Review: Mountain Hardwear Quark Jacket

Does this jacket have a roll-away hood?

Do NOT buy a Quark jacket!

First of all, good luck even finding one, and only a few retailers bothered to buy them. These pieces are like TNF’s electric vest: meant only for publicity, not for actual sales.

Second of all, the welded seams on this item cannot withstand being machine washed. Welded seams are a nightmare for MHW’s warranty department.

This piece is an overpriced, flimsy glorified windbreaker. Shame on Mountain Hardwear for hyping this piece of “vaporwear”. Shame on their Marketing and Publicity departments for having no integrity.

Shame on Mountain Hardwear: once, they were the best, now they are just marketing overpriced crap for Gert Boyle and Columbia Sportswear, their owners.

To René Jeninga: No roll-away hood.

To seamallowance: I disagree with most of what you say. But the price is quite high, agreed.

On the Mountainhardwear site by the specifications of the Quark jacket it says: Attached, roll-away, Ergo hood with laminated brim ??? So this is false information!?

To Gear Junkie: My comments are absolutely 100% correct and come from actual experience with the company’s product, not the fantasies of the Steamboat-Springs-based marketing person. These pieces have nearly a 100% return rate and were sold in minuscule numbers. They never really intended for this item to sell in significant units. More publicity for what they call the “2%” pieces means that they sell more generic fleece boring-wear to the other 98%.

I know that you are old friends with the various PR department’s women (and they are ALWAYS women). Don’t be the outdoor industry writers version of a “beltway insider”. Your readers expect more.

This is to seamallowance. Do you even own this jacket? I didn’t think so because I do – for a year now. It’s the best three season shell I own. And in my line up I have arcteryx, tad gear, and outdoor reasearch. It works great and breaths unlike any other. Shame on you – for reviewing a product you don’t own, shame on you for slander, shame on you for getting your facts wrong! And by the way who the heck throws a high end shell in the washing machine anyway moron? Never threw my theta ar in the wash, or any other for that matter. Why am I wasting my time you obviously don’t know your head from your azz.

I must say that this was an interesting piece taken on a week long trek in the green mnts. I borrowed it from a friend to see if it might be worth the investment… though I was taking a set of rain wear I usually take too. In the end I never used my own jacket and the Quark held its own during three days of hiking in the rain. However in the end I went with the North Face DIAD as it was almost as light but had a much tougher fabric, though waiting for a sale key as I couldn’t shell out for that jacket at full price either. Now if someone would start to make lighter rain pants, though the fabric would need to be abrasion resistant and light

I would have to agree with the reviewer and the other Quark owner as far as the reviews of the jacket. I spent a good deal of time playing in the Flatirons of Boulder in rain, snow and ice. It also made several trips into the Sangre de Cristos and the Cascades, but for shorter trips. I wouldn’t be comfortable putting a thirty or forty pound pack on it, but everyday use it’s tremendous.

A warning: I’ve been looking for one for my girlfriend and realized the Quark is no longer on Mountain Hardwear’s website. I wouldn’t be surprised if they stopped making the Quark because of low sales. The price point was a bit high, though if you could get it on prodeal it was nice. :) I also own Arcteryx and Patagonia jackets and the Mountain Hardwear is the most breathable. Be well and namaste.

I see these things all over. I got mine at a Colombia outlet, but have seen this jacket a plenty of outfitters in MN and WI.

Awesome jacket, though not very durable. Brushed against the tree and ripped it. It’s really light and breathable though, and kept rain and sand off of me during a freak sand storm. I have a gore-tex shell now for rougher adventures and keep this for emergencies and when I want to be REALLY comfortable.

I wore this jacket on my last trip into the southern alps. It kept out the wind, kept me dry and even after a 30m skid down the ice it came off with only a tiny tear which really suprised me. It’s certainly not a jacket that I’d wear when bush-bashing through South Westland but for what I want it’s a top piece of kit.

To Seamallowance…Really? You sound like a guy MH fired because of stupidity. What an idiot… Anyways, I’ve owned this for over a year and it is awesome. Super light, stretchy, waterproof and more breathable than any goretex I’ve used. I’m a field tech for a biology research project and spend over 100 days a summer in the Teton Range backcountry. I have no rips, nothing and I’m always carrying a 40# pack. This jacket rules.

@verson1 You are much closer to the truth than you can possibly know.

He is right in stating that the Quark was a 2% piece. Products like it always will be- users of our technical gear will always be outnumbered by casual outdoor consumers. It’s been that way since long before the purchase of the company, and we’ve continued to move in that direction because of the demands of the market and COLM.

I don’t work in marketing or design, and I’m not an executive so I won’t waste my time pretending I can explain the business reasons for this. It’s the same at all of the other large outdoor companies- Marmot, Patagonia, The North Face, etc. The numbers for technical vs casual consumer are even lower for TNF and Patagonia, where the relative sales is closer to 1%.