Down Jacket Ultralight Guide For Europe

There are an abundance of guides available for the ultralight community. However, I have found a limited number of guides focusing on Europe. This guide is intended to provide an overview of the down jackets available to most European consumers. Products shipped from the United Kingdom have been excluded due to import tariffs for most European countries.

Disclaimer: The links are not affiliate links and Alper is not affiliated with any of the mentioned products or companies.

Click on Weight / Price / Score to sort the columns. You cannot sort the results by the additional columns.

Which down jackets have been included in the guide?

There are a high number of manufacturers making ultralight down jackets across the world. Some of these manufacturers are well established in Europe and you can buy directly from their website. Other brands rely on resellers and you will often find the jackets available on local and international websites along with local shops.

I have tried to include the jackets available to most European countries through the manufacturers own website. Some brands that operate in few European countries have been excluded. This is done to provide the best overview across different European nations.

Most countries have some cottage brands that operate only on a national level. These have not been included. However, feel free to suggest any missing manufacturers or jackets.

How is the "Score" calculated?

There are plenty of factors to consider when choosing a down jacket. You should there be aware that the score is a somewhat subjective measure and it is primarily based on a "warmth per euro with weight considered" logic. This is of course not a definitive measure for the quality and you should always investigate the different characteristics of a jacket and see if it fits your own expectations. A number of jackets are missing information from the manufacturer and it's therefore difficult to determine the weight of the down. This makes it difficult to calculate its true performance. The jackets with missing information will have fields listed with "N/A".

((Fill Power * Fill Weight) / Price) / Weight * 100

This is the basis for the score and you will quickly be able to see some shortcomings to this method. However, it provides a pretty good idea of how much warmth and weight you are getting for your money. The results will vary depending on the weights given to the individual parts of the equation. Feel free to suggest an update to the equation if you feel it would provide an even better measure for the best down jacket.

Down jacket on a budget

Getting the right gear for going ultralight can be expensive. Most people picking up ultralight hiking as a hobby will face various decisions in terms of selecting gear price level. Quality has an impact on most gear. However, a budget item can have a stronger impact on some parts of your gear.

Your destination and geography will heavily influence whether you need expensive gear of not. You can easily use some of the budget down jackets during summer in Europe. They are even fine for 3 seasons in most cases depending on the location. Always choose your gear based on your geography and season.

Recalculate for a sale

The prices listed in the table are the default prices listed by the brands. The frequency of sales and the discount varies by the individual companies. You can always use the same logic to recalculate the score of a jacket.

An example could be that the Patagonia UltraAlpine Down Crew jacket has a discount of 20 EUR. This makes the new calculation look like the following: ((95 * 800) / 180) / 179 * 100 = 236.

This concludes my write up on the different options for an ultralight down jacket in Europe. I hope it has provided you with a real alternative to all the american guides available online. This guide is of course heavily inspired by such guides and I truly appreciate the effort made by other people in the community.