North Face Nuptse Vest
The North Face Nuptse Vest is a classic. With a name is derived from the Nuptse Mountain in the Himalayas, it’s a vest (or, as we might say in Europe, a gillet…) which is equally at home on the side of a mountain, keeping warm around a ski resort or even just mooching around the city. The Nuptse vest is made with 700 fill goose down, so it keeps your core toasty warm while leaving your arms free to do some work. The shoulders are reinforced for increased durability when used with a rucksack, and the handwarmer pockets are designed so your hands go behind the down layer, close to your body, for extra warmth. There’s also a clever storage pouch arrangement, so the whole jacket can be turned in on itself and zipped into a pouch for packing.
We’ve used a Nuptse vest for several years now, and it’s served us extremely well – while we tend to use ours more off the slopes than on, on occasion (such as when it was -31 C one bitter January in Lake Louise…) it has been great combined with a shell layer ski jacket to keep us warm on the piste. We’ve opted for the classic black vest, but North Face make them in a range of colours and seem to bring out new style options every year. Overall, the Nuptse Vest is an excellent and stylish investment, and is definitely one item of ski gear that you won’t want to pack away at the end of the ski season.