REASONS TO BUY
Soft and supple
Durable
Breathable
Weatherproof
REASONS TO AVOID
Less streamlined design and extra large brim restrict mobility
Mountain Equipment Orbital - Women's Review
A soft, supple, and stretchy 3-layer hardshell ready for rugged mountain conditions
Credit: Mountain Equipment
Our Verdict
The Mountain Equipment Orbital feels more like a softshell with its weatherproof 3-layer shell. It is supple and moves easily with you through all kinds of technical movements. It is thick enough to block the wind and cut well to keep the stormy weather out while still remaining breathable, especially with the pit zips. The design is consistent with a high-quality shell. The hood features a stiff and broad brim, and when we were not wearing it up over our head, we found it disruptive to our neck and overall mobility. Though this limited its versatility and comfort, if this is not an issue, this hardshell is exceptionally well made otherwise.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Mountain Equipment Orbital jacket is a high-performance 3-layer hardshell that is so soft and supple it feels like a softshell.
Performance Comparison
Enjoying an aerobic day in the highly breathable Orbital.
Credit: Alexandra Doty
Weather Protection
The Orbital from Mountain Equipment is one of a new crop of shell jackets that protects like a hardshell but feels more like a softshell. The stretchy Drilite fabric is soft and supple while still fending off stormy weather. After years of conditioning to think that a hardshell must be stiff, jackets like these are challenging our concept of what it feels like to be weatherproof. Overall, this jacket performed well in inclement weather, keeping us sealed and dry through stormy weather. All of the zippers are either waterproof or have storm flaps, and the sleeves are slightly asymmetrical, giving a bit more length at the back of the hand, a feature we absolutely love in how it seals better around our gloves.
The Orbital is well suited to colder climates due to the slightly thicker material, and is best for higher aerobic output activities due to the breathability of the fabric plus the pit zips. We prefer stiffer material for rain, in general, as it can better manage drips and shed them away from the body, whereas this more supple material conforms to the body and can steer drainage drips closer to the body. Still, this piece offered great protection from the elements.
The Orbital sealed out the elements very well.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
Mobility and Fit
For the fabric feel alone, the Orbital would get top scores in mobility. This jacket feels like your favorite sweatshirt. The arms are slightly more spacious to fit warmer layers underneath and still allow comfortable ranges of movement. The main trouble we encountered was with the extra large and stiff brim material on the hood. When not wearing the hood up over the head or helmet, this brim was very difficult to tuck out of the way and often pushed at the back of our neck, which could be very uncomfortable and require adjustment as we were looking around.
When moving fast and generating more body heat than the jacket can pump through the fabric, you can open the pit zips. They only open from the top, but this proved sufficient with the breathability of the fabric, and the simplicity and single zipper pull ensured minimal impact to the mobility of the arms–sometimes pit zips make the underarms feel stiffer and reduce the ease of arm movements.
Reaching for the pit zips was easy peasy in the stretchy Orbital.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
Venting and Breathability
The Orbital jacket is a highly breathable hardshell. Compared to some other hardshells made of similar stretchy fabric, this one is a bit thicker. This provides more protection against a strong, cold wind and makes the jacket better suited to colder temperatures. Fortunately, it has pit zips. They only unzip from one end (top down), but we appreciated the simplicity and this ensured that adding a stiff zipper under the arms had minimal impact to the jacket's mobility.
The pit zips only zipped in one direction, from top down, but this was not limiting as the jacket was otherwise highly breathable.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
Weight
The Orbital is relatively lightweight, falling in the middle of the pack of jacket weights in this review. We find that more supple fabrics feel heavier overall than some of the Gore-Tex products, perhaps due to the way they drape on the body. The Orbital has a generous cut in the arms and hood, adding fabric weight, and pit zips, which add weight.
Lightweight and having fun in the Orbital! The looser arms add fabric, but the weight penalty is minimal.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
Features and Design
The Orbital is much more feature-laden than other similar stretchy hardshell jackets. It has pit zips, which some manufacturers skip in these kinds of shell jackets. We liked these and felt it was a good fit for the slightly thicker fabric in this model. This jacket also has a lot of adjustment points for the hood and hem. The hem adjusts on both sides, and in two directions each, which we found to be a bit too fiddly–we prefer simplicity over fine-tuning what quadrant of the hem should be exactly how tight.
Each side of the jacket had a cinch, and each cinch cinched in two directions. That was a lot of cinching.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
The hood provided some trouble for us. It is spacious and accommodates a helmet easily, but the stiff brim was so large that it felt too heavy and floppy and was very uncomfortable when we were not wearing it and had it draped behind our neck. It would restrict our head movements often. Additionally, there is quite a lot of texture on the hood between the cinches being external and exposed to snow and ice buildup, and the cinch around the crown of the head also being exposed and forming a circular seam around the head. We prefer smooth face fabric textures to reduce the amount of nooks and crannies in which snow and ice can build up.
Internal chest pockets allow us to keep important things close, dry, and a little warmer--like our smartphones.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
Should You Buy the Mountain Equipment Orbital?
The Orbital is an excellent cold-weather hardshell for higher-paced aerobic activities in harsh mountain environments. It is durable and well-made, with design features consistent with its intended uses and environments. If the larger, stiffer brim isn't a deal breaker for you, we think this jacket is a great value.
The soft and supple fabric on the Orbital is plenty durable, but the suppleness can be more prone to snagging.
Credit: Maryanna Brown
What Other Hardshell Jackets Should You Consider?
For a similar stretchy hardshell that is a little simpler, check out the Rab Kinetic Alpine 2.0. If stretch is not a concern of yours and you're aiming for overall high performance, check out the Arc'teryx Beta AR or the more affordable Patagonia Triolet.
Let's talk about... hardshells! We hope you heard what you needed from this review.
Credit: Alexandra Doty
—
Lyra Pierotti
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