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ProView – Big Agnes Women’s Bearsley Jacket Review

Bundled in my bright red jacket, I glide across a frozen tarn, skating over frictionless alpine ice on a brisk November afternoon. I’m toasty and warm despite the cool air on this ice-covered lake framed by high Sierra granite. I put the Big Agnes Bearsley UL Jacket to the test this fall in the eastern Sierra Nevada, wearing this jacket on windy days and in sub-freezing temperatures. Read on to see what I found while putting this jacket through extensive testing this Fall in the range of light.

Big Agnes Women's Bearsley Jacket

Product Name: Big Agnes Women's Bearsley Jacket

Product Description: Ultralight, ultra-packable women's hooded down jacket. For the ultralight minimalist who requires functionality and style, our Bearsley Jacket is a light-as-air layer built for performance and warmth. Designed with our Signature Diamond Quilting, and insulated with premium 850 Fill Power DownTek PFC-free™ water-repellent down, this hooded jacket will keep you warm without weighing you down.

Offer price: MSRP: $349.95

Currency: USD

  • Quality
    (5)
  • Features
    (4)
  • Fit
    (4)
  • Durability
    (4)

Summary

The Big Agnes Bearsley UL Jacket is seriously lightweight and surprisingly warm. Made with 10D, recycled nylon face fabric, and 3 ounces of Responsible Down Standard-certified fill, this jacket weighs in at 7 ounces in the extra-small size. Pair that with a slim, flattering fit and Big Agnes’s unique quilted insulation pattern to keep warmth in more effectively, this ultralight down jacket is a great choice for the weight-conscious outdoor enthusiast.

Overall
4.3

Pros

  • Ultra lightweight fabric and high-quality fill
  • Slim, flattering fit through the torso
  • Surprisingly warm for its weight

Cons

  • The Hood has a slightly awkward fit, and could use a cinch
  • Hem cinch doesn’t tighten enough

Comfort & Fit

According to Big Agnes, the Bearsley is built with a close-but-not-restrictive fit to conserve “maximum thermal efficiency.” Down jackets work by holding your body heat in, not by producing heat themselves. Thus, a down jacket can insulate you more efficiently by decreasing the space your body needs to heat between you and the jacket. I thought this was a great design feature, decreasing weight while offering a flattering, streamlined fit. 

Fitted but not stifling, this jacket fits closely in the shoulders and arms and flares around the hips. I have narrow hips and shoulders, and really liked the fit. The hem of the jacket was slightly long on me, providing increased warmth through a little bit of extra coverage for the butt. I was surprised that I could easily lift my arms above my head without the sleeves getting too short or feeling restricted in the armpits, striking an excellent balance between a close cut and an overly restrictive one. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed with the drawcord cinch on the hem of the jacket, as I found it couldn’t cinch the jacket in tightly enough to do much to keep cold air from coming up through the hem. A drawcord providing more adjustment would be an excellent improvement to this down piece.

Additionally, the Bearsley’s hood didn’t quite meet the mark for me. It was just slightly too tall and didn’t have any kind of cinch to close it down tightly during high wind. I wished it was a little bit closer-fitting, or had a way to tighten it down to keep it from blowing off my head in the wind. My ears were still chilly on cold days with the hood over my head because of the awkward fit.

Features & Packability

The Bearsley’s smooth face fabric is made of 10D Pertex Quantum nylon. This fabric was comfortable against my skin and felt frictionless against a fleece or long-sleeve tee. It also felt silky against my cheeks and ears when I donned the Bearsley’s hood for a cold, windy day of running in the mountains. 

The storage capacity of this piece was entirely adequate for me, with two large, zippered pockets on the jacket’s exterior, a zippered interior pocket, and two interior drop pockets. I could easily toss earbuds, keys, a phone, and a snack in these pockets for a quick, blustery hike or run in the hills. In fact, it could probably use fewer pockets, as I found that I never used all of them.

The right-hand pocket has a double zipper to allow you to stuff your jacket into its pocket, saving space in your pack. It compressed well, but I had trouble zipping the packed jacket shut when it was compressed into its pocket. The design here would be improved with a slightly larger exterior pocket. 

