Review of Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket for Women by Mammut: Rain gear without PFCs… Does It Work and What Does That Mean?
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Summary
The Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket for Women by Mammut is a lightweight, good looking, well made, rain jacket great for hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts.
It’s made of a fluoropolymer–free outer durable water repellent (DWR) and an inner layer that is polyurethane instead of a fluoropolymer such as the PTFE that Gore–Tex is made of. That being said, however, it’s not clear that the jacket is 100% free from fluoropolymers. A stubborn lack of rain these last few months means that, as of this writing, I can only tell you the waterproofing holds up well against relentless drizzle and some pretty serious wind.
Within the limits of that caveat and the jacket’s relatively high price, I think this rain jacket is a good option for those who want a good outdoor rain jacket that is free from polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in its DWR layer and doesn’t rely on PTFE for its inner breathable, waterproof membrane. Given that this jacket is likely to perform well and last a long time, the relatively high price seems worth it.
The Upsides and Downsides of PFCs
I have been so excited by the chance to review Mammut’s Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket. For starters, Mammut is a company with a reputation for making high quality outdoor wear and for being environmentally responsible. The one Swiss friend I have loves their clothing so much, I’m pretty sure she’d be happy to wear nothing but Mammut products for the entire rest of her life. Plus, the Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket is made to repel rain and let me tell you, there are few feelings finer than wandering through a downpour while waterproof.
Let me also tell you thing: you can’t just wrap yourself up in plastic or oilskins, though, to stay warm and dry in the rain. Given how much vapor the human body emits, especially during exertion, remaining dry while walking, hiking or working in the rain takes clothing that is waterproof and breathable. Like the Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket, that kind of rain gear is coated with a waterproof and breathable durable water repellent (DWR) and contains, sandwiched in between an inner and outer layer of fabric, a waterproof, breathable membrane.
For the last half century or so, DWRs have been made from poly– and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), which was the main component of Scotchguard prior to its reformulation in 2003. Meanwhile, the waterproof, breathable membranes have been quite famously made of things like polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which you may know better as Gore–Tex or Teflon.
These poly– and perfluorinated materials perform fabulously and for decades have kept millions of us dry in the rain. Unfortunately, being as waterproof as a duck when one is not a duck has come at a high price: worldwide contamination of the environment with PFCs, which have turned out to be toxic, carcinogenic chemicals that stick around in the environment (and our bodies) for a long, long time.
These fluoropolymers are bad news. Since their development in the 1950s and 1960s, and their deployment in raingear, water resistant sprays, cookware, food packaging, and countless other items, fluoropolymers shed from products or released as part of the production process have permeated every aspect of our environment. We can now find fluoropolymers in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the soils around us. In fact, it’s hard not to find food, water, and soil that hasn’t been contaminated.
Of course, then, we now have these fluoropolymers in our own flesh and blood. The same can be said for animals living in distant and isolated locations, like the Arctic and Antarctic, even though they’ve never worn a Gore–Tex jacket or cooked with a non–stick frying pan.
Exposure to these chemicals is not good for our health nor that of ecosystems. Seriously, people and animals have died because of exposure to these chemicals. There have been cancers, birth defects, and miscarriages, as well as greater incidences of cardiovascular disease.
For a fascinating, if demoralizing dramatization of how nefarious these chemicals and the companies that produce them are, check out the film Dark Waters. Or, if documentaries are more your style, there is the equally infuriating The Devil We Know.
The Trend Toward Eliminating PFCs From Outdoor Gear
The use of PFCs is so widespread, confronting their use in outdoor gear is a little like threatening the ocean with a spoon. But, still, if you’re an outdoor enthusiast, the last thing you want to do is to be helping destroy the environment. Plus, every use of PFCs that we can eliminate, the closer we’ll come to getting them phased out altogether.
Over the past decade, numerous outdoor companies have been working on eliminating PFCs from their product lines. Even Gore–Tex has been getting into this game by offering a waterproof, breathable membrane made of polyethylene to its product line (alongside its traditional Gore–Tex membranes, made of PTFE).
In the case of Mammut, a Swiss manufacturer of outdoor clothing and equipment, the goal is to be more or less 100% PFC–free by 2025, a year which as of this writing is only weeks away. Hence, they now offer outdoor gear made with PFC–free DWR and inner linings that are not made of PTFE. Which brings me, finally, to the review part of this review.
