Review Date
March 12, 2008

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Reviewed by: Bob Johnson ,  Mountaineer

Price Paid:  $199.00 at moosejaw.com

Summary:
This jacket is too heavy to carry for serious mountaineering. The usefulness of this parka in snow and sleet is limited by the fact that the lapels funnel water into the interior of the jacket.

Customer Service:
Not needed.

Review Date
November 22, 2007

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Reviewed by: Icebear(Unregistered User) ,  Skier

Price Paid:  $299.00 at The North Face shop

Summary:
Ideal jacket for all seasons outdoor activites. Well designed features and good materials. Works well in rain and snowstorm. Best jacket I had so far. Guite expensive here in scandinavia. Even with discount. :)

Customer Service:
not needed

Similar Products Used:
Halti goretex
Fjällräven

Review Date
April 19, 2006

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Reviewed by: Dajur ,  Skier

Price Paid:  $180.00 at Sierra Trading Post

Summary:
This is a great jacket. I live in a town (Ketchikan, AK) that rains a lot (200 inches, which made it the 4th wettest spot on earth in 2005), so I needed a jacket that can stand up to the rain, wind and cold. Skiing and technical jackets are the best way to go. So, around the spring of 2000 I bought the Mountain Guide Jacket. It has worked great for the six years I had it. A tooth in the zipper broke once (in 2003 I think), I mailed it to North Face and got the jacket back 3 weeks later with a brand new zipper. I lived in Fairbanks, AK for a few years, and this jacket worked perfectly, both as everyday wear and combined with either a TNF Denali fleece or a TNF Nuptse Down jacket while snowshoeing, skiing and camping in -30 degree weather.

Pros:
Good Weight
Completely waterproof
Great venting
Adjustable hood
Warm
Works great with liner jackets
Plenty of pockets

Cons:
No pockets for your hands
Traps sweat
Snow Skirt is useless

Customer Service:
The customer Service is great. I didn't even need to contact them when the zipper broke, I just put the jacket in a box and mailed it to them with a note asking them to repair. 3 weeks later I was wearing the jacket again.

Similar Products Used:
Colombia Double Whammy
Ski jackets from various brands

Review Date
October 27, 2003

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Visitors rate this review
4.20 of 5, 5 votes

Reviewed by: hartl(Unregistered User) ,  Snowboarder , from New York

Price Paid:  $430.00 at Paragon Sports

Summary:
Yeah, I paid full retail price plus $30 tax for this coat - that's the bad news for me. The good news is that I couldn't care less, because this is the best coat I have ever owned! Money well-spent!

I bought this to replace my trusty old Patagonia Liquid Sky jacket (Goretex), because it was getting old and had some annoying things about it like: the hood was too small to be functional, there was no ventilation, it was really long (this style of raincoat I don't like). Plus, after buying a North Face sentinel fleece last winter, I wanted a shell to zip it into - Patagonia obviously didn't work.

While research, I immediatley ruled out a few North Face coats because although I liked them, they didn't have zip-in integration. Bummer. The only two coats that did have this, and where Goretex XCR (I figured I should upgrade from traditional Goretex), were the Mountain Light and the Mountain Guide. The Mountain Light, was, hence the name, lighter. But I'm not some hardcore expedition mountaineer - I just snowboard ocasionally and live in a cold enough climate (NYC), that I like to stay warm and dry. So I appreciated the extra fabric of the Mountain Guide, and ruled out the Mountain Light. I will say that the Mountain Guide, like others have said, is a bulky coat. Not so for walking around town, camping, skiiing, etc., but for climbing, I would look into something thinner.

Anyway, I purchased the 03' model, and am thrilled. First of all, this coat advertises as having core vents. But my sentinel has those, and although they do work (in theory better than pit zips), I really prefer the hidden aspect of pit zips. So I was a little annoyed that this only had core vents, but I went to the store to buy it anyway. What I found was that it infact has core vents AND pit zips - how cool is that? The core vents double has pockets, because the ingenius design team at North Face created the interior of the coat around the pockets as mesh, so air can blow in when you're not using them as pockets, but they also work as pockets. The core vent/pockets also have a great feature where there's an internal velcro tab that is revealed when you upzip the zipper, so you can just attach the rain flap onto that internal velcro instead of having it close up on you all the time. The pits zips are also great - really long, easy to reach, and has no velcro to close while in use. The velcro around the writs is also really thick and high quality - more so than my Patagonia coat. The Mountain Guide also has two internal pockets plus a hidden exterior pocket.

One thing I really love about the North Face coat is the hood. Not only is it adjustable in more than one way so it fits to perfection, but its also MUCH bigger than my patagonia hood, which I love. It even has a little baseball cap bill thingy on the front to filter water off. I also like the snow gaiter this coat has - I'll definitely use that while skiing. My old Patagonia coat also was annoying because the interior collar was just nylon, so when you zipped it up all the way, it rubbed against your chin and neck and was uncomfortable. The North Face interior collar is all fleecey (plus much of the back area), so when you zip it up it feels soft rubbing against your neck/chin. Finally, Goretex XCR is fantastic. It is as waterproof, if not more so (better DWR finish?) than my former coat with traditional Goretex, but the 40% more breathable claim ain't lying - it's very comfortable. Today was 63 degrees, so not cold at all, but pouring, so I wore the coat. I didn't get hot at all for like 15 minutes of fast walking, and when I did, open went the pit zips and core vents, and I was totally comfortable!

What more can I say? I paid full price and I couldn't be happier. The stuff about TNF decreasing in quality since becoming so mainstream is evidant in many of their products (mostly with wrist seals and zippers), but definitely not with the Mountain Guide. BUY IT!

Similar Products Used:
Patagonia Liquid Sky

Review Date
April 29, 2003

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Reviewed by: Peter (Unregistered User) ,  Mountaineer

Price Paid:  $370.00 at The North Face in Bo

Summary:
It is a real good jacket against wind, rough weather, rain, snow. It is very strong and won´t rip! It is not as breathable though as TNF says. A T-shirt in summer is way enough and you won´t get cold, in winter it is perfect with a fleece under it.