Owen Mitchell

A softshell jacket is one of those jack-of-all-trades pieces of gear that can be really handy to have in your closet. It's rarely the best piece of gear for a day out, but you can trust a good soft shell jacket to handle most outdoor conditions reasonably well without letting you down.

We've worn softshell jackets through just about everything. From winter storms in the mountains that weren't in...

A hardshell jacket is really kind of a rain jacket turned up to 11. It should keep you dry sure, but it should also keep you relatively comfortable in really, really miserable conditions.

And we've explored some really, really miserable conditions wearing hardshell jackets. We've gone backcountry skiing in -40 Celsius temperatures, gone up mountains in wind and sleet, and spent days...

Fleece jackets really are the versatile, do everything piece of gear that anyone should own. One good fleece jacket can do everything from look respectable at the bar to provide just the right amount of warmth and breathability to make it to the top of the mountain.

We've worn fleece jackets on sunny walks around the neighborhood to multi-day trips where we never took them off. We've stuffed...

A good down jacket is nice to have in the shoulder months and an essential piece of gear in the winter. Even if it never comes out of your backpack, it's nice to know that it's there.

We've ripped holes in down jackets and watched feathers fly. We've covered our jackets in duct tape from climbing and scrambling and tree bashing. We've worn down jackets through downpours and been cold and...