and shoulders. In the second one which has been in storage for several years now, I just noticed that most of the seam sealing tape has now peeled off, rendering the jacket even more utterly useless in the wet and ready for the bin.

From experience I tend to view these sorts of 3 layer jackets as mainly being very effective at wind protection and quite effective at offering your body some protection from the scrub, but they seem not much use for keeping dry in anything other than short intermittent showers. In heavy rain, forget it, especially after your first few trips. Washing the jackets and then ironing them as per the manufacturer's recommendation never seemed to result in any improvement. On my last trip in Tassie with the now aging Mont jacket, I remember my clothes becoming saturated in heavy rain within just a few minutes. For that reason, in rain I will tend to just take my shirt off and wear a thermal top underneath the rain jacket instead, so that at least I won't wind up being completely chilled.

So I personally would not spend my money buying a really expensive jacket, especially if you intend to go scrub bashing. I now draw the line at $200-$250 dollars because my personal experience at being quite disappointed with the long term performance of these sorts of jackets suggests to me that spending any more than that is a waste of money (some of my early jackets were more like $300-$400 each). If I walked only on tracks I might be tempted to try a cheap plastic completely waterproof 1 layer jacket just to see how it goes, but unfortunately that would quickly get torn to shreds in the scrub.

farefam wrote:I have done a lot of walking over nearly 3 decades in Tasmania, including a fair amount of scrub bashing. I have gone through at least 3 long cut, 3 layer rain jackets in that time. First one was a Wilderness Equipment goretex jacket from over 25 years ago. It got used for work in really wet west coast conditions, often in scrub. Performance was only ever so so from memory, even when brand new. Current day stuff from them apparently may be better. The second was a goretex jacket from a different Australian manufacturer and the most recent one was a Mont jacket.

In all 3 cases I would descibe the performance of the jackets as being disappointing. They were never really anything better than water resistant at first, and they would wet through in prolonged rain. In the last 2 cases the internal waterproof breathable membrane completely disintegrated over time and the jackets became essentially see through when held up to the light, particularly along the back and shoulders. In the second one which has been in storage for several years now, I just noticed that most of the seam sealing tape has now peeled off, rendering the jacket even more utterly useless in the wet and ready for the bin.

From experience I tend to view these sorts of 3 layer jackets as mainly being very effective at wind protection and quite effective at offering your body some protection from the scrub, but they seem not much use for keeping dry in anything other than short intermittent showers. In heavy rain, forget it, especially after your first few trips. Washing the jackets and then ironing them as per the manufacturer's recommendation never seemed to result in any improvement. On my last trip in Tassie with the now aging Mont jacket, I remember my clothes becoming saturated in heavy rain within just a few minutes. For that reason, in rain I will tend to just take my shirt off and wear a thermal top underneath the rain jacket instead, so that at least I won't wind up being completely chilled.

So I personally would not spend my money buying a really expensive jacket, especially if you intend to go scrub bashing. I now draw the line at $200-$250 dollars because my personal experience at being quite disappointed with the long term performance of these sorts of jackets suggests to me that spending any more than that is a waste of money (some of my early jackets were more like $300-$400 each). If I walked only on tracks I might be tempted to try a cheap plastic completely waterproof 1 layer jacket just to see how it goes, but unfortunately that would quickly get torn to shreds in the scrub.

I couldn't agree more. But keep in mind that a good jacket will do the trick in the long run. Don't be afraid to buy a quality jacket from the outset at full price - your body will thank you for it. My word as a woman lol

I’ve since bought a jacket from XTM, longer length, good peaked hood, pit zips. Happy with it so far and it was under $200. Doesn’t have an internal pocket though.