Rab Photon X Jacket

Back in the late nineties Mark Twights forward thinking volume ‘Extreme Alpinism’ hit the shelves. Among his many ideas was the concept of over layering for extra warmth. Prior to this innovative idea the general plan for adding a layer was to remove your gloves, loosen your harness, remove your shell, put on your extra warm layer, shell back on etc, a real faff.
Twights' simple idea was to layer a synthetic insulated jacket over your shell when you needed to boost the warmth of your clothing system. Unlike down, synthetic insulation retains a lot of its thermal properties when wet meaning it doesn’t need protecting from the elements. Fast forward to the current day and the concept of a belay jacket has spread across the worlds mountains and in particular to the demanding world of Scottish winter climbing.
Rab® were one of the first brands to produce a dedicated belay jacket and my original is still going strong after years of abuse. It has a lot of ‘character’ now but fundamentally it still does an amazing job of keeping me warm when the environment is determined to make me wet, cold and miserable.
There are two fields of thought in belay jacket design. One is to go as lightweight as possible with minimal features. It’s all about lightweight maximal warmth for belaying or emergency situations.
​

The second option is to build a robust technical jacket with plenty of features. This gives the user more survivability and also allows the garment to be used for climbing when conditions are really bad. The latest incarnation from Rab falls into the latter category. The Photon X Jacket is a great looking technical jacket packed full of features - multiple big pockets, reinforced patches, reflective detail, stiffened hood visor and plenty of warmth.
In the last 6 months I’ve worn it to the summit of Antarctica’s Mount Vinson, photographing Emperor penguins on the Weddell Sea, running film safety on a Lake District hillside and on a diverse range of Scottish winter mountain days. Early season conditions in Scotland have been challenging and perfect for hypothermia with the freezing level up around the summits. It’s a bit of a standing joke that the community of mountaineering instructors who work the Scottish winter season measure how bad the weather has been by the number of pairs of gloves they get through in a day. Needless to say there have been a number of 6 glove days in 2017. However, I’ve been very comfortable in the depths of my Photon X. In the worst of conditions it’s great to be able to sink down into the insulated collar and try to hide. The hood goes up and stays up with minimal adjustment and the pockets will swallow a whole picnic of supplies.

The level of insulation is just about perfect for Scottish winter climbing. I’ve warmed up quickly whenever I’ve over layered with it, but interestingly I’ve never felt like overheating when navigating off in a hoolie. It even dries overnight in my unheated campervan so it’s ready to go in the morning, even if I’m not!
Overall a very impressive piece of kit for Scotland and further afield. Bad weather is very much part of the mountaineering game but this is a very useful tool in successfully operating in it.