REASONS TO BUY
Lightweight
Breathable
Packable
REASONS TO AVOID
Less protection from wind chill
Less durable
Patagonia Storm10 - Women's Review
This lightweight hardshell is well suited to milder climates and higher output aerobic activities
Credit: Patagonia
Our Verdict
The Patagonia Storm 10 is a very lightweight hardshell jacket. It feels like a waterproof version of our favorite wind shirt, the Patagonia Houdini. It is lightweight and breathable, which limits how well it protects from colder and windier weather--the thinner fabric conveys more wind chill than burlier and thicker fabrics. However, the positive tradeoff is that it's very breathable, lightweight, and packable. This jacket is great for higher-output aerobic activities and milder temperatures. It feels a bit more plasticky on the inside, which can feel clammy in humid or wet weather, but overall it is very well made and a great choice for rainy weather.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Patagonia Storm 10 feels like Patagonia's signature Houdini wind jacket, just redesigned into a hardshell. There's a lot to love about that!
Performance Comparison
The Patagonia Storm 10 is an excellent lightweight hardshell.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
Weather Protection
The Storm 10 is made of Patagonia's very lightweight, 3-layer H2No Performance Standard shell material. Because this jacket feels very thin for a hardshell, it doesn't provide much of a barrier against wind and cold temperatures. Shells are not meant to be insulating layers, but their ability to block wind can help you stay significantly warmer in inclement weather. In milder climates, this shell does a good job of blocking precipitation. This jacket is well suited to warmer temperatures, rain, and higher output aerobic activities.
The Storm10 will go over a helmet, but it's a bit snug.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
Mobility and Fit
The Storm 10 is made of very lightweight material that feels more supple and moves more readily than stiffer shell materials. The cut and design provide an excellent range of movement for even the most vigorous cold-weather pursuits, like cross country skiing, and permits comfortable arm movements. We found the hood less comfortable when worn over a helmet, so it would not be our top pick for alpine climbing or ski mountaineering, but it is likely too light-duty for those activities anyway.
Comfortable reaching for anything in the Storm 10!
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
Venting and Breathability
The H2No fabric in the Storm 10 is very thin and highly breathable. This jacket does not have pit zips, but the fabric breathes well enough it doesn't really need them. That said, when you do max out the breathability of this jacket with a really high pace (and body heat) or in more humid and warm/wet conditions, this fabric feels a bit more clammy, in part due to how the inside of the fabric feels against the skin.
The Storm10 doesn't have pit zips to assist with breathability, but the thin fabric was breathable enough for high aerobic activities like skate skiing.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
Weight
The Storm 10 is among the lightest jackets in this review. It feels like our favorite wind jacket has been redesigned into a 3-layer hardshell jacket. It is heavier and bulkier, but not much! It is designed to stuff into the chest pocket, but when we tried, we found the pocket to be a little too small to make this a reasonable task or a useful feature.
This is a great choice for an emergency hardshell layer. It is light and compact enough to stuff into your backpack and not feel bothered that you brought it even though you had sunny and dry weather for the whole week you were out backpacking.
The Storm10 is wonderfully lightweight and has a pocket for stuffing the jacket into. However, we never successfully got it to stow into this pocket.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
Features and Design
The Storm 10 is a simple and streamlined hardshell jacket. We loved the waterproof external chest pocket, and we appreciated that the jacket was designed to stuff into this pocket–though it proved a bit too tight a fit to be useful.
We love a good chest pocket! This one reverses so you can stuff the jacket into it, but it was too tight to fit easily. We didn't really mind, as we don't often find ourselves stuffing and stowing our hardshells, anyway.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
The hood will accommodate a helmet, but it is a bit tight, restricting this shell's utility to milder, less technical mountain pursuits. There are minimal zippers and no pit zips–just the two hand pockets and a chest pocket. This makes for a more supple jacket overall.
The hood could fit a helmet well enough, and then cinch closer to your head when not wearing one.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
Should You Buy the Patagonia Storm 10?
The Storm 10 is an impressively lightweight 3-layer hardshell jacket. It is too thin to be an all-season alpine climbing shell, but it is very well suited to warmer climates, wetter days, and higher-paced activities that require a breathable shell. This is a great hardshell for the fair-weather mountaineer who wants a proper shell for the occasional storm day, but is not exposed to extreme weather at altitude or out for extended periods on longer trips.
What Other Hardshell Jacket Should You Consider?
The Storm 10 is an amazing hardshell for the weight. If you need a bit more weather protection, consider the Norrona Trollveggen Pro, a remarkable and fully featured hardshell. For another option in lightweight comfort, the Rab Kinetic Alpine 2.0 is very well suited to higher output aerobic pursuits but offers a bit more weather protection and durability.
The Storm 10 was great for a walk around the block on a wet and relatively warm late winter day in Ridgway, CO.
Credit: Lyra Pierotti
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Lyra Pierotti
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