Sitka Stormfront Lite Feedback

[AZ Ron]

Just curious what the feedback is from people who have used the Sitka Stormfront Lite pants (mainly) and jacket are. New rain gear is on my want list for this coming year. I was/am planning on saving up for the KUIU Chugach raingear, but I stumbled across a pretty good deal on the Sitka Stormfront Lite pants and think they will perform well for me and meet my criteria.

My main wants with rain pants are light weight, full zip (for easy on and off and ventable), and waterproof/breathable.

While my current rain gear works pretty well, I found myself wetter than I should have been a few times this past year because I saw throwing on rain pants too much of a pain for an early season rain storm that might only last 10-15 minutes. A couple of times they lasted longer and left me pretty drenched and wishing I'd thrown on my rain pants. I think the full zip will help with this. It will come at a cost though, through higher weight.

I will probably pass on the stormfront lite jacket as I think it was a mistake for sitka to not put pit zips on the jacket. I've told myself that I won't buy another jacket without pit zips...

I realize the stormfront lite is touted as raingear that gets put on to wait out the weather. That is pretty much my current methodology with my current goretex and non gore tex raingear. Even though gore tex is touted as breathable, I've found that I either get wet if I don't wear and keep moving, or wear it and move due to sweat. The only way to stay dry is to put it on and stay put, at least in early season rain storms.

Anyways, anyone have any feedback?

Thanks,
Ron

 

[Big Fin]

You are correct about how Stormfront Lite is to be used. It is lightweight. Not made for crawling through the jungle brush of the northwest or Alaska. That is when you need something heavier.

If you want light weight, packable, and keep you dry, then you have found the solution. I just wouldn't buy with the expectation that you can plow through the jungles with it. None of the light weight packable raingear is designed for that.

Interesting to hear your Gore-Tex comments. There is some sort of failure if that is the case. It all but the highest humidity situations, your Gore-Tex should disperse water vapor over time, regardless of physical activity level. Yes, there are times your physical activity level generates sweat and the resulting water vapor at a rate faster than products can disperse the vapor through a membrane, but it should not cause you to stay wet.

If that is happening, I would call Gore's customer service line and talk to them. They want to know if this kind of stuff is happening.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[AZ Ron]

Thanks for your comments Randy.

I should probably go into a little more detail in my comments. Not sure if I just sweat a lot or what, but it seems if I'm hiking any amount while wearing rain gear, I'll be wet from sweat. I think the gore tex is breathing, but just not keeping up with the amount I'm sweating. Most situations I'm in are high humidity (it is raining after all) and temps from 50-80. Even in winter when it is snowing I've been pretty sweaty wearing just an underlayer and gore tex jacket. If I'm in place for a decent amount of time the sweat will either dry or be vented out. I think even for breathable rain gear, good ventilation is a must.

This past fall on my AZ elk hunt, I remember one time I got caught in a doozy of a hail storm and had just enough time to throw my jacket on and dive under my pack to keep from getting pelted by large hail stones and hard falling rain. It didn't take long for my pants and legs to be soaked, so much so I could feel water running down my legs. As soon as the weather let up some I threw on my rain pants since it looked like it would end up dumping the rest of the afternoon. Those were my Cabela's Space Rain pants, and to their and my Sitka Ascent pants' credit, I hiked the rest of the way to my afternoon vantage point and even though I only got sprinkled on a bit I wore the pants for another 30-40 minutes and my legs and Ascent pants completely dried out. I took my hike very slow and part of that time was where I was going to set up for my afternoon hike, so that time I feel like the breathable fabric worked as expected, even though I had donned it too late...

Ron

 

[DreaminofMT6X6s]

I presented a few questions to Sitka about their upcoming lines of raingear, i.e.- the Cloudburst and Dewpoint with similar concerns of toughness and breathability and they are touting the Cloudburst as having the ruggedness of the Stormfront (not Stormfront Lite) with more packability. Granted they won't be on sale until next winter, but they will be far cheaper then the Stormfront even at full retail. Anyway, I question the best options myself and even find myself forgoing the Jetstream jacket in favor of my coldfront jacket as it's warm and waterproof, but now I have a raingear issue. I'm not going to carry a rain suit when I carry the Coldfront jacket...uggghh. Who knows, but you have even more options this upcoming season even though it'll cost a little bit more.

 

[Big Fin]

Ron - that all makes sense.

I am sure we have all heard a statement something like this. "I put my Gore-Tex jacket on over my hoodie and I never dried out." No kidding.

Then comes the explanation that when you layer up, you can only evaporate as fast as the slowest layer allows. In the hoodie scenario, it is probably cotton or some slow moisture-transfer product. To get vapor from your skin, where it originates, out to the atmosphere, it has to go through the hoodie. The hoodie is hardly a good membrane for vapor transfer, so the Gore-Tex is not the issue retaining moisture, the hoodie is.

Same if people are going to wear cottons or other fabrics that do not transfer moisture as fast at the membrane. The membrane often works faster than the base layer, but the user thinks it is the outer layer with the membrane that is the problem.

When we put on an outer layer that has the membrane, it usually adds another layer of warmth and possibly some wind protection. Just that change alone increases our heat and perspiration rate. Combined with a poor performing base layer, it may have done no good to put on one of the hi-tech membrane garments.

Point of all that is, users of these hi-tech membrane products, such as Gore-Tex, or similar, need to layer with the proper gear, so that the other garments they are wearing don't negate the value of the vapor-transporting outer layer.