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What is the Kryos Jacket?
The Kryos is a fully windproof, highly water-resistant, breathable down jacket designed for adventuring in cold or even inhospitable conditions. It boasts incredible warmth, is super lightweight and is aimed primarily at Alpine and UK winter climbing/mountaineering, where maximum performance is paramount.
What is it made of?
Insulation: The Kryos is packed with an impressive 200g (size 12) of 90-10, 800 fill-power Goose Down. Goose Down is some of the highest quality down on the current market, making this product super high grade and efficient to ensure you get every bang for your buck.
Concerned about animal welfare? No worries, so are we! These fluffy little feathers come from a Down Codex® audited source. Down Codex® stamps indicate that there was no unnecessary harm caused to birds when sourcing 100% of the down insulation and that it came from an ethical, traceable source.
Outer Fabric: Mountain Equipment has equipped the Kryos Jacket with a lightweight, durable, seam-taped Gore-Tex Windstopper® 10D nylon face fabric. Gore Windstopper® uses an EPTFE membrane, just like in Gore-Tex hard-shell jackets, but this version is refined to prioritise total windproofing and maximum breathability rather than cast iron waterproofness.
Areas which may also encounter high amounts of moisture from the inside (hood, cuffs, hem) are lined with the same 10D Gore-Tex Infinium fabric; this stops water from wicking inside the jacket, possibly soaking into the insulation and sapping away heat. Lastly, the material is treated with a durable water repellent coating to reinforce weather resistance.
Inner fabric: A super lightweight and breathable nylon lines the inside of the Kryos, giving it a lovely slippery feel to glide over other layers when you put it on.
What are the features?
The highlight of the Kryos Jacket is the way it's constructed. It uses a unique design, developed by M.E, called the 'Firestorm Construction'. The Firestorm Construction was born out of the demands of high-altitude mountaineers who had stretched existing down jackets to their limits at 7000M climbs. Both real-world and laboratory testing were used to fine-tune and develop the Firestorm Construction. Jackets made with box wall baffles were too big and bulky to climb in, and lighter-weight stitch-through jackets were too light and airy to offer complete protection. Mountain Equipment needed a new way of thinking, and so the Firestorm was born.
In a nutshell, this construction method combines different types of baffles throughout to optimise performance, combined with the latest fabric technology, to create a fully protective, warm, super lightweight, breathable, and easy-to-move-in piece. What more could an Alpinist want?! Areas of the jacket that require the most warmth, including the chest and back, use special pleated baffles made with a standard stitch-through, oval shape and have a pleat added on the top. The pleating method uses very little extra fabric yet allows the down to loft better and provides even more warmth. The sides, arms and hood areas that require greater flexibility, breathability and less warmth use a combination of midi and mini stitch-through baffles, and mini baffles are placed under the arms to reduce pack size and weight as they'll have less exposure to the cold weather.
A separate outer layer then provides additional protection from the elements, trapping air between the baffles to increase the insulative properties of the whole jacket - allegedly by 20%!
You'll find no seams on high-wear areas such as the top of the shoulders/back; this reduces the risk of seam failure or delamination from rucksack straps rubbing. Clever, huh?
A Super Alpine HC hood with an EXL® lining easily fits a helmet underneath. It has a velcro volume reducer to cinch the hood and help keep it in place.
An additional down-filled baffle sits behind your neck to seal out the drafts, kinda like wearing a down-filled scarf!
Elasticated cuffs trap further warmth and fit nicely over gloves or bare wrists, whilst a dual-tether hem drawcord seals in warmth around your waist and can't get stuck on an axe like a traditional 'loop' drawcord.
A two-way YKK® moulded front zip means you can easily fit the jacket over a climbing harness or ventilate if you begin to overheat. The zip also features an insulated interior baffle to help seal out the weather.
For storage, there are two zipped hand pockets, two zipped chest pockets and two large inner dump pockets, ideal for large mitts, gloves, a GPS, and even water bottles!
You'll find the stuff sack in one of the hand pockets, making it easy to pack down and put into a kit bag or backpack for travelling to and from basecamp.
Last but not least, the Kryos is designed to fit over all your other layers, so expect it to be a little looser than your traditional down jacket. Despite this, it's got plenty of drawcords to allow you to cinch in excess volume.
Features:
- Firestorm construction
- 800 fill power Goose down
- Gore-Tex Windstopper® membrane
- Super Alpine HC hood
- Two-way main zip
- Two hand pockets
- Two chest pockets
- Two inner dump pockets
- Elasticated cuffs
- Dual-tether hem drawcord
- Hybrid baffling