"I bought an Arcteryx Sidewidewinder TR jacket in January of 2002 to replace my old Marmot alpinist jacket which is yellow and red but still in great condition after several seasons of hard ski bummin. The arcteryx jacket has impeccible fit and looks great. However all accolades end there.
First, the powder skirt doesn't work. Snow is always getting up through it on powder days, so it forces you to have to wear bibs because pants will allow snow to wet up your stomach area. Also the skirt is made out of a non-breathable material, so that takes away from the breathability. The gaitors on their pants have the same non-breathing problem.
Secondly, the closures for the sleeves at the wrist are a total joke. Only get this jacket is you want cold air funneled into your gloves because of a nasty little crease that their stap at the wrist causes.
Last but not least, the waterproof but not airproof zippers are flat out DANGEROUS. The waterproof zippers on the pockets and pit zips are ok. But the main zipper on the front has a tendency to be sticky and actually unzips from the bottom. The only reason I'm writing this is because yesterday the zipper on the front totally broke, and because there are no kind of backups, i.e. flaps with snaps, etc. When the zipper breaks, the jacket is entirely useless. Luckily this happened to me on a 5 inch powder day in a drought year at the resort (sarcasm) and not 3 days deep into the back country where only an entire roll of duct tape would have saved me from a jacket totally open to the elements.
I expect to get more than one season out of a jacket that is one of the most expensive on the market. I did mail the jacket back to Arcteryx today, and I will report what kind of customer service I recieve from them. For now I will go back to the old school Marmot alpinist. It may not be stylish, but it beats the Arcteryx stuff hands down."
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