What is the Baltoro Jacket?
The Baltoro is a warm, packable, innovative down jacket featuring Mountain Equipment's new dual-layer offset baffle construction and heat-reflective fabrics. It's an ideal jacket for virtually any cold-weather mountain activity, from scrambling to trekking.
What is it made of?
Insulation: The stuff that’s keeping you warm inside this lovely jacket is M.E’s high-quality Pure Down with a 700 fill-power. What makes Mountain Equipment's down so special is their Down Codex programme. The waterfowl (geese and ducks) are all by-products of the food and meat industry, every supplier wishing to work with Mountain Equipment must accept the terms of their Down Codex and allow a full audit of all parts of the supply chain - that means everything from farm to factory. On top of all of that, you can even trace your down on their website right back to the source using a unique 12-digit code printed on the label inside every Mountain Equipment down product. In fact, Mountain Equipment are so proud of how ethical their down is, they’ve sewn a label to the inside telling you all about it, and there’s even a leaflet in the pocket with the full story.
As impressive as the insulation is, it's the way Mountain Equipment distribute the down that's the clever part. A normal down jacket will feature a singular layer of baffles connected together with stitching — this is simple, lightweight and easy to manufacture, but it allows heat to escape through all those stitch points. Mountain Equipment have combated this by using two layers of baffles throughout the jacket, a bit like double-glazed glass. This means they're able to place the second layer of baffles over the stitch points of the first layer, meaning less heat is lost through stitch points.
Fabrics: Surrounding all this down is a lightweight, weather-resistant Drilite Loft 20D fabric. This fabric is completely windproof and surprisingly water-resistant, protecting both you and the insulation from the elements. Please note, this does not make the jacket waterproof. It still has lots of stitching that'll eventually allow water through. As if all that wasn't enough, M.E have used a heat-reflecting inner fabric to provide additional warmth with virtually no weight penalty. Clever stuff all around!
What are its features?
Starting at the top, you have a helmet-compatible hood for all your mountain adventures, yet it features plenty of adjustment to seal it around your head when not wearing a lid. A two-way front zip allows you to easily fit the jacket over a climbing harness or ventilate when cooking up a sweat. Storage-wise, the Baltoro has two zipped hand pockets (one of which doubles as a stuffsack), a zipped chest pocket, an internal security pocket and a large internal mesh pocket; plenty of space for all your paraphernalia. Lastly, you've got some nice elasticated cuffs and dual-tether hem drawcords to seal in valuable warmth.
Where does it fit in the layering system?
The Baltoro can either be used as an outer layer in less-hostile weather conditions or as a midlayer when you need some additional protection from a shell jacket.
- Drilite Loft 20D outer fabric
- Heat-reflective inner fabric
- 700 fill-power down insulation
- Helmet-compatible hood
- Double-layer baffle construction
- Inner zipped security pocket
- Two hand pockets
- One chest pocket
- Hand pocket doubles as stuffsack
- Adjustable cuffs
- Dual-tether hem drawcords
- Two-way main zip