The Review of Mammut’s Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket for Women
My first impression of Mammut’s Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket for women was that it’s nice. Definitely well made. Chic looking, even, at least for raingear. It has really nice, super huge pockets with sturdy, seemingly waterproof zippers. The jacket is also lightweight and easily packable. Yet, despite how light and thin it is, it’s made of a sturdy fabric that will withstand abuse.
My second impression was that this jacket is going to last a long time. It is really well made and constructed from quality materials. I won’t be afraid to crumple it up and stuff it into a backpack and haul it around the wilderness for a couple of weeks just in case of rain. I won’t be afraid to wear it while doing yardwork on a soggy day. It seems built to last.
My third impression was that if this Mammut rain jacket is anywhere near as waterproof as it seems like it should be, it’s going to dislodge the bright red Offshore Foul Weather Jacket that I paid a king’s ransom for at a Patagonia outlet in 1992 as the rain jacket love of my life. That jacket was impenetrable and we weathered many a deluge together while hiking and biking. It was bulky, however, which was impractical. I would never take it backpacking with me. So the Mammut jacket trounces it in that regard.
As to the Mammut jacket’s waterproof breathability, however, I do not yet have a real answer. Partly this is because most rain jackets do well at first. But also it is because I am still waiting for a proper downpour. I’ve gone months without rain beyond drizzle, which is just argh when you’re wanting to put a new rain jacket through its paces.
What I can tell you at this point is that the jacket has kept me warm, cozy, and dry for an hour here and there in relentless drizzle. And I do at least mean relentless. The kind of drizzle that comes in sideways because the wind is roaring. This means I can also tell you that the Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket impressed me with its performance as a windbreaker. Not so much as the faintest breath of a gust came through.
What I can also promise to do is add an addendum to this review once the rain jacket and I have found some downpours to wander through together.
So, that’s all the good stuff: it’s lightweight, well–made, the DWR layer is PFC–free, the pockets are roomy, it’s super windproof, and so far it has proven both waterproof and breathable.
But nothing’s ever perfect. If I have quibbles with the jacket, it’s with the hood and collar.
From what I’d seen of them in shops, Mammut products had struck me as being made for the long and lean. I am very much of the short and stocky. Although heightwise, I’m very much an S or XS, I tried the jacket out in an M.
That turned out to be the right move. In M, the jacket is roomy enough for my middle–aged spread plus super seriously thick fleece jacket that’s warm enough to wander around in at temperatures approaching freezing. But this too has come at a price. The collar of the M–sized jacket, when zipped up, runs up to my eyeballs and let’s not even talk about how oversized the hood is. I could easily wear a bike helmet in there (which may not actually be a drawback).
Once I finally found the ends of the elastic line you can use to gather the hood in, the situation was better (although it took me a good five minutes of cursing which being rained on to find the ends of the elastic). If you’re a tall, slender person, like many outdoor enthusiasts are, being too small for the hood that comes on a jacket that’s big enough to accommodate your waist won’t be a problem for you. It isn’t even a deal breaker for me. This is a nice jacket and I am, admittedly, rather vertically challenged and used to things like sleeves always being too long.
But Is Mammut’s Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket Actually PFC–free?
The biggest issue, however, with the Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket is whether or not it is entirely PFC–free. At first, I was super excited about it in part because I thought it was. It’s DWR definitely is. The rest of the jacket consists of a waterproof, breathable polyurethane membrane sandwiched in between two layers of 100% polyamide (fyi, fabrics like nylon and Kevlar are made of polyamides). Those are not fluoropolymers, so you’d think the jacket would be totally PFC–free. Although, I suppose that it is possible that the polyurethane is a fluorinated polyurethane.
At any rate, the US version of the Mammut website has a warning sign on the Materials and Care tab of the Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket product page saying that this product contains PFAS (per– and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are a type of PFCs). I don’t know what specifically in the jacket this is referring to and so far I haven’t been able to find someone at Mammut who knows the answer to that question.
So, while having a PFC–free outer DWR layer is a great thing—for this is the layer that you and the environment will be most in contact with while out hiking in the wind and rain—that is somewhat disappointingly not the same thing as a totally PFC–free jacket. If it does turn out to be true that the membrane (or some other aspect) of the Alto Guide HS Hooded Jacket contains PFCs, I will be disappointed. I would like to be waterproof and breathable without shedding toxic forever chemicals into the world that I love.
But maybe that is too big an ask and I should be simply grateful for the PFC–free DWR layer and that the outdoor gear industry seems to be moving to make that a standard feature of waterproof, breathable gear.