Finest Backpacking Rain Jackets of 2025

What do you have to search for in a rain jacket for climbing and backpacking? Whereas having a water-resistant/breathable jacket generally is a plus, it’s fairly simple to overwhelm their skill to vent moisture within the rain if you’re perspiring with a backpack strapped to your again. You’re actually higher off shopping for a extra inexpensive jacket that has options that hikers want like a totally adjustable hood, pit zips, velcro wrist cuffs, and hem adjusters. Monitoring down rain jackets that match that description takes a bit leg work, however we’ve carried out it for you under.

We’ve additionally included waterproof/breathable rain jackets in addition to ones made with non-breathable materials since you’re going to perspire if you’re sporting them within the rain, irrespective of how a lot they price or what they’re fabricated from. If staying perspiration-free within the rain is vital to you whilst you’re climbing down a path carrying a loaded backpack…possibly you must choose one other sport. You’re going to sweat. Consider a rain jacket as a part of your bigger layering system as a substitute. Its finest use is to maintain you heat when it’s raining or the wind is blowing onerous, typically together with a mid or base layer. Perspiring is inevitable. Your aim needs to be to remain heat and keep away from hypothermia.

Listed here are the highest cheap rain jackets that we advocate for hikers and backpackers.

1. Patagonia Torrentshell 3L

The Patagonia Torrentshell 3L Jacket is a fully-featured rain jacket phrases with an adjustable hood, pit zips, velcro wrist cuffs, hem pull wire, and facet pockets. Whereas the Torrentshell has been obtainable for years, Patagonia lately up to date it and made it a full three-layer waterproof/breathable jacket with improved breathability and luxury. This together with its spectacular function set makes it a really enticing rain jacket at a comparatively low value level. It’s obtainable in males’s and ladies’s sizes. Learn the SectionHiker Patagonia Torrentshell Assessment.

2. Black Diamond Fineline Stretch Rain Shell

The Black Diamond Fineline Stretch Rain Shell is a light-weight, 2.5 layer BD.Dry waterproof/breathable rain shell with a quantity adjustable, helmet-compatible hood and entrance brim, pit zips, velcro wrist cuffs, zippered handwarmer pockets, an elastic hem adjuster, and a YKK polyurethane zipper for additional water safety. It’s made with a really snug and quiet stretch material that’s absolutely seam-taped for optimum climate safety. It’s obtainable in males’s and ladies’s sizes.

3. REI Rainier Rain Jacket

The REI Rainier Rain Jacket is similar to the Marmot Precip Eco listed under. It has a 3-way adjustable hood that may be folded away when not in use, velcro wrist cuffs, pit zips, handwarmer pockets, inside drop pockets, and a drawcord hem. It’s made with REI 2.5 waterproof/breathable Peak membrane and has an exterior DWR which is able to must be refreshed periodically when rain stops beading on the jacket’s exterior. Accessible in males’s and ladies’s sizes. Learn the SectionHiker Rainier Rain Jacket overview.

4. Outside Analysis Foray 3L

The Outside Analysis Foray 3L is an up to date model of OR’s hottest waterproof/breathable Gore-tex rain jacket. It’s loaded with options together with a three-way adjustable hood with a entrance brim, velcro wrist cuffs, chest and hand hotter pockets, YKK Aquaguard zippers, and elastic hem adjustment. However what units this jacket aside from all others are its full-length torso-flow side-zips which may be opened like pit-zips however lengthen all the way in which down the edges of the jacket so you may absolutely ventilate the jacket like a poncho and even put on it over your hip belt to maintain it dry within the rain. The ladies’s mannequin is known as the Outside Analysis Aspire 3L.

5. Montbell Versalite Jacket

The Montbell Versalite Jacket is a fully-featured ultralight rain jacket that has pit zips, a four-way adjustable hood, hook and loop wrist cuffs, hip-belt appropriate chest pockets, an internally managed hem adjustment, waterproof zippers, and taped seams. Whereas it’s by far essentially the most breathable Gore-tex jacket on this listing, it’s made with 10-denier nylon ripstop that’s simple to wreck and skinny sufficient that it’s finest utilized in extra average climate when much less heat is required. The Versatile jacket is accessible in males’s and ladies’s sizes. Learn the SectionHiker Versalite Jacket overview.

6. Enlightened Tools Visp Rain Jacket

The Enlightened Tools Visp Rain Jacket is a 3-layer waterproof/breathable jacket made with a skinny 7D ripstop nylon, a non-porous PU membrane and a delicate tricot lining for a snug next-to-skin really feel. Weighing 5.6 oz it’s very light-weight, however much less puncture-proof consequently. It has pit zips beneath the arms with waterproof zippers. The jacket has a fitted hood with a stiffened visor that adjusts at the back and front and formed wrist cuffs with a velcro adjustment for added wrist heat and utility. Made for climbing, the Visp has a drop-tail hem that provides additional protection within the again to maintain the jacket from using up beneath a pack in addition to an elasticated waist to forestall drafts from under. The sizing is unisex. Learn the SectionHiker Visp Assessment.

