Top Rated: Mountain Equipment Rampart Hooded Jacket (8.1 / 10)
Category: Lightweight (Under 400g) Insulated Jacket
The Rampart is a bare-bones, minimalist insulated jacket shorn of all non-essential features. The features that remain are all executed extremely well. The hood, the Achilles heel of many a lightweight jacket, is actually a stand-out feature. [...] As for insulation, Mountain Equipment have abandoned the tried, tested and trusted Primaloft Gold in favour of their own (likely less effective) Polarloft Micro insulation. But rather than gloss over this measure (like some of their competition have done), they've addressed it by simply increasing the amount of insulation in the jacket (+20g/sm), thus ensuring no drop (and likely a marginal gain) in thermal performance. For those operating with the constraints of harnesses, gear and ropes, who might welcome dual-opening zippers etc ... this might be too streamlined. But for the non-roped, I would say the compromise is pragmatic and well-balanced.
The Rampart lives up to its name and provides meaningful additional fortification to get you through those nasty periods when conditions begin to overwhelm your (soft and hard shell) active wear. In combination with medium-weight insulated pieces like Keela's Belay, the Rampart will provide significant protection when static in extreme sub zero mountain conditions. The Mountain Equipment Rampart Hooded Jacket is Scramble's top pick in the lightweight (sub 400g) insulated jacket category.