Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket

Initial Impressions

The Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket is a warm, functional resort ski jacket that packs in a ton of features.

Detailed Review

Technical Details

The Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket is a slightly insulated ski jacket that’s a well designed and comfortable top layer for resort skiing.  The shell is a 100% recycled waterproof, breathable 2-layer GORE-TEX® ePE fabric free from unwanted fluorinated chemicals.  The insulation is mapped for your body, with 80 g density in the body of the coat and 60 g in the sleeves and hood.

There are a TON of pockets in the Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket: 2 at the lower front, 2 at the waist, one on the sleeve, one on the outer chest, and one on the inner chest.  The two lower front pockets have a zipper closure and a flap, ensuring that everything stays where it should.  The right pocket also has a clip for you to secure your keys.  These pockets are great for stashing snacks – they’re positioned just right where things don’t get smashed on the chairlift. The side pockets at the waist also zip up.  I found these pockets to be a bit too high to be a natural resting place for my hands while hanging out.  They’re a good size and provide another option for stashing smaller items.  The front chest pocket is perfect for phones, giving easy access even with gloves.  The pass pocket on the sleeve does as advertised, as does the internal chest zipper pocket.

The Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket offers some really nice features.  The powder skirt snaps at the front (common for most ski jackets) but also has a loop in the back that connects Mountain Hardware branded bottom outerwear. This ensures that snow stays on the outside, keeping your inside layers warm and dry.

The sleeves have hook-and-loop adjustable cuffs and internal stretch cuffs with thumb loops.  I found the length of the sleeves to be perfect and I could tighten them down enough so they fit underneath my gloves.

The main zipper is a two-way zipper, which means you can unzip the jacket from the top or the bottom.  I imagine being able to unzip from the bottom is handy if you’re crouched down often – or for bathroom breaks where you don’t want to fully unzip the jacket.  I found the bottom unzip feature a bit fidgety and that the liner fabric easily caught in the zipper.  Otherwise, the zipper opens and closes easily and securely.

Finally, the jacket includes an integrated RECCO® reflector for searchability in emergency situations.  The device is located in the brim of the hood and is small and almost imperceptible.

Testing conditions:

• A cold, snowy, windy single-digit day with sub-zero windchill
• A sunny day with single-digits in the morning, warming to 15-20 degrees in the afternoon
• All kinds of resort terrain, ranging from groomers to bumps, trees, and powder

Fit and Function

I’m 5’4″ and weigh 140 lbs.  I found the women’s medium to be true to size.  The Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket offers a roomier fit, so if you don’t like a looser fit, you may want to size down.  The jacket is a bit on the long side, hitting me at the top of my inseam.  And if you have anything in the side pockets at the waist, you might look a little lumpy.  This jacket goes more on function over style.  I personally like the roomier fit, so I have more room for layers, and I appreciated all of the pocket offerings. I also freaking LOVE the color – Lilac Glow.

I wore several base layers on each of my testing days, mostly due to how cold it was outside.  I had on 2 wool base layers and a Polartec® fleece mid-layer beneath my jacket. On the super cold and windy day, my internal temperature was perfect.  Absolutely zero wind came through the Cloud Bank Jacket but I also never felt sweaty.  On my warmer testing day, I wore the same combination of layers. My temperature was perfect in the morning, but I did get a bit warm in the afternoon when it warmed up.  I unzipped the underarm zippers to open up the vent mesh and found a perfect blend of ventilation to keep me comfortable skiing down and riding the lift up.

I found the Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket to be very comfortable during my days of testing.  The jacket moved with me as I skied a variety of terrain.  I never once felt constricted or limited in my movements.

Closing Thoughts

I really liked the Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket.  It breathed well, had a lot of really nice features, and I like the relaxed fit.  My only nitpick is that the jacket is a bit bulky in appearance, mostly because of the pockets that hit right at the waistline. I love the color.  The main – and most important- thing though, is how it performed.  I was pretty nervous taking a new jacket out for gear testing on a terrible weather day.  I was very happy to discover that this jacket performs incredibly well on cold, windy, snowy days.  For me, ski outwear is about performance, and the Mountain Hardware Cloud Bank Jacket performed very well.

Erin Trail

Erin Trail’s hobby is collecting hobbies. She’s a 5th Generation Coloradan and grew up exploring the outdoors on family camping trips and hikes.  Her first backpacking trip was at eight years old to Grizzly Reservoir – she proudly carried all of her own gear those 3 miles from the main parking lot to the Reservoir.

Erin is an adult-onset athlete who started as a Masters Swimmer and then developed into a triathlete.  She completed 5 Ironman races and nearly 20 x 70.3 distance Ironman races, including the World Championship in Lahti, Finland, in 2023.  Somewhere along her triathlon journey, she picked up a deep love of cycling.

Cycling encouraged her to see landscapes in a new way, learn new skills and to develop self reliance; now she often goes and does Type 2 rides just to see if she can do it.  She’s got all the bikes: gravel, mountain, fat bike, time trial and road.

She is even known to combine her love of camping and cycling and go off on solo 24 hour overnight bikepacking trips in the mountains of Colorado. In addition to bikes, she teaches yoga, lifts weights, skis, SUPs and has recently purchased a campervan.

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).

2025 brings some exciting things.  Erin has qualified to be on Team USA for USA Triathlon and will be competing in a World Championship off-road triathlon in Pontevedra, Spain in June. To prepare for this event, she’s got several mountain bike races and training weekends planned in the months leading up to the big day.  Additionally, she’s racing Ironman Boise 70.3 in July.  Once her race schedule closes out in July, she’ll be moving to more adventure based activities (bikepacking, vanlife, and mountain bike festivals).

When not adventuring, she can be found on a sunny patio somewhere, drinking beers with her husband.