Stellar Equipment Ski Kit

Laid out in all its Swedish-designed glory: Stellar Equipment’s Guide Shell Jacket 2.0 and Shell Pants.

In the market for some high-end and durable outerwear? Sweden’s Stellar Equipment offers many options with a bent towards full-spectrum layering systems. THR reviews the full-weather ready ready and full featured Guide Shell Jacket 2.0 and Shell Pants 2.0.

I live in Utah. Most days you can tour in a cotton tee shirt and flip-flops, and that’s on a storm day. Even when it’s snowing it’s dry. The snow is dry, the air is dry, the booze is dry, the lake is dry, sometimes I get cottonmouth. It’s just like that. And typically it isn’t cold. It’s like single digits, sometimes. The other day as I stood on top of a ridge I saw a buddy approaching, a real old-time, ornery old Wasatch crank. Good guy, half dirt, half salt. He was skinning up in his long-johns (the whites!), breaking his own trail straight up because no one else sets the skin track right. He’s not wrong. At the top he pulled some very, very old looking wind pants on right over his boots and tied them up with a bow. We chatted amiably as he got dressed, and then he commenced to send it. He didn’t so much as say see ya later, goodbye, adieu, or adios and he sure as hell didn’t announce, 3, 2, 1, Dropping! It’s dry like last week’s crust out here and no matter how much we have, there ain’t enough snow to go around.

What I meant to say is, you don’t need anything fancy to ski hard or ski a lot or ski a long time. Apparently you can ski for decades in the same long underwear, and basically nothing else. So, for this test I may have to go out of my way to get uncomfortable and see how these Swedish-Japanese clothes do.

I’ve visited Japan and used to live in Sweden. These are places I can see the need for such bombproof threads. It gets weathery.

A day or two later I more or less ate my words. It was dry, sure, but very, very windy. Gusts over 100mph moved all our snow to Kansas, screwing up what was some perfectly good skiing. I got to test the Stellar gear in some shit weather. I zipped all the zippers up, but otherwise stuck to my normal outfit, which consists of fairly thin Craft long underwear and the Stellar top and bottom and was snug and warm watching the wind strip one face bare and overload the other face with a thick slab. I had the hood up so you couldn’t see my tears.

And then I got a second helping of my own words, and bitter was the flavor. It got warm. It rained, the wind kept up, it was very Japan-like, or like Sweden in the spring. Conditions were all of a sudden perfect for testing outerwear.

Eyeing the skin track during another Wasatch 22-23 dump.

The exposed zippers on the Guide 2 Shell Jacket are claimed to be waterproof.

M Guide Shell Jacket 2.0 Basics

Weight M med: ~693g

Price: $649.00

Face Fabric: Post-consumer 3-layer membrane constructed with Dermizax NX with a DWR.

Main Face Fabric Weave: 70 D x 140 D (Woven fabric in which the warp and weft have different deniers.)

Fabric Highlights: High-wear areas are reinforced with a heavier 210 D x 280 D woven fabric.

Features: Helmet compatible/adjustable hood, two large external pockets suitable for moderately sized skins, two mesh inner drop pockets, velcro adjustable cuffs, hem adjusted with elastic drawstring, and pit zips to dump heat.

M Stellar Shell Pants 2.0 Basics

Weight M med: 685g

Price: $549.00

Main Fabric: Post-consumer 3-layer membrane constructed with Dermizax NX with a DWR, and a 70 D x 140 D weave.

Features: Two cargo and two front pockets, side two-way zip vent zips, cuff guard, internal snow gaiter, adjustable boot cuff for varying-sized footwear, velcro adjustable waist or ready for a belt. 

Staying dry from the outside. This will become a durability test. I’ve worn the Stellar set up for 27 ski tours, 6 resort days, 1 xc day (I know, I know not cool for xc but why are we talking cool for xc?), shoveling a lot of snow, digging snow caves with my kids. Which is a very wet endeavor.

