The Outside Analysis Seattle Rain Hat is a water-proof/breathable Gore-Tex rain hat with a large brim. Whereas it’s billed as a rain hat, it may well do double obligation as a UPF 50+ solar hat, particularly for water sports activities the place its floating brim is a helpful characteristic to stop unintentional loss. The hat has velcro tabs on the edges so you may fold up the brim for better visibility and comes with an adjustable chin twine to maintain it safe in stormy climate. In the event you can barely tolerate the crappy hoods on mountaineering rain jackets, mountaineering with a rain hat would possibly simply change your thoughts about mountaineering within the rain.
Specs at a look
- Weight: 3.2 oz
- Gender: Unisex
- Width of Brim: 3″ Entrance and alongside the edges; 3.75″ within the rear
- Waterproof/breathable: Sure, Gore-Tex 3 layer
- Seam-taped: Sure
- UPF Ranking: 50+
- Adjustable: No
- Chin strap: Sure
- Sizing: S, M, L, XL
- Materials: Crown: 70-denier plain weave nylon; brim: 70-denier plain weave nylon with PU coating
The Outside Analysis Seattle Rain Hat is a wonderful various to utilizing the disappointing hoods that include many mountaineering rain jackets. Most need to be worn with a billed cap to maintain the rain off your face and/or they’re massively outsized to be able to accommodate ski and climbing helmets. A rain hat can immediately improve a rain jacket with a crappy hood by eliminating the need for the hood’s use.
For instance, the Seattle Rain Hat has a a lot wider entrance brim than a rain jacket (if it has one in any respect) and is significantly better at conserving rain off my face and glasses than a closed hood whereas offering significantly better peripheral visibility. The froth-stiffened brim is 3 inches huge within the entrance and alongside the edges and three.75 inches huge within the again to maintain the rain off your neck and the hood of your rain jacket in the event you’re carrying one. As a glasses wearer, the added air flow that comes with utilizing a large entrance brim is a godsend as a result of it retains the rain and condensation off my lenses utterly. The brim serves double obligation for solar safety on my face, my head, and the tops of my ears. If it’s buggy, the rear brim retains my insect head web off the pores and skin on the again of my neck the place an insect would possibly nonetheless get me by way of the mesh.
With the Seattle Rain Hat, I may unzip the highest of my rain jacket’s neck and higher chest so I perspire much less inside, I can use it to maintain my head heat or wick away perspiration, and the hat doesn’t intervene with my sense of sound once I stroll within the wilderness. That stated, the Seattle Rain Hat is just not a magic bullet in all situations although, however is greatest utilized in mild to reasonable wind so its giant floor space doesn’t change into ungainly and flap round loudly. In excessive winds, you need to use your rain jacket hood as a result of that’s when it’s truly the higher device for the job (assuming it has hood controls that allow you to get a comfortable match.)
The OR Seattle Rain Hat is available in 4 sizes, primarily based on the circumference of your head. I merely measured my head, picked the corresponding measurement, and it match completely. The variations in circumferences between sizes may be very small so you may get an excellent match in the event you measure your head. Simply wrap a string across the crown of your head and measure it. It’s that easy. From what I perceive, the earlier model of the Seattle Rain Hat had an adjustable headband, however that characteristic was dropped within the present mannequin.
Suggestion
The Outside Analysis Seattle Rain Hat is a wide-brimmed waterproof hat that gives rain safety and is an enchancment over the disappointing hoods that include many mountaineering rain jackets. It can be used as a solar hat with a ranking of UPF 50+, significantly on the water since its foam-stiffened brim floats. The improved air flow inherent in utilizing a hat open on all 4 sides as an alternative of a hood enclosed on 3 sides makes ought to be readily obvious. But it surely additionally means that you could vent the highest of your rain jacket extra simply to be able to perspire much less inside, one thing that’s unattainable to do when carrying a jacket hood. That’s an enormous profit when it’s raining and also you’re making an attempt to remain dry, each inside (your jacket) and outdoors.
I truly used to personal an Outside Analysis Seattle Rain Hat some 20 years in the past simply as I used to be getting critical about mountaineering and backpacking. One way or the other, I acquired waylaid over time and began utilizing rain jackets with built-in hoods as an alternative, though they’re a poor substitute for a wide-brimmed hat. That realization got here flooding again to me as quickly as I placed on the Seattle Rain Hat and began mountaineering with it within the fixed rain we’ve been having this spring. How did I ever get by with no rain hat, I puzzled?
Disclosure: The creator bought this hat.
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