As the days go by, I slowly descend more and more into sloth/slob-dom. Any jacket that feels like a fuzzy blanket is a winner in my book. With the Mountain Hardwear Monkey Woman Grid II jacket, I can get outside and be fuzzy and comfortable too.
Available through REI | CampSaver | Mountain Gear | Amazon
Made of Polartec® High Loft Grid Monkey Phur™, the Monkey Woman Grid II jacket is a great, lightweight midlayer for climbing, backpacking and hiking. The jacket itself is fairly standard. It has two harness/pack-compatible zippered pockets and one Napoleon zip pocket. Thumbholes let you snuggle in real good when the weather’s not so great. The grid pattern lets the jacket breathe more while reducing the amount of fluffy mass to something slightly socially acceptable.
My problem with fluffy fleeces is that after the first wash, they aren’t so fluffy anymore. Gone is that perfect floof, that wonderful fuzziness. But not with this! This has survived trips through the washing machine and dryer time after time. I’ve worn it non-stop for long, stinky weeks. It’s rolled around in dirt and god knows what else, and still looks just as good as the day I unboxed it last fall. With strange San Francisco weather flip flopping between hot and cold, I prefer to pull this jacket out for long bike commutes instead of the Desna Grid Jacket. Neither are excellent at blocking out wind, but the Monkey Woman Grid II traps heat much better.
Because it’s synthetic, it does get a little stinky; however, it’s nothing a trip through the washing machine can’t handle. Mountain Hardwear calls the fit “active”. It’s not super slim-fitting, but it’s not really baggy either. My only regret? I wish I got a hooded version for ultimate blanket comfort. All in all, it’s a solid fleece. And right now it’s basically on sale everywhere.
Buy the Monkey Grid Jacket through Mountain Hardwear, REI, CampSaver, Mountain Gear, or Amazon. Regular price is $160, but currently on sale at all the above links!
Photos by Josh Ourada, backpacking at Lake Aloha in Desolation Wilderness.
This was sent to me for review.
Hello, thanks for the review. You said it is not “excellent at blocking out the wind”; maybe no fleece can do it well, but would you say this jacket is considerably worse at blocking the wind than other fleeces? Cheers