Reviewing Patagonia’s Very First Backcountry Touring Line–Teton Tested

Going for full hip-check status in Patagonia's new touring line of outerwear and gear. Beau Fredlund photo.

For the first time this fall, Patagonia is introducing a touring-specific outerwear line for skiing and snowboarding. Splitting the middle between the more resort-specific PowSlayer 3-layer line and the more climbing/mountaineering-oriented Refugitive 3-layer jacket, Patagonia introduced the men’s-only Reconnaissance jacket and pants, hydrid soft shell/hard shell kits designed more to chase pow deep in the backcountry, and the bisexual KnifeRidge softshell line, which is tailored a little further towards the ski mountaineering crowd.

I spent much more time in the Reconnaissance setup, so, knowing most of our audience is keener on chasing pow that ice-climbing couloirs to ski bulletproof hardpack, I’ll focus most of my review on it.

Beartooth Powder Guide founder Ben Zavora leading the way in the Beartooths. Ryan Dunfee photo.

Patagonia really designed their new backcountry lineup to work as a complete system, with the idea that proper layering is as crucial to a fun and successful day finding pow to slap your face with deep in the woods as are good skins and goggles that don't fog. For a company that stresses minimal consumerism, they were exceptionally generous in providing our lucky group of testers with a buttload of outerwear, layers, and their new backpack, a 40 liter version of the Snowdrifter designed to accommodate all you need for multiday backcountry tours and which was enough to carry all our gear from the parking lot to Beartooth Powder Guide’s hand-built Woody Creek Cabin, whose exhaustive construction BPG owner Ben Zavora described as “a great way to get a divorce.”

Beautiful, isolated, snowmobile-ridden Cooke City. A great place to be the counter culture by focusing on the human powered experience. Ryan Dunfee photo.

Ben is a hilarious guy and his crew runs a great program. If you want to ski awesome terrain in the vast emptiness of the Beartooths at the edge of Yellowstone National Park, I highly suggest rumbling into Cooke City, pausing to notice you’re the only person in town who doesn’t own a snowmobile, and walking out into the woods with those guys.

Given we had to drive through Yellowstone to get there, and that we even skied in it, there was plenty of this going on. Ryan Dunfee photo.

As I mentioned, we were treated to a ton of new clothes, but mostly with the idea that we would try the brand’s extensive layering options and figure out what worked best for us. I tend to run pretty warm on the hill and am not someone who could get away with doing anything active in a down jacket, so keep that as a reference when I tell you that I mostly toured around in an outrageously comfortable Capilene Midweight crew layered with either another very comfortable item, the R1 Hoody, a more weather-deflecting Dual Aspect Hoody if it was blustery out, but, if it was just warm enough and I was headed out for just a few hours, the Capilene base layer under the Reconnaissance jacket, which is ultimately an awesome touring and spring jacket that has the right combination of breathable, stretchy polyester in the body and burlier but still stretchy 3-layer waterproof fabric in the shoulders, hood, and on the arms.

Given we were in Montana, whiskey featured prominently in our gear testing routine. Ryan Dunfee photo.

We undertook a few very fun, often windy and cold, and rewarded-by-whiskey days trotting around the Beartooths skiing fun terrain, or, if you were me, skiing fun terrain until you were fully ready for an easy ski out of the valley and back to the cabin, only to be faced with another 2,000 vertical foot skin, a descent in the freezing shade, and a final flat skin back to the cabin during which I ran out of water, food, and spirit, and arrived to the cabin deep in last place.

®After embarrassing myself on behalf of you all, our beloved audience, for several days in the backcountry, I then joined the group as we left town and were sent back to our respective hovels to noodle around our home zones and contemplate the implications of using a DWR finish or not, taped versus melded fabrics, and wondering who in our audience might actually have the cash necessary to buy this entire system of gear.

Pro skier shredder dude Max Hammer might get every piece of backcountry gear Patagonia makes, but we don't expect you to. Ryan Dunfee photo.

Of course, I absolutely do not expect anyone to buy eight pieces of touring clothing after reading this, but there are certainly a few pieces that will make those who like walking for powder very happy this upcoming winter.

The Reconnaissance Jacket

Going for a casual walk on Teton Pass in the Recon jacket and pant. Jon Grinney photo.

The whole Reconnaissance line came from an athlete trip in which everyone was touring in the PowSlayer 3-layer kits since it was dumping, but were simultaneously sweating their balls off inside them. At that time, the KnifeRidge was the only breathable option for burly days in the mountains, but lacked some of the protection needed for days in which lots of snow is falling from the sky. So, as previously mentioned, the Reconnaissance light shell jacket is made up mostly of highly breathable yet pretty waterproof polyester soft shell, with 3-layer nylon sections on the shoulders, hood, and arms to keep the moisture away.

