It was an accident, cough.

Well, sort of. After The Challenge, I’d decided that my waterproof jacket needed a rethink. I love Montane, all three of my main jackets (waterproof, soft shell and down) are Montane and they are great, but I felt the Quattro didn’t perform as well as I would have liked. Mind you, they were challenging conditions, so I shouldn’t have felt too let down. I just felt a bit damp.

I think the  main issue was breathability, which actually could have been my own fault as I was determined to keep my Dynamo on underneath the Quattro. The Dynamo breathes brilliant, but when really, really wet, the Quattro, struggled, so between the two was damp, although my base layer was fine (merino, of course!) I should have taken off the Dynamo perhaps, but the strength of the wind made me feel cold (psychological, I’m sure). I came to the conclusion I needed to change something and as I love my Dynamo so much, it was the Quattro that had to go. At least into my day pack rather than for longer trips (if I get to do any more, honeybun…)

The plan was to try out David’s Paramo before buying one for myself. It’s obviously too big for me and that probably adds to it feeling so heavy, but I was lacking in wet weather, somewhat surprisingly, to really try it out. I had to make do with testing it’s breathability in warm, damp conditions and as it was, it seemed ok. Then, there came an opportunity and lo and behold…

Oops!

I don’t know how that happened.

Fortunately, I still had my birthday money from mum to spend. It’s neutral, so it won’t clash with any of my black gear or any of the other stuff that, er, clashes with each other.

Obviously, the reflective stripe works. Excellent.

So long as I don’t fall into a drift of grubby snow, I’ll be fine.

I don’t do things like that. No, not me. Never…