Testing Waterproof Jackets for British Hill Weather

Why the Dales Punish a Good Jacket

There is a particular kind of rain in the Yorkshire Dales. It doesn't fall so much as travel sideways, driven by a south-westerly that has crossed the Irish Sea with nothing to slow it down. Stand on the summit of Ingleborough in it and you'll feel the sting on your cheek, watch the cloud pour over the limestone like steam off a kettle, and realise within ten minutes whether your jacket was a sensible purchase or an expensive mistake.

What makes British hill weather such a searching test is the combination. It is rarely just cold, and rarely just wet. It is wet, windy and mildly warm all at once, which means you're generating heat on the climb while rain hammers the outside and condensation tries to build on the inside. A jacket that copes with a shower in a town centre car park will quietly give up on the flanks of Pen-y-ghent. What follows is what I look for after too many seasons of learning the hard way.

Taped Seams Are Not a Nice Extra

A waterproof fabric is only the beginning. Water finds its way in through the holes that stitches make, and every seam on a decent hill jacket should be covered with a welded tape strip on the inside. Run your fingers along the shoulder seams and the seam across the back of the neck. If you can feel stitching rather than a smooth bonded strip, walk away from it.

The other numbers worth understanding are the hydrostatic head and the breathability rating. For British hills, look for a minimum of about 20,000mm on the head — that's the pressure a column of water needs before it pushes through the fabric. Anything around 10,000mm is a walking-in-the-park jacket, not a Great Shunner Fell jacket. Breathability is usually quoted in grams of moisture per square metre over 24 hours; 15,000g or more is a sensible target if you run warm.

Hoods, Cuffs and the Wind Problem

Most heat is lost and most rain gets in around the head and wrists, so the details there matter more than the fabric's marketing claims.

• A wired or stiffened peak so the hood brim stays out of your eyes when the wind is pushing it flat against your face.
• Adjustment at the back and both sides — a single rear drawcord will not stop a hood twisting sideways in a gust.
• A high collar that meets your chin, ideally with a soft fleece or brushed patch so it doesn't rub when you turn your head to check the map.
• Velcro cuffs plus an elastic inner cuff, so the sleeve seals whether you're wearing a thin baselayer or thick gloves.
• A storm flap over the main zip, with a decent gutter behind it. Zips leak; flaps buy you time.

Pit zips are worth having too, especially on a jacket you'll wear uphill in June drizzle. Being able to dump heat without taking the jacket off is the difference between damp-from-rain and soaked-from-sweat.

Breathability and the Sweat Problem

Here's the honest truth: no jacket breathes as fast as you sweat on a long climb out of Malham. What good breathability buys you is a slower build-up and a chance to dry out on the flatter sections rather than stewing in your own condensation for four hours.

You can help it enormously with your layering. Wear a thin synthetic or merino baselayer that wicks rather than a cotton t-shirt, which will hold water against your skin and chill you the moment you stop. Add a light fleece or synthetic mid-layer you can shed before you overheat. Open the pit zips on the ascent, close them on the ridge. Take the jacket off at the wall before the col, not after you've got clammy.

Test It on a Real Day Out

Before you trust a jacket on a long day, give it a proper trial run.

• Walk an exposed ridge — the Wharfe valley or the edge above Swaledale — in steady rain and note where dampness appears first. Shoulders and the front zip are the usual suspects.
• Turn into the wind and check whether the hood stays put or flaps like a loose sail.
• Climb hard for twenty minutes and see how damp your baselayer is when you stop.
• Pull a rucksack on and off a few times. Straps rub seams, and shoulder seams are where tapes fail.
• Fill the pockets, then walk in rain for an hour. Waterproof pocket zips are worth insisting on if you carry a phone.

Keeping It Working Season After Season

A jacket's water repellent finish — the treatment that makes rain bead and roll off — wears away with use, dirt and repeated packing into a rucksack. When the fabric starts to "wet out", going dark and soggy across the shoulders, the waterproof membrane underneath still works but you'll feel cold and clammy. Wash the jacket according to the label, using a technical cleaner rather than ordinary detergent, then apply a wash-in or spray-on reproofer and tumble dry on low if the label allows, which reactivates the finish.

Store it loosely on a hanger rather than compressed in a bag, and check the seam tape once a year for lifting. Looked after, a well-chosen jacket will see you through many a Dales downpour — and the odd blameless sunny afternoon on the tops.