Peak Performance Ridge Hipe Ace Jacket review: Three-layer protection for four-season adventures

It’s been a long, hot, dry summer, but we all know what that means… The clouds are already gathering on the horizon, and you don’t have to be Bob Dylan to realise a hard rain’s a‐gonna fall, very soon. And once it starts, well, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

So, as autumn approaches, are you ready? And by ready, I mean: do you have a decent, dependable waterproof jacket hanging somewhere within arm’s reach? If not, and you plan to spend any time outdoors doing things like hill walking and trail meandering, it’s time to get prepared.

Peak Performance is a Swedish brand created by a couple of elite skiers who know a thing or two about outdoor activities in challenging environments.

The Ridge Hipe Ace Jacket is a three-layer, breathable, windproof, waterproof hardshell outer jacket designed to make adventures on the wild side more comfortable and enjoyable in all kinds of conditions. Does it succeed? I’ve been testing the Ridge for months to find out.

Peak Performance Ridge Hipe Ace Jacket review

Price and availability

Available in just one colourway – cliff edge (a kind of greeny brown) and major brown for men; cliff edge and plum truffle for women – the Ridge Ace Hipe jacket sits in the middle of the Peak Performance range and will cost you around £350 in Britain, close to $400 in the United States and near enough €500 across the European Union.

Design and materials

Designed in Åre, northern Sweden (and made in Vietnam), like all Peak Performance apparel, the Ridge outer shell jacket is constructed primarily from 40D lightweight ripstop polyester, backed by a soft tricote layer, with Hipe Ace membrane technology doing the clever stuff to keep biting winds and wet weather at bay while letting internally generated moisture out.

It has an adjustable hood with a reasonably rigid laminated brim, a long back panel, a hem that can be tightened with toggles, Velcro straps at the wrist, and three pockets: two large zippered pouches on the outside and a mesh pocket on the inside.

While it has a full-length two-way YKK AquaGuard zipper on the front, it has no pit zips or underarm ventilation.

Specifications

• RRP: £350 (UK) / $399 (US) / €499.95 (EU)
• Gender availability: Male and female versions available
• Materials: 40D lightweight ripstop polyester with a soft tricote backer and Hipe Ace technology
• Waterproofness: HH 20,000mm
• Breathability: 20,000 g/m2/24h
• Weight: Men’s 446g; Women’s: 402g
• Colours: Men’s: Cliff edge & major brown; Women’s: Cliff edge & plum truffle
• Sizes (UK): Men’s: S–2XL; Women’s: XS–XL
• Best for: Trail walking, hill hiking, scrambling, backpacking

Performance

I have been trialling the Ridge jacket on trails since spring, wearing it on adventures ranging from walking the dog along the occasionally rain-streaked South West Coast to camping and hill hiking in the Highlands of Scotland.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say the weather gods are a bit afraid of this jacket, since they have avoided throwing anything too soggy at it for most of the test period, but I have been out and about in my fair share of showers and downpours while wearing it. And I can confidently say that it works. It keeps the wind and rainwater out brilliantly.

This jacket has a pretty relaxed fit, so you can easily wear a base layer and a chunkier midlayer – such as a fleece or a puffer jacket – underneath during colder conditions, but the soft tricot backer means the material is comfortable next to your skin if you choose to simply wear a T-shirt underneath.

The hood, which features an embedded RECCO Rescue System reflector (to help emergency service searchers locate you if things go belly up in the wilderness), can be pulled tight in adverse conditions for maximum protection. It also boasts a proper peak, not some flimsy thing, and this directs rainwater and snow away from your eyes.

With a single Velcro strip, the cuffs fasten securely around gloves, and while there’s no dedicated snow skirt, the long back panel and adjustable hem keep breezes out.

I really love the little touches on this jacket that contribute so much to its overall comfiness, such as the soft-touch material that surrounds the chin guard.

Plenty of other jackets have a zip garage, so you don’t catch your chin skin or beard in the zipper (never a nice experience), but I’ve never come across a jacket with such a generous amount of velvet-soft material to shield the lower face from rubbing. When conditions are hard you have your jacket zipped right up, this makes a big difference.

The pockets on this jacket are nice and large, so you can fit everything in them from smartphones and other devices through to old-fashioned maps. The zips on the two outer pockets are excellent quality (YKK), and there’s also an interior pocket to keep things protected from the elements.

One downside is that the shoulders don’t appear to be reinforced with any additional protection, so wearing a backpack might damage the material in this area as the harness rubs against it. That said, few jackets offer this level of protection.

A bigger complaint from me is that there are no pit zips. On test, I found that the Hipe Ace technology worked just as well as a waterproof barrier as better-known systems, such as Gore-Tex. However, all of these membrane-based systems work on an evaporative basis that is only truly breathable when conditions are right and relatively dry (like in the Alps and the Rockies in the US).

In the more wet and humid conditions we experience here in the UK, they perform less well, and despite the impressive figures produced by lab tests, you will still get hot and sweaty and experience the build-up of moisture on the inside of synthetic jackets, especially if you are doing something dynamic, like hiking up a hill, clambering up a steep peak approach or cross-country skiing… unless, that is, they are very well vented.

The Ridge does feature a two-way main zip, so you can open it from the top or bottom (or both), which helps you dump excess heat when necessary. But, in my opinion, pit zips are by far the best way to resolve temperature regulation and moisture problems, not least because you can have them undone in the rain while you’re hiking or climbing, and rain still won’t get in.

Verdict

Overall, the Ridge Hipe Ace outer shell from Peak Performance is a great jacket, which provides good protection, looks and feels good, and has quality features. I would like to see it available in a few more colours – while it’s a nice natural hue, brown and another shade of brown don’t excite everyone – but on a more functional level, the main thing the coat is missing is pit zips. In my opinion, the very best waterproof jackets need pit zips, and this is a hill I’ll die on (probably because I’ve overheated and got mad about the lack of underarm ventilation).

Also consider

For a top-notch waterproof shell that does have pit zips, and offers sensational protection against even the angriest of elements when you're doing some proper adventuring, the Makalu Jacket from Mountain Equipment is hard to beat.

Alternatively, if you’re counting grams, the Montane Phase Lite is a super lightweight shell jacket, tipping the scales at just 300g, which still offers excellent waterproof performance (HH 28,000mm).

For a more budget friendly option, which will still keep you dry and fend off windchill, the Jack Wolfskin Eagle Peak jacket is well worth a look, and you can often find it for under £100.