Mountain Hardwear Mythogen Package Assessment: Freeride Meets Alpinism

Within the jagged peaks and endlessly extreme terrain round Chamonix, France, Vivian Bruchez reigns because the mayor of steep snowboarding. The mountain guide-turned-steep skier lets his ski descents converse for themselves.

However no matter picture “steep snowboarding” generates in your creativeness, assume steeper. Bruchez is after the steepest strains within the Alps, which generations of mountaineers and skiers earlier than him deemed inconceivable, or just for climbing solely. 

On this niche-of-a-niche sport that’s half alpinism, half snowboarding, Bruchez chooses his gear rigorously. His request of Senior Designer Will Hagna and his Mountain Hardwear group was easy — one equipment to do all of it.

“All” in Bruchez’s world isn’t simply snowboarding. “All” is difficult multi-pitch ice, rock, and combined routes on among the most jagged peaks on the earth. It’s rigorously snowboarding knife-edged icy arêtes in hammering wind, jump-turning lots of of occasions down 50+ diploma slopes rapidly within the blazing solar, slashing by way of deep powder in a blizzard, and even sitting having fun with an après Coca-Cola. 

That problem is why Hagna and designers like him acquired into the enterprise within the first place. They’re free to think about and make use of top-of-the-line materials, pockets, and technical options with out value factors as a limiting issue. From there, the Mythogen Package was born. This jacket and bib combo incorporates Mountain Hardwear’s greatest concepts and some new tips for high-end ski mountaineering and freeride.

In brief: Mountain Hardwear took an enormous swing with its Mythogen Package, aiming for large mountain, excessive alpine, technical use. It’s made with sustainable GORE-TEX Professional ePE. It’s loaded with zippered pockets, air flow, and considerate options that set it other than different kits in its class. For skiers who wish to pursue massive, technical targets, and/or those that need a sturdy equipment that may deal with any climate and arduous use, the Mythogen Package is a good possibility.

Looking for ski jackets and pants? Try GearJunkie’s information to the Finest Ski Jackets and the Finest Ski Pants.

First Look Assessment: Mythogen Jacket

I chased Bruchez round Chamonix’s fabled ski terrain throughout a media journey in March to see the person and the equipment for myself. After 10 days within the Mythogen Jacket and Bibs and plenty of extra days of testing forward of me, I’ve come to some early conclusions for skiers and snowboarders trying to improve their equipment for subsequent season.

Editor’s notice: The Mountain Hardwear Mythogen Jacket and Bibs won’t be out there for buy till September 2025.

Headlining the equipment is the Mythogen Jacket. It’s a really light-weight however sturdy GORE-TEX Professional ePE 80D shell with a freeride minimize brimming with modern options. The jacket is lengthy however not slender. It’s designed to measurement up for a baggier freeride match or down for a techy ski mountaineering minimize. It will likely be supplied in males’s and ladies’s kinds in two shade schemes every. 

GearJunkie was so impressed with this equipment that once we first noticed it, we included it in our Prime Picks from the Outside Market Alliance commerce present.

I typically discover myself between a males’s medium and huge at 6’1”, 190 kilos. I opted for the medium high, which was the appropriate alternative for a devoted ski touring equipment. If I had been sizing the Mythogen primarily for lift-serviced snowboarding, the place I’m usually sporting beefier midlayers, I wouldn’t hesitate to measurement as much as a big for a extra freeride-oriented match.

Nonetheless, I had room to layer Mountain Hardwear’s Kor Alloy Crew below the medium jacket with room for extra. Regardless of the nearer match, the nonstretchy GORE-TEX Professional ePE material sample articulates the place it must. 

The Mythogen Jacket boasts 5 zippered pockets mapped to the jacket with a backpack in thoughts. There are two on the chest, two on the entrance waist that fall under a backpack hip belt, and a zippered move pocket on the left wrist.

The chest pockets characteristic Mountain Hardwear’s signature keeper straps to maintain objects from bouncing round. The decrease two additionally comprise clipping leashes for added safety.

First Look Assessment: Mythogen Bibs

Stretch The place You Want It

The matching Mythogen bibs provide a hybrid design with 80D GORE-TEX Professional ePE from the waist down and extra breathable and stretchy bib from the waist up. The legs are properly fitted. They’re not too tight nor too unfastened, and the identical goes for the cuffs.

The bib portion is billowy and breezy for added airflow on sweaty ascents, and permits for loads of layers beneath. The medium match my physique properly, even when one other inch or two within the inseam would have matched my stride slightly bit higher. 

Zippers & Waist Strap

The principle zipper runs from the highest of the bibs on the sternum all the best way to the underside of the fly, which makes for a roomy opening. A small waist adjustment strap on the entrance proper hip provides pants safety. That helps preserve the gussets from migrating under the place they need to be.

The waist strap provides extra venting performance. You’ll be able to pull the higher half of the bib off and roll it down or let it hold, with the primary zipper zipped or unzipped. That frees your higher physique to breathe if you’re actually hammering uphill.

Pockets

The Mythogen Bibs sport six pockets (sure, six!). Two on every leg and two on the chest that match the placement of the jacket’s chest pockets. I at all times put my cellphone in my chest pocket to maintain it away from my avalanche beacon in my left thigh or hip pocket. So I appreciated the placement consistency between the jacket and bibs.

