Which puffer jacket for which job
Belay jackets are an essential piece of kit for any environment that isn’t Paynes Ford in the middle of summer. Pretty much everyone has figured out that a really efficient way to dress is to wear enough base and mid-layers to keep you just warm enough while moving. Then when you stop, feel sad, or realise that actually your crush definitely was asking you to come over, you can throw a big fat duvet of insulation on over the top of the whole lot and feel a little bit better about yourself. In fact, screw it, choosing the right belay jacket is a lot like dating. Choose the wrong one, and they’ll stand you up and leave you shivering the night away alone. Choose the right one and your future will be warm and fuzzy (plus the jacket can’t leave you).
The Pulsar Plus is a classic synthetic belay jacket, in the style popularised by Mark Twight in Extreme Alpinism. The idea of this design is to compensate for the worse weight:warmth ratio of synthetic insulation by using very lightweight, non-waterproof fabrics such as pertex. The fabrics basically function as the lightest possible packaging for the insulation. If the insulation does get wet, as it often does, we don’t care because its synthetic and it doesn’t collapse like down does. It is sized to go over everything else you wear as your “action suit”, and is intended to be a really reliable fortress of warmth.
The Pulsar Plus is a really good take on this idea: the pertex fabrics are really light and packable, and the only features on it are extremely practical: two big internal dump pockets for gloves, a chest pocket for snacks, and hand warmer pockets. It does also stuff into another internal chest pocket, but I always just stuff it into the top of my pack so that I can put it straight on the moment I stop moving. The cut is also just really good for actually climbing in, with minimal hem lift and a good hood. To top it all off its a really reasonable weight, at 600ish grams for my mens medium.
Primary use cases:
Snow/alpine day trips with wet snow precip, lots of blowing snow
Multi-day snow trips where you’ll deal with wet condensation, lots of blowing snow
Multi-day sub alpine trips year-round where the weather sucks
Big juicy featherbag. Probably my favourite piece of clothing ever.
Non-waterproof, lightweight fabrics
Double big mesh pockets
Big hood
Sizing fits over layers
Hand pockets, internal chest pocket
The Arrowsmith is the down insulated equivalent of the Pulsar Plus. Basically, you trade moisture tolerance for more warmth. It has box baffles on the body (allows the down to loft better and removes cold spots) and, like the pulsar plus, has really light fabrics which mean that this is pretty much the warmest jacket for its weight that you can buy. It’s down does actually resist water pretty well, but will take a lot longer to dry after getting totally saturated compared to synthetic. Thankfully, the feature set is basically the same as the pulsar, just minus the external chest pocket. This by far my favourite jacket for any weather that isn’t diabolical and it turns you into a huggable marshmellow. Whats not to love???
Use cases:
Multi-day alpine trips in dry cold (-5 and below) or good weather
Alpine day trips in any weather where you can keep it reasonably dry (not sleeting)
Belaying at the crag
Cuddling the homies
Everyday living in a student flat
The regular Pulsar is a bit of an in-between piece that moderates the all-out insulation focus of the two previous jackets to create something that’s a bit more practical for moving around in. It’s insulation is half the weight of the Pulsar Plus, it lacks a double ended zip, and cuts out one of the mesh dump pockets. It works well as a summer weight static layer (think Fiordland multipitches), and as a beefy winter midlayer that you can use to boost warmth without cooking yourself while moving (my mates who run cold tend to use it for this a lot). You do of course save weight compared to a full weight belay jacket, with the Pulsar weighing around 100g less than the Plus.
Use cases:
Multipitch summer rock climbing
Warm weather static layer
Warm midlayer for winter activities
This article isn’t an ad for the gear in it, we just genuinely like and use this stuff as shown by the photos taken on climbs right across the world. We wouldn't wear these jackets in these places if we didn't trust them to do their job. But, dear reader, if you do decide to purchase some of this kit we’d really appreciate if you used the affiliate links present in this article.
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