At GearLimits we are very familiar with the British outdoor brand Berghaus. We have already been able to review many of their products and we have also had the pleasure of doing some nice projects with them, in which through funding from Berghaus we have been able to do some amazing stuff and make great films.  We fully understand that some people may think that our opinion is colored, but we can sincerely say that Berghaus has always asked us not to make concessions on an honest and as objective as possible look at products. Which is one of our basic principles seeing as our own credibility depends entirely on it. The cool thing about our relationship with the brand is that Berghaus has always left us completely free to form our own opinions about the products we are reviewing and make our content the way we think it should be made. They obviously have great confidence in their own products and in I am happy to say, also in our capacity to look at those products with an open, honest and critical mind. So we have the best of both worlds (business wise and editorial) actually: Berghaus helps us do the work we love to do, and we can view their products in the same way as in all other reviews. So that as an introduction to our review of the Berghaus Aonach Down jacket. When Berghaus told us about this jacket and about the TinDown sheets used as insulation, we were very enthusiastic. Because it is very innovative and we always get excited with things get innovative.

The promised advantages of ThinDown

The sweet spot of outdoor gear is that you are always exactly warm, and by extension, cool enough. It’s a never-ending search for garments that will maximize the quality of the microclimate of your body and can adapt to different circumstances and levels of intensity. A garment, therefore, needs to be warm and breathable and combines those as good as possible. Now natural down is still the best at providing warmth and insulation, but it is not at all that good at breathability. All those little feathers hold on to warm air like no other.  So how do you make a down garment breathe? By actually compressing down into fairly thin panels. This so-called ThinDown material (Italian made) comes from the fashion industry and produces a thinner and therefore more breathable material. In combination with the highly breathable outer fabric, it promises to enable a better “Air Flow” around and away from your body. ThinDown also says that the material provides up to 170% more heat than traditional down. There is no necessity of stuffing the feathers in stitched through baffles, which has well-known weight and insulation consistency challenges. In addition, the down in the panels stays much better than with regular use. You can also wash ThinDown well. Also quite an advantage.

Circumstances

This down mid-layer jacket is, therefore “world first” and we got the opportunity to test it in the beautiful Stubaital where you can just do some many different activities, it’s wonderful. We had 2.5 days, the first day we did a snowshoe and winter hike, which started at the middle station of the Stubaier Glacier, and led to a cold and quite windy Egesengipfel summit (around -5 degrees Celsius). The second day we had a technical hike to the Burgstall which led over a southern slope with particularly nice and warm weather (around 10-15 degrees Celsius). The last morning we spent a few hours on the snowboard on the Stubaier Glacier. Temperatures around freezing. We were with a group of six people, Jimmy, Hayco and myself from GearLimits, Rik and Floor, two of our Facebook followers who won our online contest to join us, and Angela, our contact from Berghaus who was eager to see how the Aonach would fare during our field test.

The Review

So we did some fairly high-intensity activities in warmer and cold weather with strong winds and high wind chill factor. So how did the Aonach perform?

Warmth and Insulation

f anything the Aonach is warm, in a very pleasant way. I myself wore the Aonach on the day of the winter hike from the beginning to the end of the day, without any outer shell. During the snowshoe hiking as well as the technical hiking ascent to the top that day. I wore it on the top with really strong winds blowing and a lot of wind chill because of it, and during the long descent, the wind still battering us with very irregular deep snow which made for difficult and intensive descent. I never, during all these moments felt too hot or too cold. Which is in itself quite an achievement. As for the rest of the group: Hayco also wore only the Aonach, Rik as well after the first 30 minutes with a shell jacket. Floor, Angela, and Jimmy switched between wearing the Aonach solo or with a shell jacket over it, depending on the conditions.