Why it exists

The wind shell,
smaller than an orange.

Every run in this journal above three thousand metres has the same fine print: the weather at the top is not the weather at the trailhead. The wind shell exists for that fine print. At around 80 grams it packs into its own chest pocket — a cube the size of a small orange that lives in a vest and is forgotten until the ridgeline.

A wind shell is a balancing act: too airtight and you boil from inside, too open and it is a shirt. The fabric here is calibrated to cut wind chill while letting just enough air through to run hard in — and a PFC-free finish makes drizzle bead off without poisoning the watershed you are running through. Elastic cuffs, a half-elastic hem, and nothing else. Features are weight.