It’s a fairly long and baggy cut, with hand pockets down low, a pass pocket on the arm, and two longer chest pockets that, while not purposefully built to store your climbing skins, will definitely do so for most people. An inside goggle/hat pocket and smartphone pocket too small to enclose most current iPhones round out the features, along with simple-stupid pull tabs to tighten the hood–very useful if you’re touring in a breeze and want to keep it tight around your head as you walk up in a hat–and by the waist. All the fabric is super stretchy as well, kicking that normally stiff 3-layer feel in exchange for a more articulated, natural feel as you’re touring.

Even while doing this, you could keep the Recon jacket fully zipped and rarely overheat. Ryan Dunfee photo.

What is really rad about the Recon jacket is that the huge amount of breathable fabric in the torso. During most of my mid-winter tours, I had been walking up in a hard shell to keep out the wind and weather, but almost completely unzipped in the pits and down the front to vent out my unrelenting body heat. With the Recon, I could walk up fully zipped (it has no armpit vents) while still being able to vent out a ton of heat out of the torso of the jacket. This was doubly awesome for wearing a pack, as it really cut down on the back sweat, and for spring tours that involved the occasional postholing or scrambling up deep, rotten spring snow, as I could keep dry from the snow while still being able to breath.

Of course, this breathability meant that at the summit, the wind shot right through the jacket. Patagonia’s total solution for this was for you to add their paper-thin but wind-stopping Refugitive 3-layer shell to your quiver for just the summit and the descent, but adding another layer of Patagucci to your kit is probably totally unrealistic for most, and only justifiable for those who spend a lot of time out there in the alpine exposed to high winds. If that’s not you, and you are moving pretty steadily up and down looking for good snow on your tours, the Recon will do you fine.

One big drawback? Both the Reconnaissance jacket and pant are only available for men this season, while the PowSlayer, KnifeRidge, and Refugitive lines in the backcountry touring collection have bisexual options. Plus, who’s selling a smartphone as small as the phone pocket on this jacket?

The Reconnaissance Pant

Walking up another hill looking for snow in the Beartooths in the Recon pant. Ryan Dunfee photo.

While you can get away with strapping your jacket to your pack for the ascent so you can huff and puff on the skintrack while breathing through a lighter layer, the caveat is always that you have to keep your pants on (if you’re not Colter Hinchcliffe). And that’s why I found the Reconnaissance pants, which have a similar hard shell/soft shell hybrid design as the jacket, to be undoubtedly the most unique and worthwhile investment in Patagonia’s touring line. With a fairly slim, articulated fit (finally, practical hipster style in the backcountry!!) and perfectly stretchy, paper-thin patches of double-weave softshell in the crotch and thighs for breathability and 3-layer hardshell to keep out wind and weather in the lower legs, ass, and a few other key zones, the Recon pants were both lighter and more comfortable than any pair of actual pants I own, and found myself moseying around the house for hours after a ski tour still in my ski gear since they were so comfy.

For those used to wearing heavier, thicker shell pants on backcountry missions, the Recon pants are amazing, letting out a ton of heat through the inner legs and through vents that zip down the back of the hamstrings, keeping away snow that might have snuck into pants that feature a crotch zip instead. Part of the easy-moving nature of the pant is achieved by foregoing the normal hand and wallet pockets for just thigh pockets instead, but those hold your phone/keys/skintrack doughnut secure so your luggage isn’t swinging around your knees as you crush Instagram-worthy lines in your favorite zone.

The slim fit was still very, very stretchy and so easy to walk in. Jon Grinney photo.

Two quick caveats that need discussing. The first is the built-in belt which, though very low-profile and clean, had a pretty underwhelming amount of tie-down power, but Patagonia’s designers assured us thus would be made burlier by the time you’re reading this discreetly while thumbing through the Patagonia racks at your local shop. The second is that, with how breathable and thin the pants are, they are freezing when it is truly cold, and there’s not much you can do when you’re waiting around at the top of the ridge for your friend to finish hacking at their frozen bindings while your crotch quickly glaciates.

They will not suffice as your only pair of pants to go skiing or riding in for the season unless you’re living in the Pacific Northwest and barely ever watching the temperature fall below freezing, but are truly awesome as soon as the temps get a little more friendly towards the mid-point of the season.

The Snowdrifter 40 Liter Pack

Patagonia's 40 liter Snowdrifter pack, designed for multiday backcountry missions. Ryan Dunfee photo.

Patagonia also put together line of 20, 30, and 40 liter Snowdrifter packs for their touring line, ranging from storage appropriate for quick day missions to overnights. While none of them are currently avalanche airbag compatible, the emphasis is instead on versatile use and gear storage options. My top-loading 40 liter had both horizontal and diagonal ski carry straps (snowboarders get a single vertical carry option), a dedicated snow tools pocket on the outside, a removable internal frame, removable cap that went over the top of the pack which could either be expanded upwards to carry enough gear for an overnight, left on to utilize the cap’s two zippered pockets for quick grabs like sunscreen or snacks, or taken off entirely for a quick day mission, with a separate strap to either secure the top without the cap or fasten down a rope kit if you’re really getting after it. There was also a side zip for much quicker access to your water and layers.

