Stay warm, stay dry, stay happy.
Our favourite outerwear is made by Mont.Bell. A brilliant Japanese brand that is built for the extremely snowy conditions of Madarao and Japow. Because we get so much snow which is super light and temperatures are really stable when you ride you are entering the white room on every turn a lot of the season. You need gear that will stand up to the pow so you don't end up wet and cold if it gets under your outer layer and melts. Mont.Bell's motto is "Function is beauty" and their designs are true to that.
We have been riding with the Stream Parka and with 3-layer GORE-TEX Pro, the essential powder skirt, a brilliant hood design it is the jacket to have.
We absolutely recommend a bib and brace style pant for Madarao. It makes a huge difference for comfort and makes sure that not one little fluffy snowflake get’s to your underlayers. We love the Montbell Unisex Powder Track Bib. Also 3-layer GORE-TEX Pro they are proper bomb proof. They also have tip to tail waterproof zippers making for easy dumping of heat on back country missions and have pockets in all the right places.
To layer or not to layer?
We always prefer the layer concept rather than having outerwear with built in insulation. It gives you loads of flexibility and makes it much easier to stay at the right temperature. To stay comfortable skiing and snowboarding you really want to be warm but not hot. If you get hot you sweat and then you end up with other issues in extreme climates… Goggles fog up, sweat freezes in your clothes and that can make you cold in places and increases risk of frostbite. If you layer you can have multiple thinner layers that can easily be removed so that if temperatures do fluctuate or you go from resort riding to back country missions you can be the right temperature all the time.