The designers gave skiers choices within the Mythogen equipment for any association of pocketed requirements. Every pocket features a strap to maintain phone-sized issues upright, defending you from debilitating cellphone flop. Every pocket additionally has an anchor level, so customers get to decide on the place they stash their beacon. These are the kinds of design particulars you solely get within the highest-end ski kits. 

Pant Cuffs

I’m an absolute stickler for pant cuffs in ski touring outerwear, so I must shout out to Mountain Hardwear for dialing this typically neglected element.

Like breathability, the calls for for ski touring pant cuffs are totally different from resort-oriented ski pants, that are virtually at all times paired with beefy ski or snowboard boots.

Over the course of the season, particularly towards the spring ski mountaineering months, I discover myself swapping between path runners, mountaineering boots, tiny light-weight ski touring boots, and my “energy” four-buckle touring boots. They aren’t ski touring pants in the event that they don’t accommodate all of them. 

In Mountain Hardwear’s quest to satisfy Bruchez’s easy request — one equipment for every little thing within the alpine — they discovered an answer that simply works. It’s a easy loop of elastic in every outer cuff, just like what you discover in most softshell pants.

Uncinched, it accommodates my alpine ski boots. Cinched down tight, it hugs my mountaineering boots. It might even work with path runners for these massive ski excursions that begin and finish on dust trails.

And the interior cuff does its job of sealing out the snow. The snug-fitting cuffs are a significant element within the jagged peaks of Chamonix, the place a snagged crampon level might ship you off a 2,000-foot cliff. 

Testing the Mountain Hardwear Mythogen Package

GORE-TEX ePE PRO

I put the Mountain Hardwear Mythogen Jacket and Bibs by way of their paces in good, unhealthy, and downright bizarre climate over the course of every week in Chamonix and several other extra in Colorado’s Gore Vary. What I’ve to say in regards to the Mythogen’s climate safety capabilities is straightforward. It does what Mountain Hardwear claims, and consider me, I checked.

The model new GORE-TEX Professional ePE material, which the Mythogen is among the many first to make the most of, repels moisture higher than every other breathable material I do know of. The bibs halted the snow from sneaking in throughout sideways blowing blizzards and deep powder freeriding. The helmet-compatible hood gave me solace when the wind was howling.

Powder Skirt

The jacket’s detachable powder skirt added an actual belt-and-suspenders layer of safety. Nevertheless, I ended up eradicating it because it felt pointless given the bibs. The one actual vulnerability comes from the unbacked vents (my desire) if left open. 

Breathability

What impressed me essentially the most throughout many ascents clad head to toe within the new GORE-TEX Professional ePE was how breathable the whole equipment felt. I received’t faux I began on the trailhead with the Mythogen Jacket on throughout lengthy ski touring days in good climate. However it managed to hold me by way of many shorter cardio ascents. In fact, a few of that breathability comes from the lengthy vents outdoors the thighs and below the armpit that dump warmth.

However the breathability of the material itself — the recycled three-layer 80D GORE-TEX Professional ePE — felt nearly as good or presumably even higher than the earlier model. 80D is mild.

For comparability, my burliest pair of ski pants are the Flylow Chemical Pants that land at a whopping 150D. My kitchen scale says 577g for the Mythogen Jacket and 650g for the Mythogen bibs. The light-weight material means the jacket packs down impressively small, too.

Harness Compatibility

I ended up snowboarding with a harness about half the time in Chamonix. The Mythogen Bibs jived properly with my Petzl Altitude. The pockets are specified by a method that they had been accessible with the harness on. The minimize was additionally slim sufficient that it didn’t trigger any bizarre bunching or constriction.

I experimented with sporting the jacket below and over the harness and ended up snowboarding primarily within the latter configuration. However my considerably downsized jacket labored simply superb tucked below as properly. 

Motion & Sturdiness

When snowboarding turned to rock scrambling, the Mythogen moved with me. Huge reaches and excessive stepping didn’t current any main constrictions or limitations regardless of the equipment’s lack of stretch.

And as anticipated, the GORE-TEX Professional ePE was unfazed by a lot of scraping on rocks. That’s nice information for cutting-edge ski mountaineers like Bruchez and each different skier who needs their top-of-the-line jacket to final greater than a few seasons. 

Mountain Hardwear Mythogen Package: First Look Conclusions

As I tailed Bruchez by way of the huge glaciated terrain in his yard, his gear ethos made an increasing number of sense. A day in his world transitions between lifts, skinning, perhaps a fast rock climb-to-rappel to entry a hidden powder stash. Possibly there’s a pitch or two of ice, after which a steep ski descent that even watching from a secure distance makes my palms sweat. His outerwear must sustain. 

From what I can inform thus far, Mountain Hardwear’s new Mythogen Jacket and Bibs do sustain. Constructed with the model new GORE-TEX Professional ePE and aerobic-forward options, the equipment stayed cool on the pores and skin monitor. Full protection offered stalwart safety throughout driving blizzards and lap after lap of powder slashing. And when it got here time to don the harness, crampons, and twine, the Mythogen transitioned to climb prefer it was made for it. 

And regardless of the techy options and high-performance alpinism-meets-freeride design, the equipment matches casually and appears good on the ski resort. The Mountain Hardwear Mythogen Jacket and Bibs launch in September 2025.