Weight & Warmth

This puffy is seriously lightweight. I tested the Bearsley in an extra small, which weighs in at an impressive 7 ounces, despite its 3 ounces of down. For the sake of comparison, Mountain Hardwear’s Ghost Whisperer Hoody is one of the lightest high-quality down jackets on the market, and it’s size small weights in at 6.9 ounces. 

Unlike the Ghost Whisperer Hoody, Big Agnes has eliminated the need for baffles every few centimeters through its signature diamond quilting pattern, keeping your body heat in more efficiently. Big Agnes says that this pattern “allows down to expand to its fullest while using less stitching than traditional quilt lines.” I was skeptical of this claim at first, but as I wore the jacket more and more, I realized that it was indeed warmer than similar jackets of its weight.

Additionally, the Bearsley is insulated with 850 fill power down. Fill power is a metric of down quality determined by measuring the cubic inches of space one ounce of that particular down takes up. Higher fill power-down lofts better, meaning less down is needed for more warmth. The Ghost Whisperer Hoody is stuffed with 800 fill power down, meaning that the Bearsely weighs in about the same, but might be warmer as a result of its higher fill power and innovative quilting pattern.

Despite all of this, I’ll be honest: I wish it had once more ounce of down. The Bearsely is a great jacket, but it won’t be my choice for the coldest days. It’s perfect for summer backpacking, a chilly day out, or use as a midlayer in seriously frigid conditions. But it’s not a Rab Positron. That said, it’s a wonderful insulating layer for warm conditions or an active layer in cool conditions, but it’s not the jacket I want to sit at a belay wearing when the mercury drops.

When I opened my package from Big Agnes and saw the jacket for the first time, I thought my jacket was stained. Upon inspection, I realized that the Bearsley’s face fabric was just so thin that you could see black down through the fabric. The face fabric is constructed with 10D Pertex Quantum fabric, a lightweight material that has become the ultralight standard for jackets of this class. I thought it was a great choice for an ultralight puffy jacket like this one.

Durability and Construction

This is a high-quality jacket made with a 10D nylon ripstop face fabric. While the 10D fabric shines in weight savings, it lacks the durability of a higher-denier face fabric. Despite the low denier, Pertex Quantum is reputed to have a relatively hearty fabric, made with tightly woven yarns to keep the wind out and down inside the face fabric. 

During several months of testing, I didn’t rip or tear the jacket, but I did my best to keep it away from rogue branches and squeeze chimneys. Luckily, it’s an easily patchable fabric, so a little rip would be fixed up with just a little bit of Tenacious Tape. Do your best to treat it well: it’s your lightweight layer for light-and-fast missions, not the beater jacket you wear every day around town. 

The construction of this jacket was excellent, with no seam failures, rips, or tears experienced during testing. I was impressed with its high quality and 

Friendliness to the Earth

As a company, Big Agnes is moving away from PFAS, a group of forever chemicals associated with damaging environmental and human health impacts. This jacket is made with PFAS-free, water-repellent down and a PFAS-free water-repellent finish on its face fabric. In addition, the Bearsley’s Pertex Quantum face fabric is made of recycled nylon, a fabric traditionally made from crude oil, meaning that this jacket reduces dependence on fossil fuels in outdoor apparel. Additionally, Bearsley’s insulation contains 100% Responsible Down Standard certified down, providing you with the knowledge that your down was sourced from ethical operations. All in all, the Bearsely has numerous sustainability features that make it a good buy on the sustainability front. 

The Final Word

The Bearseley is an excellent choice for the ultralight enthusiast looking for a lightweight but warm piece for cool-weather hiking and running. Mine became my go-to for skating alpine ice and hiking this fall in the Sierra, and is likely to end up as an emergency layer at the bottom of my pack on ski tours this winter as a result of its featherlight weight. If you’re looking for a seriously warm down jacket, this isn’t your best option. But for a lightweight down layer, the Bearseley is hard to beat. 


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About the Gear Tester

Outdoor Prolink Pro
Jackie Florman
Backpacking Guide :: 

Jackie is a backpacking guide at Lasting Adventures Guide Service in Yosemite National Park, CA. She also works on a snow hydrology field research team, writes for HikingDaily.com, and is currently writing a thesis in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She loves splitboarding, scrambling, and rambling around in the Eastern Sierra and the Colorado Rockies. Follow her adventures on instagram @jackieeflor.

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