A High-End Crossover Shell: Rab Khroma Latok Ski Jacket Review

It’s hard to find one ski jacket for all the conditions you’ll encounter riding at ski resorts and in the backcountry. A shell that can hold its own against subzero storms on a resort ridgeline is usually overkill when spring touring in full sun in the 50s. Still, ski apparel brands are game to try, and Rab’s Latok is a worthy applicant.

The Latok is a pricey shell that uses a lighter variant of the high-end GORE-TEX Pro membrane to provide maximum weatherproofing and decent breathability for the build. The cut and construction are mostly in line with a great resort-skiing jacket. But some little tweaks make it a plausible option for lighter backcountry ski tours in colder weather.

Oversized chest pockets accommodate skins and are operable even when wearing a pack — another nod to the backcountry skier. Lighter fabrics in the body help with breathability. While tougher layers in the shoulders and arms are more durable.

In short: The Rab Khroma Latok ($680) ski jacket is a high-quality, high-performing ski shell that’s durable and weatherproof enough for the ski resort but light enough for occasional cold-weather backcountry ski tours.

Read our full review below, or The Best Ski Jackets Buyer’s Guide to see how the Latok compares to our other favorites.

Rab Khroma Latok Ski Jacket Review

Skiers have shoehorned Rab mountaineering jackets onto the slopes for years. And in 2020, the British mountaineering brand finally debuted their ski-specific Khroma apparel lineup. The Khroma collection directly meets the needs of skiers with a wide spectrum of ski jackets, pants, and gloves that are built for the slopes.

Khroma apparel is marketed to backcountry enthusiasts. But the high-end weather-protection and durability offers plenty of options for resort-first skiers.

To contextualize the brand’s offerings, I’d argue that the GORE-TEX ePE-based Khroma Converge shell and Khroma Transpose Insulated shell are both classic resort-only ski shells. While the lighter weight Khroma Latok bridges the resort and backcountry use, by using the GORE-TEX Pro Most Breathable fabric, which employs a lighter face fabric than the other Pro variants. 

I tested the Latok Ski Jacket across 10 days of backcountry touring and resort skiing between the Arapahoe Basin and Breckenridge Ski areas and the surrounding backcountry terrain. My testing fell in late April and May, with plenty of intense sun and warm days. But I also experienced several storms that provided winter-like conditions and high winds to test the Latok’s weatherproofing.

Fabric Construction: Perfect for Downhilling

There’s no lining or insulation here. But because the Latok uses GORE-TEX, it’s best suited for resort skiing or lighter tours in cold weather. High-output skimo types will find it too bulky and hot for the uphill on most days. That said, it’s a durable, weatherproof option for any downhill, whether you used a chairlift or skinned up.

The Latok’s GORE-TEX Pro Most Breathable pairs the industry standard — the GORE-TEX Pro membrane — with a thinner face fabric. The combo makes the jacket lighter in terms of overall weight, more packable, and more breathable. Whether or not that increased breathability is enough for you going uphill depends on your touring style, the climate where you ski, and the weather.

More Waterproof Than Breathable: Rab Khroma Latok Ski Jacket

On colder storm days hiking at the ski resort, the Latok was perfect with just a baselayer underneath. I didn’t overheat, and the pit zip vents were there if I felt myself steaming up.

Spring touring in full-on sun was another story. The GORE-TEX just didn’t breathe enough, and I had to shed the Latok unless I wanted to fully soak my baselayers.

In detail, I run hot, tour relatively fast uphill (not exactly at a skimo level, but I try), and the ambient temperatures were higher. No GORE-TEX three-layer shell is going to be breathable enough for me in those conditions.

While GORE-TEX Pro delivers best-in-class weatherproofing with a 28K waterproofness rating, it’s no more built for high-output ski touring than it would be for cross-country skiing or biking.

The exception to this rule is temperature-dependent. A shell like the Latok works well when temperatures drop low enough. For me, this is about 15 degrees F or less. Stiff winds can make that number higher.

If you keep your layering underneath light, the ambient cold will keep your core temperature down enough that you likely won’t steam and sweat enough to need to take the Latok off.

There are also plenty of folks that maintain a more leisurely pace on the uphill who won’t overheat in the Latok. In fact, I’d guess the majority of skiers that tour at least a few days a year in the backcountry are getting out for shorter tours chasing pow in colder weather. There’s certainly a portion who don’t mind stopping to drop layers as needed. If that’s you, the Latok should work well in most backcountry situations.

