... Hello,
Last weekend I was camping and fishing in the Sierra Nevada, not some thing new, or something I was unprepared for. This is something I have been doing all my life. I was a good trip generally. It rained though. On Monday Morning about 1:00 AM it started and rained hard until about 11:00.
At about 7:30 I got up and started to pack to leave and put on my Marmot rain gear. One, the pants, I have had for several years, and two, the new jacket I bought in Alaska over the solstice.
The pants are the ones with the zipper up each side so you can take them off without removing shoes, and the have velcro attachments on the sides to adjust the waist and hold them together.
There wewe some problems. I find the real test of gear is when you have to use it to do real work. Not casual walks in the park, or a gentle spring shower. Monday morning's camp take down was hard work, hauling all the makings of a camp up a hill to load in to the truck, amidst a serious summer downpour.
Well, Marmot, your $200 rain suit failed miserably on multiple accounts. One the hood on the jacket wouldn't stay adjusted and the visor, really wasn't stiff enough to protect my glasses from the rain or stay out of my line of sight. The velcro on the pants wouldn't stay attached, so the pants were falling down for most of the morning. The pockets of the jacket are very small and really weren't helpful.
Here's the kicker though. After about 3 hours of slog,. we were packed and I went to take them off. I was soaked through and through, and then the zipper on the pants wouldn't operate, so I had to take off my shoes to get them off.
Complete fail.
