Rain in the hills of northern Britain rarely arrives politely. It comes sideways off the tarn, sits in the valley like a grey blanket, and settles in for six hours when the forecast promised a passing shower. Add a climb of three or four hundred metres and you have the hardest test any jacket will face: steady rain outside, steady heat and vapour inside, and a wind that finds every gap you left open.
A day that mixes fell walking with a wild swim makes it harder still. You will be moving hard enough to sweat, then standing still on a shingle bank while someone else swims, then pulling the jacket back on over damp skin with cold hands. The jacket has to work in all three states. Here is what to look for before you spend your money.
A waterproof membrane is only as good as the places it has been stitched. Every seam is a row of needle holes straight through the fabric, and water will find them long before it finds the laminate. That is why seams are taped: a heat-sealed strip is bonded over the inside of every join.
Look for fully taped seams rather than critically taped. Widen your search to include the tape's width — around 13mm is the common standard, and 20mm or more tends to survive folding and abrasion better. In the shop, turn the jacket inside out and run your fingers along the shoulders, the hood and the cuff joins. Tape that is already lifting or bubbling at those stress points will fail first.
Those hydrostatic figures are measured on new fabric in a laboratory. They are a useful guide to the class of jacket you are buying, not a promise about its fourth winter of service.
On a wet day with any wind, you will spend hours inside the hood. It should have a stiffened or wired peak that stays out of your eyes, and adjustment in two directions: a volume adjuster at the back of the crown, and drawcords at the sides of the face. The test is simple — put the jacket on over the hat and midlayer you actually wear, tighten the hood, and turn your head. It should move with you rather than swinging round like a bucket.
A high collar with a soft chin guard makes a real difference when rain is coming at your face and you want the zip up to your nose. Check too that the hood can be rolled or stowed without creating a pouch that fills with water.
No jacket breathes as fast as you sweat on a steep pull up to a tarn. Breathability ratings, usually given as grams of vapour per square metre over 24 hours, tell you roughly how hard the fabric will try: around 15,000g is respectable, and 20,000g and above is where the better hill jackets sit. However, the fabric is only half the story. What you wear underneath matters more than most people admit.
Keep the midlayer light and avoid cotton next to your skin. Then look for mechanical ventilation — pit zips, chest vents, a two-way main zip. On a long climb in steady rain, an open pit zip will shift more moisture than any difference between two membranes. A two-way zip also lets you open the jacket from the bottom while still wearing a rucksack hipbelt.
You need enough room for a midlayer without so much fabric that the jacket flaps like a sail on an exposed ridge. Sleeves should stay put when you reach overhead — check this by putting both arms up in the shop — and cuffs want Velcro tabs or an elasticated inner cuff that covers the back of your hands.
Pockets are where wild swimmers get caught out. Handwarmer pockets that sit under a rucksack hipbelt are useless when you are carrying a pack; look for chest pockets placed high enough to reach with the belt done up, and ideally a large internal pocket for hat and gloves. After a swim, you want a jacket you can throw on over damp skin quickly — a smooth lining helps, and so does a hem drawcord you can find without looking down.
Finally, consider packed size. A jacket that is bulky and awkward to stow stays in the rucksack while you get soaked, which is a far worse outcome than a slightly heavier one you actually wear.
The face fabric's water-repellent finish is what stops the outer from wetting out and feeling clammy. Wash the jacket with a technical cleaner rather than detergent, rinse it thoroughly, and tumble dry on a low setting or iron on low through a cloth to reactivate the finish. When it stops beading and the fabric darkens with water, reproof it.
Buy the jacket that fits your body and your worst forecast, not the one with the biggest number on the label. A well-taped, well-hooded jacket that you are happy to wear in horizontal rain is worth more than any specification sheet.
Northern Tarn shares practical, down-to-earth guidance on upland tarns, fell walking and wild swimming in northern britain for readers across the UK.
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