Look inside | FIRESTORM™

FIRESTORM provides greater warmth, greater wind resistance and greater water resistance. It allows the advantages of stitch through construction – freedom of movement and low weight – to be harnessed while negating the problems of stitch lines and uneven insulation.

To construct a jacket with FIRESTORM construction a down jacket is sewn, and then a completely independent fabric laid on top, but only sewn in at key points. This increases warmth by providing another space for still air to insulate in, reduces the effect of stitch lines where there is no insulation, makes the jacket more windproof by providing a completely windproof outer fabric with far fewer stitch lines, and vastly increases water resistance by having an extra layer of fabric without stitching.

Inside a Kryos Jacket, pleated baffles are used where maximum warmth is required. Essentially a stitch through technique but allowing greater loft, pleats add significant warmth for barely any weight. Where we need maximum down control and compression resistance, smaller baffles are used to hold the down where it needs to be and to prevent it moving. At the hood, a halo baffle around the opening provides warmth and thickness right to the edge of the jacket, ensuring maximum protection from wind and spindrift.

In short, because it’s the best option there is for alpine climbing. Our FIRESTORM series has been tested extensively, and whether in lab settings on human subjects, on a thermal manikin, or on some of the hardest routes in the Alps or the Himalayas, the results speak for themselves: FIRESTORM makes a huge difference to warmth. Not only that, but the worse the conditions, the greater the benefit.

Our Kryos Jacket is 10% warmer than our Vega Jacket while in low windspeed conditions, and this difference grows as windspeed or precipitation increases. In lighter weight styles the difference is even greater, and there is a 20% difference in warmth between a Xeros Jacket and a conventional stitch through jacket of equivalent fill weight; this difference is greater in windy or damp conditions. FIRESTORM is warmer, with greater wind resistance and greater water resistance.

The Kryos Jacket is a product that began as a request from alpinist Paul Ramsden. After 3 years of research and development the Kryos and FIRESTORM made its way into our range.

"It’s common to get specific requests from athletes. If we can, we’ll always try and tailor a product or sort someone out with a particular thing they have in mind. But it’s quite uncommon, frankly speaking, for those products to end up in our range…" Sam Stephenson, Head of Design.