Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket
Review by Erin Trail
The Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket is an ultralight windproof jacket that works.
Details
- 100% Polyamide fabric
- Weight: 3.5 oz (women’s size 12 jacket)
- One zippered pocket that doubles as a stuff sack
- Elastic cuffs, hem, and hood
- Wind resistance rating of 1.2 cubic feet per minute (1 = windproof, 20 = somewhat windproof)
- Water resistant
Fit and Function
Berghaus is a UK-based company and utilizes customary UK sizing for their garments. Their size guide is very helpful in navigating sizing of their garments. I am a UK women’s size 12 and found that the Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket fit true to size. The fit of the wind jacket is an athletic cut, so if you want room for layers or a looser fit, size up.
The Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket is very lightweight and super packable. This jacket falls into an ultralightweight category, with a weight around 3.5 ounces. This jacket offers excellent wind resistance, which I was able to test numerous times in the Colorado Rockies on a few camping trips. The jacket is also lightly water repellant, but sadly, we haven’t had much rain in the past month, so I haven’t been able to test out that functionality.
The Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket’s polyamide fabric is fairly light and see through, something common with ultralight wind jackets, especially in lighter colorways. The texture of the fabric is very interesting – it resembles an orange peel. I don’t know this for a fact, but based on my knowledge of cycling aerodynamics, I feel like this bumpy texture makes it easier for wind to move around the fabric instead of through the fabric.
The bottom hem is a good length, fully covering my booty. The elastic hemline helps to keep the bottom hem in place. Similarly, the arm length is great, hitting me at the wrist. The elastic cuffs are tight, but not so tight that it’s a struggle to sneak a peak at my watch.
The SCUBA hood is also well shaped. There isn’t a way to customize the fit, but the hood opening is elastic and there’s elastic built into the back of the hood. Both of these items provided a secure, but comfortable fit that didn’t budge as I moved around.
The pockets of the Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket are minimal, as is common with ultralight wind jackets. There is a pocket that almost is usable as a hand pocket, except for me, it’s a bit small, and placed a bit too high to be comfortable. The pocket is big enough – but just barely – to hold a phone with a case. The pocket also can turn inside-out, turning into a zip-close stuff sack. The jacket is small enough to easily fit inside a cycling jersey rear pocket or into a hydration backpack or mountain bike hip pack. The weight and the packability make this jacket a no-brainer option to take along on nearly any outdoor activity.
The one area of improvement I could suggest is the main zipper of the jacket. The bottom stop is pretty small, and in my experience, it’s easy to mis-align the zipper slider into the bottom stop. I’ve managed to zip up the jacket without the bottom stop being fully engaged, which means the bottom part of the zipper is split open and takes delicate force to fully unzip and re-align. I have this zipper complaint with many of the other ultralight wind jackets I’ve tested, so this isn’t new or unique. Usually, when I’m zipping a wind jacket up, the jacket is flapping around and my brain is venturing on “get this jacket on NOW” territory. I don’t always have the mental bandwidth to remember that I need to take my time and be very deliberate in how I start the zipper in these situations. I would gladly take a weight hit to have a more substantial zipper for more reliable functionality.
The windproofing of the Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket is excellent. I brought the jacket with me on an overnight bikepacking trip, where we ended up in red flag warning high winds. I also took the jacket with me on a van camping trip, which included a hike up to the top of a 12,000 ft mountain. In both of these trips, the wind proofing and resulting warmth was very welcome. The wind proofing was especially nice on my hike, as my shirt was a bit sweaty from wearing a hydration pack as I hiked. We stopped at the top for a scenic lunch. We were near treeline and the winds were whipping, making me a little chilly. I put the Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket on over my hiking shirt and I was plenty warm enough to enjoy a leisurely lunch. Once lunch was done, I put my running hydration pack over the wind jacket and we headed back down the mountain.
The Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket nicely layered over other shirts, providing a bit of warmth via wind proofing. It also layered well beneath hydration packs, with no awkward bunching or movement restrictions.
Closing Thoughts
The Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket is an ultralight wind jacket that is easy to pack while delivering on wind proof performance.
The Berghaus Pendower Wind Jacket is available for both men and women. Men’s options are in three colorways (Jet Black, Solar Flare, and Farne Blue) and in sizes ranging from XS to 3XL. Women’s options are also in three colorways (Stratus, Light Electro, and Hale Navy) in sizes ranging from 8 to 20.
Erin Trail
Trail Boss of Stoke
Erin is a former Montana park ranger with a degree in environmental engineering. She loves getting into technical details while putting her gear (and herself) through the paces. She shares her home in Colorado with her husband, Will, and her 3 cats (Zipper, Brewtus, and Simcoe).
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