Review: Ferrino Masherbrum Rainproof Trekking Jacket (part 1)

The Ferrino Masherbrum is a lightweight breathable, waterproof jacket for trekkers and backpackers, added to the Ferrino catalog in 2008.

It is made of a 2.5 layers waterproof, breathable fabric called “Evapora-Tex”. According to Ferrino, Evapora-Tex is “a waterproof and breathable fabric in 2.5 layers that combines the hardwearing strength and waterproof qualities of 78 g/m2 Ripstop Nylon (waterproof to 10000 mm) with the excellent breathability of the inner membrane.”

I bought one of these jackets for about 70 Euro in May 2008. Its structure is very simple: two pockets on the side, one on the left arm and a fixed, rollable hood. Size L of the jacket weights 430 gr including the bag. One thing to point out is that I had to buy the large size, even if I’m not that large. The jacket does cover my hips, but had it been just a bit longer it would have been better. A cord around the bottom keeps it close to the body and offer some extra protection from the wind.

Under and around the hood

The hood has a small peak which in itself offers little protection. The hood as a whole is still effective for usage with a pile cap. It wouldn’t fit on a climbing helmet, though. You can roll and secure the hood to the jacket with the two cords shown in the pictures above. These cords are elastic and don’t seem really robust, but I guess they’re adequate for the usage one should do of this particular jacket.

A strip of fabric, internally sewn right behind the neck, can be attached to the velcro patch visible in the first picture to keep the rolled hood in place. One thing that slightly worried me, as soon as I noticed it at home, was the fact that the hole through which the front cord enters the hood (cfr. the upper part of the picture) may give raindrops a way to enter inside.

Masherbrum arms

The Masherbrum cuffs are equipped with velcro, whose upper part is attached to tiny rubber- rectangles. In spite of their little size, they work fine, are easy to use even with your gloves on and above all they remain in place, at least so far.

The armpit zips have two sliders each, so you can regulate the openings in any way you wish.

Pockets

Being the Masherbrum an ultra-light jacket, it only has two big pockets, placed on the lower front sides and lined with mesh inside.

They are big enough to hold gloves, caps or a folded map, compact camera and other stuff without problems. These pockets may be used as extra ventilation inlets in addition to the openings under your arms: of course, doing so under any kind of continuous rain guarantees that everything in the pockets will become wet real quickly.

Besides the two big pockets, the Masherbrum includes a small one on the left arm, with sealed edges and a waterproof zip. This pocket is big (or small) enough to hold a small digital camera or cell phone, but little more. A Lumix FX35 camera, whose dimensions are 94.7 x 51.9 x 22.0 mm, goes in and out without problems, but only without its custom nylon case. With the case it still fits, but you must pay a bit of attention. The same is true for a Silva compass 15TDCL. A pocket Moleskine notebook (9x14 cm), instead, is just too high to fit.

To read the final part of this review of the Ferrino Masherbrum jacket, please click here.