Mountain Hardwear’s Kor Airshell Warm Jacket ($200) confuses me. I’ve been wearing it almost daily for more than two months now, and I still don’t know what it is. Is it a windbreaker? A shell? A midlayer? The more I wear it, the more I realize that it is a little bit of all those things. It was my favorite layer as the weather turned cold and we’ve gone into the heart of winter, single handedly replacing the fleece and light puffy jackets I used to rely on.
I first got my hands on the Kor Airshell Warm on a climbing trip in Wyoming, trying to summit the Grand Teton. During the three-day effort we backpacked five miles in a cold drizzle, then camped at 11,000 feet in the snow. After a 4 AM summit push, we were turned around by snow and ice a few hundred feet from the peak, then hiked back down the mountain the following day in fog and light rain. The Kor Airshell Warm was my constant companion. It held off the on-again-off-again drizzle during the approach hike without wetting out. It kept me warm and dry on the bitter-cold summit bid. It served as a comfy mid-layer while hanging out at our high-elevation base camp. I even slept in it each night. I was testing other gear on the Grand Teton too, but the Kor stole the…
