6th November 2013, Paramo Alta II

On offer at Go Outdoors

I’ve been a fan of Paramo gear for a good few years now, it’s not for everybody but it works for me. I’m the very proud and happy owner of a Paramo Velez and a Paramo Alta II.
An email from Go Outdoors popped into my Inbox earlier offering the very excellent Paramo Alta II for £150, not a bad deal at all – I paid £200 for mine around 5 years ago. The current list price is £245.
Have a look here. This link is for the Men’s garment, ladies needn’t worry – the offer is valid for their garments too!

The Alta II isn’t the lightest waterproof in the world, but as long as it’s cleaned and re-proofed from time to time it’s an excellent bit of kit – everything is in the right place, it’s comfortable, and of course it’s extremely breathable.
You can read the full spec on the Paramo website here.
The good bits about the Alta II for me are:
Under-arm pit-zips. These not only improve ventilation, but you can pop your arms through the open zips in warm weather – it’s almost like a gillet,
Sleeves can be rolled up, great in warm weather
Warm, although sometimes it can be too warm! In cold weather I usually just have a merino wool T shirt (Aldi, £15) and a long sleeved Helly underneath.
Decent hood, does exactly what a decent hood should do
Pockets, enough and in the right places
Oh, and it’s waterproof – PROVIDED you keep up to speed on the cleaning & reproofing. Once a Paramo garment fails, it’s TOTAL failure – water just soaks through. In my experience a Paramo garment doesn’t lose it’s waterproof properties gradually, it’s either waterproof….or it’s not. This is the bad bit, so keep it clean and re-proof it a couple of times a year – it’s not a difficult procedure.
I’ve used my Alta II in all sorts of situations, the TGO Challenge is probably the hardest test it’s been through, but it’s always come out smiling, and with me cosy and dry inside it.
I use Go Outdoors a fair amount and have found them to be on the better side of okay, if you can get hold of a sales person with the appropriate product knowledge you might be surprised.
I’m not being paid or receiving any freebies for this post, I’m just very happy with Go Outdoors and Paramo….especially when the stuff’s being sold at a damn good price!