Yes, and a new pant system, and and and. Those who know me well, know that I have very poor impulse control for getting new kit. Fortunately this does not extend to other areas of life (much, anymore), thanks to years of hard earned experience and sobriety. So when I got a new Patagonia M10 jacket and pants this past year and this year, it was not such a shocker. What was shocking is how good these simple pieces are for what I use them for, alpine and ice climbing.
First, the pants. I got these first because I read about everything Colin Hayley writes on the subject of tools for alpine climbing (Colin Hayley on Layering). He's annoyingly and consistently right, which is not surprising given the number of miles he has on his odometer and his intellect. The latter seems healthy and high functioning in spite of some youthful indiscretions of his own admission (who has times for psychedelics anymore anyway...) When some years ago he started writing about pants patterned on martial arts pants, or the old Gramicci gusseted crotch ones, I was interested. These were the best for high stepping and the kind of mobility climbing of any kind requires. And the M10 pants live up to that.
Some observers have asked if these relatively baggy pants don't get caught up in crampons. Not at all, and normally my pants are a patchwork of Tyvec tape (see above link.) They do exactly what they are supposed to do, and roll up into the size of a small (1-200 ml) water bottle. Jacket is similarly compact, maybe a 500 ml water bottle and much less weight. They are both masterpieces of brevity. Two chest pockets on the jacket and a two-way zipper for all your venting needs. A great hood which works well over a helmet and/or balaclava, and wrist cuffs which can go over or under gloves and mittens. Pants with a zipper to pee through, a thigh pocket, loops for attaching boot bungies, and a nicely rubberized waistband with no drawstring. It's as close to a perfect setup as I've ever had.
I run warm and thought it was going to be too hot without zips to dump heat from the pants, and had the same concern for the M10 Jacket. Not so. Under the pants thus far (a cold winter in the northeast) I wear just a pair of Nano-Air pants (more on these to follow) and have never overheated in below freezing temperatures. As Mark Twight wrote, if it's above freezing and you're going alpine climbing, go home (most of the time.) I have skied with full kit and not overheated. I do shed the jacket on approaches, and for hard leads I just use it over a long john top and remove my mid layer (also Nano-Air). I'd probably shift to long johns under the pants for temperatures straddling freezing. It's a dynamite system and I have been tweaking mine for years. This beats other solutions by Patagonia, dead bird, TNF, Norrona and many other very fine manufacturers. I still use my tried and true Beringia setup for skiing, both touring and resort, but otherwise I'm all-in with this setup.
