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01For the hour the sky changes its mind

Pioneer Camp rain and wind shells

Hooded rain jackets with taped seams and three or four pockets, fleece-lined softshells for a cold dry day, and light windbreakers that fold into a pocket, several of them rated UPF 100+.

  • 11 styles
  • 36 colourways
  • S to 3XL size run

Pioneer Camp shell

A shell is bought for one of two problems and they want different jackets. If the problem is rain, you want the waterproof ones: a coated face, a hood that adjusts, and seams sealed with tape on the inside, because a seam is a line of needle holes and untaped it will let water through long before the fabric does. If the problem is wind on a dry day, a softshell is more comfortable: it breathes better, it stretches, and the fleece backing means you need less under it. What it will not do is hold out a downpour. The windbreakers are the third case: almost no weight, no insulation at all, and they live crushed in a pack until the wind gets up on a ridge. Sizes run S to 3XL. A shell is the outermost layer, so take it a size up from your shirt size if anything at all is going underneath.

026 styles

Pioneer Camp rain jackets

033 styles

Pioneer Camp softshell jackets

042 styles

The rest of the rain and wind shells rail

Prices are the figures from our last update; we refresh them on a schedule, which is the least glamorous part of the Pioneer Camp way, and the figure at the till is the one that counts.

05Before you order

Questions about Pioneer Camp rain and wind shells

What separates a waterproof shell from a water-resistant one, when a softshell is the better call, and what taped seams are for.

Are Pioneer Camp rain jackets actually waterproof or just water-resistant?

Both exist on this shelf and the card tells you which. A jacket called waterproof has a coated face and its seams sealed with tape on the inside, and that tape is what stops water coming through the needle holes at the shoulders. A jacket called water-resistant sheds a shower and no more, which is a smaller promise and an honest one.

When would you take a Pioneer Camp softshell instead of a rain shell?

On a cold dry day with wind in it. A softshell breathes better than a waterproof, stretches when you reach, and has a fleece backing that means one less layer underneath; what it will not do is keep out steady rain. If the forecast is wind and cloud, take the softshell; if it is rain, take the taped one.

Do Pioneer Camp windbreakers pack down small enough to carry?

They are the lightest thing on the site and several fold into their own pocket, so they end up living in a pack from spring onward. They carry no insulation at all, so they are a wind layer over a fleece rather than a jacket in their own right, and a couple of them carry a UPF figure for open ground in summer.

Every Pioneer Camp layer, every size

Every size, colourway and fill in the Pioneer Camp catalogue sits behind this button, with the price from our last update against each one.