Backpacker Magazine, May 2000. Pgs 130-131

    It's a sunny summer morning and I'm loading my pack for a weekend trip to northern Arizona's San Francisco Peaks. Should I bring my serious-weather rain parka and shell pants? Nah�why lug an extra three and a half pounds when there's not a cloud in the sky?

    Until recently, such weight-saving rationalizations often had me ducking under rock overhangs to escape sudden thunderstorms. Then last summer, the weighty decision of whether or not to carry raingear became an easy call, thanks to Red Ledge's new Thunderlight jacket and pants. I'd be a wet, shivering fool to leave this head-to-toe weather protection, weighing a combined total of only 22 ounces�less than two apples�at home.

    So I carried the Thunderlight combo on a variety of trips during the Southwest's summer monsoon season, from a hike on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to a trek to the top of the San Francisco Peaks to a scramble in the Chiricahua Mountains near the Mexican border. Since the rainsuit is so light, I even brought it along on most day-hikes. The jacket and pants, made of a waterproof/breathable coating, shed all the weather I encountered, including pounding wind and hail. The pants, with an elastic drawstring waist and snapping bottom cuffs, were easy to pull on and off over boots and clothes. The jacket offers a no-frills design, with a visor-less drawstring hood and hook-and-loop closure on the cuffs. All seams are fully taped, and both the jacket and pants stuff neatly into zippered pockets.

    Although the Thunderlight is reasonably breathable compared to far more expensive waterproof/breathable garments I've worn, the lack of pit zips on the jacket left me feeling steamed when hiking hard on balmy afternoons. Another shortcoming is that the jacket doesn't have an exterior storm flap over the zipper, so when the rain was blowing sideways, a little bit leaked in.

    These criticisms seem minor when you consider that the Thunderlight offers waterproof/breathable rain protection at one-third the weight and one-fourth the price of many high-end shell jackets and pants. Granted, I wouldn't wear this lightweight rainsuit bushwhacking through thorny thickets or above the Arctic Circle, but it offers excellent foul-weather protection in mild seasons when you don't want to lug expedition-weight raingear.

    Bottom line: When conditions don't warrant heavy-weather shell gear, the Thunderlight jacket and pants offer effective, lightweight, and affordable rain protection.   �Annette McGivney