[Review] Men’s GLCR Ether Down Thermagraph Jacket by 686

The GLCR Ether Down Thermagraph Jacket by 686 may look like your everyday ski or snowboard jacket but when you open it up, it’s a whole different animal. What makes the Ether Thermagraph Down so special is the focused down paneling. 600 fill down is strategically placed in your shoulders, back, and through the chest. This ensures ultimate warmth in the most important places.

Aside from the Thermagraph down, there are a lot of simple but great features throughout the jacket. First of all, the storm flap was a huge surprise. I didn’t expect it to not flop around in the wind and drive me crazy but it didn’t at all. With only one button, I couldn’t believe it but was happily surprised.

The collar is comfortable and spacious enough and includes a couple of vented breath holes with hopes of letting your air travel through it instead of coming up into your face only to find you’ve been fogging your goggles.

Another simple and small feature that I really love are the hand pockets. Every jacket has hand pockets but not every jacket has zippers that zip down to close. Like I said, an extremely small feature but I really like that I zip down to close the pockets. Also included is a nice pass clip so I can clip my pass inside my pocket and ensure that I will never lose it.

As far as warmth goes, I used to be more of a just a shell kind of guy but I’m slowly becoming one who enjoys a good insulated jacket. With the Thermagraph insulation in mind, 686 rates this jacket as a 6 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the warmest (comfort range of 10-32 degrees F). I think that is a fair rating and I also think that if you’re only going to have one jacket to ski in, a rating of 6 is the perfect rating. You can easily layer underneath it on cold days and on warm days, simply wear a light base layer.

The Ether Down Thermagraph Jacket is a great piece to add to your collection of jackets. With the right amount of down throughout, it will be easy to regulate your temperature on days that are warm or cold. Common ski jacket features are bundled into a not so common jacket with 600 fill down placement. The Ether down is a feature packed jacket but is also a very stylish jacket. With this jacket, you won’t have to sacrifice style for warmth.