Mammut Alyeska Jacket ($699)

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Courtesy of MammutThe Mammut Alyeska jacket is built to handle rain, freezing temps, and more.

As much fun as it is to have a quiver of ski jackets, sometimes your cohabitant doesn't appreciate your monopolization of the hallway coat rack. "What the hell," Cohabitant says. "Can't you leave me one hook?" To which you reply: "It's not my fault. Different conditions warrant different jackets." Enter the Mammut Alyeska, which instantly reduces the quiver by two or three jackets, making life better for everyone.

WHAT IT IS:
As the price suggests, this is not a jacket you buy to hit the bunny hill a few times a year. This is the tricked-out Lamborghini you buy to drive across Siberia. Mammut, a hardcore Swiss manufacturer of premier gear, markets the Alyeska as its best all-around jacket, with good reason. Using three-layer Gore-Tex softshell fabric that protects you from every kind of precipitation, the Alyeska also allows your body to breathe and thus regulate its temperature while moving. It's burly for a softshell -- just picking it up will tell you that -- but that's the point. While a hardshell won't breathe and a traditional softshell won't shield Mother Nature's fury, the Alyeska does both. "It's the only thing I wear for skiing," says Mammut-sponsored ski mountaineer Dave Watson, who skied the infamous Bottleneck Couloir (8,350 meters) on K2 in 2009. "In everything from sloppy, wet conditions where snow sticks to everything, to hiking in the rain, to full-on powder skiing -- this jacket has always kept me dry."

WHY IT RULES:
Whereas most softshells allow too much cold air and wind to permeate their membranes in really cold temps, if properly layered underneath, the Alyeska keeps you warm on days as chilly as 15 below. It also gets the little things right, including an angled zipper to avoid chin chafing, Lycra wrist gaiters, functional pockets, a removable powder skirt (that actually works) and two-way underarm vents. Plus, it has a cozy, fleece-like interior backing designed to nullify sweat. "If you're skinning with a pack, that fleece just sucks all the moisture away from your back," Watson says.

WHERE TO FIND IT:
Go to Mammut.ch to find a local dealer or purchase it there.

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Devon O'Neil

Writer, Action Sports

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O'Neil was raised in the Virgin Islands before dropping anchor to ski, write, and combine the two for profit. He now lives in Breckenridge, Colo.