High Durability, Poor Packability

We’ve focused on the backcountry here so far, but it’s worth pointing out that at its core, this ski jacket is a great traditional shell for downhill skiing.

The GORE-TEX Pro is ready for any kind of wind or precipitation. While it’s lighter than some resort-first shells, you don’t feel ambient cold temps and biting wind the way you would in wispy backcountry-oriented jackets.

This 40D fabric used on the shoulders, arms, and chest is robust and designed to bear the brunt of abrasions from wearing a pack and run-ins with trees. While my testing period wasn’t long enough to make definitive claims about the long-term durability of the Latok, GORE-TEX Pro is designed to retain its performance over years of heavy use and abuse.

While the lighter 80D fabric is meant to help with breathability, it is limited to the body of the jacket below the chest and is still reasonably thick and stiff. This robust overall construction means the Latok, while light at 611 g, doesn’t exactly pack down to nothing.

The stiffness of the GORE-TEX Pro prevents it from compressing down as tight as thinner, more malleable ski jackets. I found myself strapping it to the outside of my backcountry pack rather than stuffing it inside for this reason.

Fit: Rab Khroma Latok Ski Jacket

The Latok sports a roomy freeride cut that doesn’t bind around the shoulders or chest as slimmer shells can. This is key, because the GORE-TEX Pro Most Breathable construction doesn’t have any inherent stretch. Especially while touring, a stiffer shell can feel restrictive.

The bottom hem of the Latok hangs several inches below the waist, which helps keep snow out by overlapping your pants or bibs. There’s also the powder skirt that’s removable if, like me, you rarely snap it up.

For backcountry use, I always want to lose the bulk of the powder skirt, as I’ve never removed one and later wished I hadn’t. On the resort, I found the skirt’s highest and best use is forming a seal to block wind on especially breezy days.

I’m 6’0” tall and 190 pounds and went with the XL size. Though, I’m probably right between Large and XL and could’ve worn the Large without issue. In the XL, I found the sleeves a touch long but not too long. And I’d always prefer too long over too short in that department. Despite Rab being European, I wouldn’t advise automatically sizing up as I might with other overseas brands.

Pockets and Features

The Rab Latok has all the usual ski-specific features. The aforementioned powder skirt, a sleeve-mounted pass pocket, pit zips, a helmet-compatible hood, and internal sleeve gaiters. I like sleeve gaiters in a resort jacket, but I find they limit venting. For backcountry utility, I’d be okay without them in the Latok.

There aren’t any expressly backcountry-oriented features in this jacket. But the placement and size of the chest pockets make them accessible even when wearing a pack.

They’re also large enough to accommodate folded-up skins, which is a nice option for quick transitions without needing to take off your pack. (I ski a 120mm width backcountry ski in a 190 length. Splitboard skins may be fatter but the lengths are shorter.)

Besides these chest pockets and the small pass pocket, there’s just one other on the Latok: a small mesh option on the inside of the chest that’s big enough for a large smartphone. The spacious size of the chest pockets means you won’t be hurting for storage space. But if you carry a lot of small items in your jacket, you might have to dig for them a bit.

The standard-length pit zips provide solid emergency venting when things start heating up. Dual zippers let you micro-adjust the vent opening. Given the Latok’s intended dual-use as a backcountry shell, I would like to see longer zips that let you completely blow the jacket open to maximize venting and hopefully avoid needing to take it off as often.

Rab Khroma Latok Ski Jacket: Conclusion

The Rab Khroma Latok ski jacket is a great resort crossover shell if you mostly tour in cold weather and aren’t pushing your heart rate on the uphill. If you’re a dedicated, high-output ski tourer, you’ll likely want something lighter and more breathable. But this design is perfect for resort skiing and lighter backcountry ski and splitboard tours.

Resort-first skiers who want something a bit lighter for the occasional tour will love this ski jacket. But this jacket could also fit into a quiver of jackets to be used for cold midwinter tours and ski resort days and then swapped out for a lighter ski jacket on warmer days and for spring skiing laps.

Find out how the Latok compares to our other favorite ski jackets in the Best Ski Jackets Buyer’s Guide.