Patagonia Storm 10 Rain Jacket: a minimalist rain jacket that punches way above its weight class.
Patagonia Storm 10 Rain Jacket: a minimalist rain jacket that punches way above its weight class.
Drew Thayer
I’ve owned, borrowed, and tested a lot of raincoats over the years, and there always seemed to be a tradeoff between lightweight and waterproofness at about 10 ounces. Jackets above this weight tend to be 3-layer construction and offer bomber protection in rainstorms, but are heavy to carry and usually too bulky to fit well in a climbing or mountain biking pack. Lighter jackets, often built with a single laminate AKA “1-layer”, roll up small and fit well tethered to a harness, but are more of a “dry enough” solution.
Ripping skins atop the Dead Elk couloir in Tyndall Gorge, Colorado. The Storm 10 jacket is a great wind and rain layer to bring spring skiing. The fit over a helmet is excellent and doesn’t impede the range of motion of your head, allowing you to rapidly scan up and down slope without the fabric getting in your field of view — an important thing to be able to do in the backcountry.
I remember a memorable trip in the Bugaboos when I carried an 8 oz laminate raincoat on climbs. When we got hammered by rain on the side of Snow Patch Spire the jacket slowed the rain down, but it really just pushed the chilling effect of getting caught in a thunderstorm off by enough time to let us rappel off before I started shivering.
Patagonia Men’s Storm10 Alpine Jacket
Patagonia Storm 10 Rain Jacket review
Light, waterproof, and breathable
I’m really fired up about the Patagonia Storm 10 rain jacket because it’s a truly minimalist jacket, 8.3 oz in size medium, but robustly waterproof. I wore it during rain and snowstorms all through the spring and always remained dry. Patagonia’s H2NO 3-layer membrane construction seems to strike a good balance between waterproofness and breathability. I wore this jacket quite a few times while hiking in the rain to get my proto-toddler son his morning nap in the baby backpack. Hiking uphill with him on my back is pretty physical, but I didn’t feel too clammy or sweaty in this jacket.
The hood on this jacket is optimized to fit over a helmet. While it does adjust, it’s a little bit floppy over a bare head.
Rain in Colorado is not as severe as places like the Pacific, but I did get caught in a thunderstorm downpour last month while biking my kid back from daycare and was pretty impressed (don’t worry, his bike trailer is very waterproof). We were in a proper cats and dogs downpour, and I didn’t get any water seeping through the fabric. I got some drips through the neck, and water seeped up my wrists (really hard to prevent this while biking), but otherwise the jacket offered the waterproof protection I’d expect from a 14 ounce 3-layer Gore-Tex coat. Not bad for 8 oz!
Minimal features support climbing and outdoor pursuits
This jacket is really basic, which keeps the weight down, with some key features that are tailored to alpine climbing, like a helmet-compatible hood, a chest pocket that’s accessible while wearing a harness, and functionality to stuff into its own pocket. It takes up less room on the back of my harness than a pair of sandals. The cut is also a little long, which helps it stay tucked into a harness and cover your rear pant line on a bike.
I am a HUGE fan of adjustable wrist cuffs, and really glad to see them on this coat. Some companies will eschew velcro on the wrist cuffs to shave a few grams, but I just don’t think it’s worth it. In sports like climbing and cycling, when your hands have to be driving up or forward into the direction of rain, you just can’t have a floppy opening at the wrist — whatever weight is saved by eliminating the adjustable cuff is just not worth it in my opinion.
The most notable feature lacking on this jacket is pit zips, which are arguably the most effective way to dump heat while wearing a jacket during aerobic activity in the rain. Perhaps pit zips would push this jacket out of the 8 oz category; regardless, they would make this more of an all-around mountain piece and less of a minimalist piece.
My take on this, with respect to climbing, is that this jacket excels for wearing in technical terrain — in rain, snow, or to bring as thunderstorm insurance — but wouldn’t be the best choice for long uphill approaches in rain, as can be encountered in the Cascades. Most people would want pit zips for that.
Product testing during “morning nap” on a rainy morning in Vermont. The Storm 10 jacket kept me totally dry in rain and sleet
Light and simple, this jacket is a good choice for casual use, but some people using this primarily for hiking or town use might find the hood to be too large. It does adjust, but I found it hard to get it to fit snugly around a bare head. It fits just great over a billed cap.
For a good comparison point, a similar minimalist, climbing-oriented jacket is Black Diamond’s 8 ounce Fineline Stretch jacket, reviewed here: https://engearment.com/clothing/black-diamond-fineline-stretch-rain-shell/. The Storm 10 jacket is a bit more waterproof than the FineLine, stuffs into a longer shape that hangs better on a harness, and includes closable wrist cuffs and 2 extra pockets (which probably accounts for the 0.3 oz difference). It also costs twice as much… caveat emptor.
Bottom Line
This is a fantastic rain jacket, a rare piece in the 8 oz weight range that can keep you dry in a storm. It is also expensive, and I’d consider it a high-performance piece. Optimized for rock climbing and moving around in the mountains, it’s also a good choice for hiking and any light and fast outdoor pursuit (bikepacking, etc). If you live in an arid state like Colorado, this is really the only rain jacket you need to own.
Check out another Engearment review on the Patagonia Storm 10 Jacket :