andy-kirkpatrick

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Asylum

November 13, 2009 06:05 PM Comments - 0

Hi Andy, Have been reading your blog for a good while now, great work, am loving it! Probably get pestered with gear questions all the time but heres another for the collection.
I’ve noticed you’ve been wearing the new(it is new isn’t it?) Berghaus Asylum parka.I found one in my size in the local Tk Maxx for E110.

How do you find it for normal winter climbing? Have you used it for winter Scotland or only on the big Patagonia trips?Is it more bulk than its worth compared to a DAS or similar and is it worth carrying those extra grams?

How do you find climbing in it, does it get in the way? Might use it for alpine stuff too with a half length sleeping bag, would it be overkill for alpine and Scottish stuff? Neither of which will be at a very high grade. Take it easy, 

X

PS. You coming back to Dublin for another talk any time soon???

I worked for Berghaus for two years, primarily helping the design team on the clothing side, with some input into sacks (long lead times mean’s the stuff I worked on only appeared in the shops this year really), and the first real test of much of the stuff was on Asgard with Leo (who found that the stuff worked… even if the wall was more wintery than they expected).

The Asylum was produced long before I came along, and the new belay jackets that Berghaus are doing are more inline with what I’d call a good belay jacket (light, simple, robust). The Asylum was a good idea taken too far, having a 100% waterproof inner and outer (this adds too much weight, bulk and cost). Worse still the Asylum’s materials don’t breath that well, which is great if your a North Sea fisherman, but not so good for climbing, as it tends to get very heavy due to not drying out (there is enough breathability for the insulation to get wet).

I used an asylum jacket in Patagonia two years ago and found it great at keeping storms at bay, and was cut well enough to climb in, but was just so heavy to carry that I couldn’t recommend it for anything but roadside ice belaying (it would make a great car coat!).

The DAS parker remains the bench mark belay jacket (which you can’t buy in the UK but the Alpkit belay jacket looks like it may come from the same camp!).

Yes hoping to get to Ireland again soon (will tag some irish dates on a tour I’m planning in autumn 10).

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