Gear-up for the cold! With the BE-X FronTier One Hardshell
Currently, the summer is gone, the weather becomes bad and naturally you stay at home or get wet… Begadis own premium clothing series, FronTier One (a fork of the BE-X Brand) aims to close this gap with their Hardshell line, and we want to show you how it works.
FronTier One opted for a 2 Layer Laminate, as it is both highly water-repellent and extremely breathable and partner, said to have been supplying the Norwegian military and Australian forces for more than 10 years.
The jacket is designed as a half-length jacket to provide sufficient protection, but also to work with holsters and subloads. The trouser is a full-featured trouser with all pockets needed – booth boast a water column of 10,000mm and a water vapor permeability of also 10,000MVP. The latter is impressive, even the cheapest laminates feature water columns of 8000-10000, but stagnate at an MVP value of 5000.
When we tested the clothing, we arrived at -17°C after 8h in a snow storm in a heated accommodation – and had no sweating build up inside.
What is important to understand: A laminate is always water repellent, never waterproof. Mechanical stress (such as friction), soiling and soap residue can affect the water column. At the last bivouac, we had a thunderstorm that drove the rain from all directions into the camp and pressed the Tarps almost flat against the bivy bags made of the same material. After 3 hours weak spots had been created at the places where the wet tarps rubbed on the laminate – the rest was completely dry.
