A somewhat public secret amongst my close friends: I have a touring boot problem and a jacket problem. Not real problems in the darkest sense, but a compulsion to find a jacket or boot that is just so. And all of it can be nuanced. Thus, the deep collection of boots and jackets over the years is routinely culled (begrudgingly).
I usually spend much of a season in clothing or on gear before putting my thoughts down in a review. It’s mid-January. I’ve had Patagonia’s Nano-Air Ultralight (NAUL) Freeride Jacket in my rotation (which hasn’t been much of one, as I’ve lived in it for touring) for about two months this season and a solid month last spring. My mind is made up—I’m digging the NAUL Freeride.
In my first look, I ran through my experience with jackets marketed as active insulation. Active insulation does not block 100% of the wind. An active insulation piece has a higher CFM (cubic feet/minute, a rating indicating the volume of air passing through the fabric in a minute) than, say, a hardshell or a lighter windbreaker, which usually blocks the wind entirely. A higher CFM also means a piece should be more breathable. While jackets like the NAUL Freeride do not have CFM ratings on their spec sheets, they are higher-CFM pieces. And, as noted in the first look, the NAUL Freeride, like its cousin, the Nano-Air Ultralight, has minimal insulation (20g FullRange insulation), which is also mapped on the torso.