Generally, weather has been: idyllic. There were exceptions including some very wet days, some very windy days, and a few cold days, the coldest starting at -15F. One notable resort day I skied all day in a very warm, wet snow storm and stayed completely dry and comfortable top to bottom. Also of note were several category 1 hurricane level wind events. Not exaggerating, the winds were over 80 and hitting 100. This one time, a tree blew over while I was standing there (in my Stellar gear) and the tip of it landed – with a bowwooonggggg wong wong wong – about 5 feet from me. The strangest part was the sound of a falling tree in a windstorm. I heard something. But I couldn’t place the sound. It wasn’t falling through other trees so there was no crashing. It was more of a gentle crunching and wooshing, not loud, almost more of a sensation than a sound, and I was like, whaaaaa? And then I stoopidly leapt straight up in the air as I caught sight of it out of the corner of my eye and then, bowwongggggg! Holy shit! That was random and very, very close to killing me! Anyway, the Stellar clothing stood up to me shitting myself and to very strong winds. The clothing absolutely kept the wind out and the shit in.

Staying dry from the inside. There are ample pit-zips for ventilation and zippers with mesh lining for keeping snow out of the pants when you forget to zip them closed for the descent. Hitherto I generally only wore a jacket on the down, but I’ve been wearing it on the up too and been happy to skip messing with stowing/donning on transitions. I’ve been borderline too warm, but vented with open zippers and been fine. I am hot person. You don’t need to tell me! 

So for me temperature management means keeping cool. But that doesn’t mean I am 

impervious to getting cold, in fact if you are a runs-warm kind of person sweating is an issue and sweating creates the potential for getting very cold. Staying warm for a run’s-cold kind of person is a matter of layering. Wear the right under-layers and insulating layers and keep the elements off you and you should stay warm. But us hot people need the right under-layers to wick moisture away from the skin and outer-layers for keeping the elements off and airflow moving cool air in, and insulation be damned. Obviously that depends a bit on the actual temperature, but this is sort of where the start cold manta comes from. I don’t want to sweat and I don’t want to stop in five minutes to take stuff off and mess around putting it in my pack. I did over-hear a neat antithesis to this, “fight the norm – start warm”. Though I’m a cold starter. I think this is wise as in both cases it is about comfort and safety and knowing how to layer comes through your own personal experience.

 Speaking of personal experience, here is what I like in an outerwear kit. 

1. Bigass pockets I can access with a pack on. Big enough for big skins and small mittens. Also, the um, clients I guide alpine skiing – specifically, my kids and their friends – need lots of snacks. I can fit a spare pair of kid goggles, two pairs of kid gloves, a bag of cookies, a bag of skittles, a bag of gummies for the kids and a small bag of gummies for the parents, with room enough for trash. I can look a bit puffy with all that stuff, but I need it man. And these pockets can hold it without stressing the zippers. There are also two smaller mesh pockets on the inside. These are all easily accessed and highly useful if you have stuff. Me and my stuff love these pockets.
2. Keeps me dry by, firstly not making me sweat and secondly by keeping out the elements. Check.
3. Durability. Check.

So far the Stellar clothes check these boxes.

Some other things I Like 

I like to keep my beacon in my pants pocket, so the pocket needs to be accessible without being in the way, it needs an attachment for the beacon leash. Stellar has an attachment for the leash but not a tight small elastic mesh pocket to keep the beacon tightly in place. I thought that would be an issue but honestly I haven’t even noticed my beacon once while skiing.

I like the jacket to be long so it doesn’t ride up. Nothing against plumbers. That’s just not how I want to roll. Similarly, I like some looseness so I can move, reach, etc without restriction. The stretch is ok, but I like loose. I like a hood that can both be worn tightly with a hat and is large enough to cover a helmet. I like some bright color in the jacket so my friends can see me. I like big, tough zippers and easy to grab zipper pulls. I don’t like fussing with stuff. I like the skiing part of skiing.

Weight isn’t much of an issue for me. Just based on my experience so far and the feel of these clothes I feel like I’m not going to be buying a ski kit for many years of winter use to come. Quality of build and materials seem first rate. Time will tell, but I’ll take a little weight and strength over replacing a jacket every season or two, or having something fail while out skiing.

Texture. These clothes are quiet, not crinkly and they are relatively soft, certainly not super soft. Soft in a tough-soft kind of way. Just like you, big guy!

I went online to see what other pants and jackets weigh. It turns out this is a fairly heavy kit. Here is some advice, don’t compare yourself to others, it’s a huge waste of time and energy. You’re beautiful. That said, you obviously have to do your own math on the pluses and minuses of weight vs durability and protection and come to an answer that works for you.