Cuillin Ventile Jacket Tested
Posted by John Swaffield on 29th Dec 2016
Now that winter has arrived here in the US, I’m getting to use my Cuillin jacket as it was intended. Unfortunately I have not been on any “adventures”, but we have just had our first cold snap here in Indianapolis and I have managed to get out for a couple of walks. The first was at a local lake. Most of the lake is shallow and well frozen, but one part is an old gravel quarry and so 50-60 feet deep. This was still mainly ice free and the cold wind blowing over it was raising some frost smoke. Despite the sun the temperature was about -15C with a stiff breeze so wind chills of around -25 to -30 C. The jacket was superb. With a wool base layer, light fleece and down sweater, my body was warm – my extremities on the other hand! Trying to take pictures was painful and my hands took ages to warm up.
As Christmas gets closer my two boys are back for the holiday so we went for a walk in the woods. Not as cold (-10 to -5 C) and with no wind meant I did not need the down sweater. The jacket again was excellent (paired here with Fjallraven trousers, Zamberlan boots, Filson shoulder bag, Alpaca woolly hat and Optimus cook set for the all important hot chocolate).
Here are a couple of pictures and a video of the frost smoke.
John Swaffield