The pack's top cap has two easy-access zippered compartments for storing snacks, beacon batteries, or sunglasses, and can be removed completely. Ryan Dunfee photo.

Overall, Patagonia made a great pack here that’s just as effectively utilized for backcountry missions in the winter as it is for backpacking in the summer. Once all the straps were ripped down, the weight of the pack stayed close to the body and didn’t budge. The construction is burly, the fabric is durable, and the straps and back are comfortable. The more rigid construction of the pack is excellent for climbing with skis, which stay firmly in place in either the diagonal or vertical ski carries even if you haven’t fully wadded the pack with gear to fill it out.

The dedicated snow tools pocket fits a large bladed shovel snugly, but the top cap buckles need to be undone to access it completely. Ryan Dunfee photo.

While Patagonia did do a good job of giving you a few easy-access options for getting at stuff without disassembling the whole pack, it would be great to have had a side zipper on both sides of the pack, as there were multiple times when I was left kicking myself while looking for a pair of gloves or some other trinket that had swam to some dark corner of the pack after a few hurried outings in and out of the size zip, and which I now had to open the top and pull everything out to find. As well, I found I was doing a lot of unstrapping and strapping and unclipping and clipping while using the pack. The top side ski carry clip cover up the top of the side zip, and I found myself undoing that a lot to get into the side zipper; it’d be great if that clip just started on the inside of the side zipper instead. And the top load cap often needs to be unclipped to gain full access to the snow tools pocket.

And one more minor gripe was that there wasn’t any great way to get rid of the significant amount of spare fabric on the waist strap once it was cinched down. It was often left dangling ungracefully as I wafted down my favorite blue square meadow skipping backcountry runs, detracting from the true art of my skiing in the rare moments it wasn’t made up of complete spazzing in the backseat.

A Few Other Notables

Patagonia hoisted a number of other mid, sub, and sub-mid layers upon us to review, but for the sake of your precious time on our website I will keep it simple. Patagonia’s Capilene baselayers are simply the most comfortable and effective base layers you or I might ever own. I try and wear them to work until someone calls me out for wearing long johns. But seriously, they’re amazingly comfortable and wick away sweat very very well. Never felt dryer in any other fabric, and use them in the summer for mountain biking or hiking or lounging; whatever. They also do not stink from sweat, somehow.

Tyler Cohen of Backcountry Magazine (right) lulls into the aprés ski session outside the Woody Creek Cabin in the R1 Hoody. Ryan Dunfee photo.

The R1 Hoody is similarly very, very comfortable and very warm for how relatively thin it is. The thickish fleece doesn’t breathe amazingly well, but if you’re like me and couldn’t possibly ever wear any amount of down while doing something athletic without suffocating, the R1 is perfect. The balaclava-style hood also zips up over your entire face minus your eyes and mouth, making it a life saver if you get caught waiting around when it’s freezing.

The Dual Aspect Hoody is an interesting one, with a Reconnaissance-style approach to insulation. It’s got robust Polartec Power Shield on the body and outside of the arms to completely block the wind, but very stretchy softshell Polartec Power Dry fabric on the hood, around the waist, and along your obliques and inside of the arms. It had more or less the opposite kind of hard-shell/soft-shell pattern at the Recon, and I found myself using it less as I wanted more protection around my dome from the wind. But I think others will enjoy Patagonia’s novel approach to layering here.

The Bottom Line

The Recon jacket and pant are awesome offerings from Patagonia for your pow-lapping pleasure. Beau Fredlund photo.

If you’ve scrolled all the way down and skipped the other 2,200 I’ve asked you to read as you consider your Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa wishlist, that’s fine. Patagonia rolled out quite a large line in their first dedicated stab at the backcountry touring market, with some really standout products and others that still need some fine tuning. The Reconnaissance pant, which will retail for $349, is probably the most remarkable piece in the whole line, as its combination of comfort, breathability, durability where it counts, and miniscule weight is way beyond any other pant I’ve attempted to walk uphill in the snow in. Let’s hope they step it up for the ladies with their own Recon pant for next year.

Second behind that is the Recon jacket, retailing for $399, which is so great for the fact that you can wear it completely zipped, all day while touring, up and down, over and over, without having to think which of your eight zippers is zipped up or down and by how much every thirty minutes. It’s a jacket that simplifies your touring routine by a significant degree and also makes for an excellent spring shell for inbounds days.

The $199 Snowdrifter 40 liter pack is a great start for the brand, but still needs a few tweaks to make gaining access to your water, layer, and snow tools more seamless. It’s great that it will easily double as your summer pack too, though, and is reasonably priced. I’m sure many would want some airbag compatibility as well, though.

And buy as many Capilene base layers as you can. Just do it, and thank me later.

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About The Author

Check Out Ryan Dunfee on Google+

stash member Ryan Dunfee

Former Managing Editor at Teton Gravity Research, current Senior Contributor, current professional hippy at the Sierra Club, and avid weekend recreationalist.

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