Jacket: Berghaus Blast Jacket
16th Nov 2006
The Berghaus Blast Jacket is a no frills basic down jacket at a basic price. It comes in the standard black or blue colours. It is zipped which means you have two hand warming pockets rather than a single one common to smocks. These two pockets are zipped and fleece lined making them comfortable, but liable to snagging with well worn skin! It also features two chest pockets, one external, one internal, both zipped. Strangely they are both on the left breast meaning that things can feel a little off balance if you load them up with wallets, phones and keys. None of the pockets have big enough openings to get a guidebook or map inside which is a shame. It doesn’t have a hood, but does have a comfortable fleece line collar. It's filled with 600 fill goose down which means it's pretty comfortably warm. At 740g it is a medium weight and warmth down jacket. The Velcro cuff fasteners work as you would expect, but highlight my biggest complaint: the sleeves are way too short. When I outstretch my arms in front of me the sleeves ride back to mid way between my wrists and elbows. This is disappointing considering the jacket is a large and fits me well otherwise. It has a small Berghaus logo on the left breast, but is otherwise plain black. At £100 it's well priced and perfectly functional, but this is not a jacket to excite people, and should be avoided by those with long arms!
Reviewed by Matt Heason on behalf of planetFear