Founded as a hat distributor in the ‘30s by a couple fleeing Hitler’s Germany, Columbia are still a family-run outfit despite massive expansion since those early days, and while I know this is no sensible basis on which to buy snow gear, it makes me want to like their kit.
But fortunately their Antecedent jacket stands firmly on its own two feet without needing that sort of back story to sell itself. Kitted up with Columbia’s patented Omni-Heat thermal technology, taped seams and stretch softshell fabric for ultra freedom of movement, the Antecedent is a top notch technical jacket at a price which won’t have you spending your ski hols sleeping in the back of a camper and eating baked beans.
Its loose-fitting style will appeal to the boarders out there without putting off your hardened skier, and the roomy fit gives plenty of space to cart all your bits and bobs around in the pockets, avoiding that whole annoying backpack issue.
Speaking of packets, the Antecedent is loaded with them, and with some very handy little features as well. The chest pockets are angled so that you can get into each one with the opposite hand rather than trying to rootle around in your own armpit to retrieve that evasive lipsalve. The inside goggle pocket is – wait for it – actually big enough to stow a pair of goggles in. You’ve got two places to stash your phone or MP3, one inside the jacket and the other just outside the main zip so you don’t have to let all that icy air in when you fish your gizmo out, both of them equipped with a handy little tunnel so you can feed the lead neatly through to your earholes. And on top of all this you’ve got the usual pockets to stuff your hands in on a night out and a discreet zippy one on the inside for those essential little valuables. The only thing missing is a sleeve pocket for your lift pass, a rather annoying omission these days when almost every resort boasts a hands free lift system.
The jacket is lightly insulated making it comfortably lightweight, and while a sunny day in late autumn wasn’t the best time to put its thermal properties through their paces, the signs were promising and we had to make use of the underarm vents, each of which is equipped with a two way zip, an incredibly handy feature which appears on all too few of the jackets out there.
It being a bluebird day we didn’t make much use of the hood, but noted that it fits easily over a helmet while also having a velcro strip to reduce its size for the non helmet wearers out there. The drawstrings are easy to use (though we did have to take gloves off to do it) and the whole thing is easily detachable while also being firmly and neatly held in place when attached to the jacket.
All in all you’ll do a lot of legwork before you find another jacket boasting the same kind of style and quality as the Antecedent does in this price range. Word of advice though – go for the red one.
