The North Face Shaffle Jacket – first look

I’ve just come back from a week’s family camping, over at Harvest Moon, which I’ve mentioned before on here somewhere. It’s a great place, a small site right on the beach, with very roomy safari tents. Picture the scene: dawn and the camp slowly comes to life.  Fires are lit and people are stirring slowly, frost patterns draw elaborate shapes on the grass. A bright orange orb appears on the horizon, spreading warmth and joy to all that behold it.

It’s not the sun, it’s me in this jacket. Yes my friends, this big bundle of orange awesomeness is The North Face’s Shaffle Jacket.

This little number is a Himalayan grade down jacket. Overkill I hear you cry. Really? I remember a night spent on Morrone many years ago, mainly because I’d been following the plough along Deeside and it turned round there and that was the closest I could get to the Cairngorms at the time, due to several feet of snow. My thermometer read -23 C outside the tent and there was a 25mph wind to go with it. That was a long night, which introduced me to the real definition of the Extreme temp rating for a sleeping bag. Me and hypothermia became close friends that night, so I can safely say that on occasion a Himalayan grade piece of kit could come in very handy. This was designed in conjunction with some serious geezers to prepare for their return to the Shark’s Fin on Meru, which is an epic route by anyone’s standard. If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out their presentation. Conrad Anker has always had legendary status in my mind, so it’s inspiring stuff.

The Shaffle sports a Pertex Endurance outer with 200g of 700 fill-power Hungarian goose down packed into it. That’s basically a coat-shaped sleeping bag. The down is contained in a cunning baffle design that is shaped to keep down in the right place over key heat-loss zones.

There is articulation in the elbow to allow movement while reducing compression of the down, along with a large baffle behind the main zip for insulation.

There are two massive pockets that are above harness height and inside there is a mesh pocket on each side that will take a big water bottle to keep them from freezing. The hood is helmet friendly and very well insulated. It fits well over the face, but doesn’t have a cinch to adjust.

So how does it work in practice? Well for a start, it’s not just warm, it’s WARM. I had it on at around -3C with a base layer on and it was too hot. This bodes very well for winter summit camps this year. I’d love to say that I had given it a thorough test, but after the first night Kirsty took it off me and wore it almost permanently in the tent. She said I could only get it back if I could prise  it out of her cold  toasty warm dead hands. Now we’re back home I might have some chance of getting it out to play.

Some enthusiasts give The North Face grief for being a high street brand, which they are to some degree but it’s important to remember that the Summit Series is proper techy gear and it shouldn’t be overlooked. This jacket is a cracker and I’m desperate to give it a proper trial on a snowy winter summit camp. If the weather gods could just get that sorted, I’d be very grateful.

Every day I’m shafflin’