7. Marmot Precip Eco

The Marmot Precip Eco is a extremely popular backpacking rain jacket as a result of it’s cheap, however absolutely featured, with pit zip vents, a totally adjustable hood, velcro-wrist cuffs, and a hem adjustment. The jacket additionally has two mesh-lined entrance pockets that are nice to retailer gloves or a hat and supply further air flow. The Precip Eco is made with Marmot’s proprietary waterproof/breathable material which will get the job carried out however will must be reproofed when the DWR coating wears off. Whereas the Precip Eco is priced at $120, you may normally discover it for a lot much less. This jacket is accessible in males’s and ladies’s sizes. Learn the SectionHiker overview.

8. Lightheart Gear Rain Jacket

The Lightheart Gear Rain Jacket is a fully-featured rain jacket with an adjustable hood, pit zips, velcro wrist cuffs, inside, and exterior pockets, and a drawcord hem. It’s made with siliconized polyester (silpoly) which is a completely waterproof material, so that you’ll by no means want to revive a DWR layer as a result of it doesn’t have one. Lightheart Gear is a cottage producer that sews all of its jackets. It’s additionally obtainable in a pleasant number of colours. The sizing is unisex. Learn the SectionHiker overview.

9. Frogg Toggs Xtreme Lite Jacket

The Frogg Toggs Xtreme Lite is a light-weight waterproof rain jacket with a totally adjustable hood, zippered facet pockets, velcro wrist closures, and a cord-adjustable waist. It’s additionally completely waterproof and way more sturdy and higher becoming than different Frogg Toggs rain gear together with the traditional Frogg Toggs UL2 Rain Go well with favored by generations of AT thru-hikers. Accessible in males’s and ladies’s fashions. Learn the SectionHiker overview.

10. The North Face Alta Vista Jacket

The North Face Alta Vista Jacket is a 2.5 layer waterproof/breathable jacket made with TNF’s DryVent Membrane. It has a superb 2-way adjustable hood with a rear quantity adjuster and neck cords. Full with pit-zips, the jacket has hand-warmer pockets, and stuffs into its chest pocket for straightforward packing. Hook and loop wrist cuffs and a hem adjustment spherical out its spectacular performance. The jacket is accessible in males’s and ladies’s fashions.

Backpacking Rain Jacket Choice Standards

What are an important options to search for on a climbing and backpacking rain jacket?

Adjustable Hoods

Sadly, many rain jackets have outsized hoods which are supposed for skiers and climbers who put on protecting helmets. What you must search for is a totally adjustable hood with a rear quantity adjustment so you may shrink the hood dimension to suit your head, facet pulls so you may alter the dimensions of the face opening, a wire or shapeable brim to protect your eyes from wind and snow, and a excessive collar that covers your neck and mouth. All of those options will assist defend your face from the chilly and wind and show you how to keep hotter.

Zippered Pockets

You possibly can’t have too many rain jacket pockets. They’re nice for carrying spare gloves, hats, and protecting navigation instruments in simple attain. They’re additionally good for protecting snacks shut at hand so you may eat whilst you hike. I view rain jacket pockets as an extension of my backpack as a result of the additional storage cuts down on the variety of occasions I’ve to cease to get garments or meals out of my pack.

Venting Capabilities

When you need to hike in cool moist climate, you need to restrict the quantity you perspire by actively managing your heat stage. The important thing to doing this includes venting extra heat by eradicating or venting layers. A great rain jacket ought to present a number of methods so that you can dump extra warmth with out having to take it off utterly. Listed here are a few of the most vital options to search for when evaluating totally different jackets.

Adjustable Hook and Loop (Velcro) Wrist Closures: This helps regulate the physique warmth at your wrists the place the blood flows near the floor of your pores and skin. They are often worn beneath gloves or over them relying in your choice and the glove sort.
Two-way entrance zipper: Should you pull the underside half up, you may dump quite a lot of extra torso warmth, poncho-style.
Hem drawcord: Cinch it closed to maintain the wind from blowing up between your legs and robbing your torso of warmth.

Breathability Scores

What do you have to search for by way of breathability scores when taking a look at climbing rain jackets? For cheap rain jackets, one of the best you may hope for is 10,000 (g/m^2/d) MVTR (movable water vapor transmission charge), which is fairly lackluster. A lot of the producers listed above don’t publish the MVTRs for his or her jackets, as a result of they’re not that aggressive with dearer clothes.

However to be trustworthy, I don’t belief the breathability scores revealed by producers as a result of they’re measured in best laboratory circumstances which have little to do with precise use. Pit zips and lively venting trump breathability claims any day. Should you get too sizzling, venting your rain jacket goes to chill and dry you off way more shortly than ready for water vapor to maneuver throughout a breathable membrane whereas your zipper is closed.

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