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01The warmest thing for its weight

Pioneer Camp Down Jackets

Goose and duck down jackets and parkas from 650 to 850 fill, most of them packable into a stuff sack and water-resistant on the face.

  • 9 styles
  • 12 colourways
  • S to 3XL size run
  • $67.99 to $269.99

Colourways on this page: Grey, Dark Grey, Navy, Black, Blue, Pink, Grayish Purple, Maroon Banner, and 4 more.

Down is still the best warmth-to-weight material anyone has, and these are the jackets that go in a bag rather than on a hook. The fill powers here run from 650 to 850, and the number describes the loft of the down rather than the warmth of the finished jacket: an ounce of 850-fill down occupies more space, traps more air and therefore holds more heat than an ounce of 650. What it does not tell you is how many ounces are in the jacket, so a long 650-fill parka out-warms a short 850-fill shell every time.

The weakness of down is water and it is worth being blunt about it. Wet down collapses and stops insulating, and it takes a long time to recover. That is the reason the faces on these are water-resistant, the reason several carry a hood, and the reason a down jacket in a genuinely wet climate belongs under a shell rather than out in the rain. Washing them is the other thing people get wrong: a down jacket taken out of the machine and hung up dries into cold lumps, and it needs a long low tumble to break the clumps and bring the loft back. Sizes run S to 3XL.

Every colourway here is priced on its own; Pioneer Camp pieces keeps the figures current and the till is what decides.

02About these pieces

Questions about Pioneer Camp Down Jackets

The warmest thing for its weight

Is 850 fill better than 650 on a Pioneer Camp jacket?

Better per ounce, not better in every jacket. The 850-fill pieces here are cut light and packable, so they are the ones to carry; the 650-fill parkas hold more down in a longer body and are warmer in absolute terms. Match the number to whether the jacket is going in a bag or on your back.

Is the down in Pioneer Camp jackets goose or duck?

Both, and the card says which for the piece you are looking at along with the percentage, because that is what the label carries. Goose down generally lofts higher at the same fill weight; duck down is the more common and the less costly of the two.

What happens to a Pioneer Camp down jacket in rain?

The face beads it for a while and then it soaks, and soaked down stops working until it is properly dried. If your days are wet as often as they are cold, a synthetic-fill jacket keeps insulating damp and is the more sensible purchase, or put a taped shell over the down.

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Every Pioneer Camp layer, every size

Every size, colourway and fill in the Pioneer Camp catalogue sits behind this button, with the price from our last update against each one.