Gear Review: Jottnar Fenrir Down Jacket
Are you looking for a high quality down jacket for your mountain adventures? The Jottnar Fenrir Down Jacket is exactly what you’ve been looking for. It’s lightweight, warm, simple, and well designed. Some might even say it’s the perfect down jacket.
The Jottnar Fenrir is an 850 Fill Power Goose Down hooded jacket. Jottnar uses DownTek, which is a water-repellent down, that stays dry 10x longer than untreated down. This fabric technology helps to set the Fenrir apart from other down jackets.
Recently Jottnar sent us a Fenrir Hooded Down Jacket to test and review. After several months of putting this thing through the wringer, we are more than impressed. We tested the Jottnar Fenrir on ski tours, dog walks, avalanche courses, yurt trips, winter camping adventures, van journeys, resort days, and more.
After extensive testing, the Jottnar has become a must-have insulating layer in the mountains. Let’s take a closer look at the Fenrir…
The Fenrir is beautifully simple. It doesn’t have a ton of bells and whistles, which means that it is both functional and lightweight. There are 2 zippered hand pockets and one internal zippered pocket. The cuffs are stretchy in case you want to pull them over your gloves.
As strong believers that no insulating jacket should be without a hood, we have to say that the Jottnar Fenrir hood is well designed. It’s insulated throughout and fits securely over our heads and also stretches to fit over a lightweight ski helmet. The hood moves with your noggin and does not impede vision which we feel increases safety.
The DownTek seems to work great. We got this thing pretty darn wet in a few snow storms and inside a tent and it still kept us nice and warm – of course it helps that the fabric is windproof with a water repellent finish too. Not sure it would be our go to layer in the PNW, but for mid winter in the Rockies, this gets two thumbs up.
One simple thing that we liked about the Fenrir is the drawstrings. Drawstrings aren’t something that we usually notice, but the Fenrir uses a snag-free design that utilizes cords. This is a way better design than the standard old loop system that we always find somewhat hard to adjust.
As for durability, we used the Fenrir in real world situtations. At some point we did snag the Fenrir on something. Maybe a ski pole, tree branch, or something inside our pack. Unfortunately we popped a very tiny hole in the chest and lost a few feathers – pretty standard for a down jacket. We were impressed that the fabric, which is a micro rip-stop, didn’t tear any further. Now we have a very cool Gorilla Tape patch that seems to do the trick and keep the feathers in place.
Another thing that we like about the Fenrir is that it’s super lightweight. Weight is always an issue when traveling in the mountains and the Fenrir only weighs a mere 300g /10.6 oz (size medium). This means that even when we are shaving weight, the Fenrir is still going on the adventure.
The Fenrir comes with a stuff sack if you’re into using a stuff sack. We are in and out of our jacket quite a bit and find that it’s easier to just stuff it into our pack – and it packs quite small inside the pack. For comparison sake, here’s a photo of the stuffed jacket next to a 1.5 Liter Nalgene.
While we don’t always use the stuff sack in our pack, it’s always nice when a sack is included with a jacket – especially when it can serve double duty as tent pillow!
Is there room for improvement? Sure, but only if you want to get picky. A few times I’ve wished the front zipper went two ways – only because it makes it easier to access an avalanche transceiver. A handful of times I’ve longed for a simple, inside mesh pocket to quickly stash gloves or goggles. Both very minor things. Overall, the Jottnar Fenrir rocks.
We tested a Dark Ink Fenrir size XL. We typically wear XL in other brands like Arcteryx, Patagonia, etc. The Jottnar Fenrir sizing is very similar.
Jottnar is a UK-based company and they are making some kick ass products that we highly recommend. Buy your Jottnar stuff now, you’ll be stoked. If you’re keen to pick up the Jottnar Fenrir Down Jacket or learn more about the Fenrir, visit Jottnar.com.
