by slparker » Fri 13 May, 2022 10:38 am
My opinion is that reviews ought to be taken with a grain of salt. This forum is one of the best sources of information on the planet, as well as NZ/british forums.
I say this because the overwhelming quantity of rainwear reviews comes from North America. From what I read, most hikers in the USA (or at leasy most that write reviews) don't encounter heavy, sustained, windblown rain and don't ever walk consistently above the tree line. Nor do they seem to walk in thick scrub or on overgrown tracks but on groomed trails - so lightweight jackets or ponchos seem to be the norm. (I can't imagine what it be like trying to wear a 'gatewood cape' whilst pushing through thick scoparia - but maybe i underestimate them...).
Design
Australian bushwalking is often Alpine areas and often in a maritime climate. Both these geographies have variable, unpredictable weather and so a raincoat that is less likely to leak in and less likely to have a hood that blows off and a 'skirt' that covers the *&%$#!, and will not balloon around your armpits when you are scrambling up a rock gully may be an essential item of safety, not just comfort.
US reviewers prize lightweight emergency garments and often describe not taking a rain jacket because the forecast doesn't require it (!!). I have owned a couple of US garments and they were good as emergency garments but their hoods were poorly adjustable, they blew off easily, they allowed rain to blow in around the hem and were really short in the body (designed more for mountaineering than walking). All US manufacturers (that i have seen) design jackets with the assumption that you have a baseball cap on and they design their hoods accordingly - i.e. without a wired peak and with limited adjustability.
Contrast this to jackets designed in the UK, that has a cold maritime climate, or 'traditional' Australian/NZ jackets. They usually have great hoods with wired peaks and often have other features such as storm flaps over zips and pockets etc. so designed for penetrating windblown rain when you are wearing a beanie. Obviously this style of jacket is not going to be super lightweight. usually in really sustained wet conditions over days you are going to get damp eventually, whatever you wear, but ideally you aren't going to have a trickle of cold water entering your jacket but rather a slow wicking, which is safer to deal with.
Material
The vast majority of manufacturers use 'breathable' membrane technology (GTX etc). The limitations of this technology is that it always wets out and then (in cold climates) condensation from the body condenses on the inside of the jacket and this leads to conduction of heat away from the body raising the risk of hypothermia at worst, and comfort at best. Ventilation of the jacket assists with delaying condensation (so a voluminous cut, stiffer fabric and venting) as well as selecting the best insulating midlayer. A $1000 Arcteryx jacket will wet out in prolonged rain whilst pushing though svcrub as will a $250 jacket made of some proprietary textile.
There is no secret sauce to this - all jackets wet out as the DWR fails if you are in sustained rain and especially in scrub, Except:
1. External membrane jackets: Columbia outdry and GTX shakedry - these jackets dont wet out as the outer layer of the jacket is the membrane - water will always bead off them. Limitations: columbia is rare as hen's teeth, on the heavy side, poor hoods, moderately 'breathable' and variable QC. Shakedry: highly 'breathable', lightweight, allegedly fragile (i don't own one but this is what is reported) in scrub under packstraps etc.
2. Non-breathable textiles: often found in ponchos but also some US manufacturers. can't wet out because they are made of silnylon. Downside is they also do not transfer water vapour through the textile so rely completely on venting to remove water vapour. I have no experience of these jackets in Australian conditions but I am cynical about how they would perform whilst 'battened down' in torrential rain and the quality of the hood. Happy to be proven wrong.
TL;DR Some jackets are less *&%$#! than others but all are better than having no rain layer at all. For bushwalking in SE Australia get a garment that doesn't allow windblown rain to trickle in.