Tested: The North Face Summit Verbier Jacket & Pants

The Summit Verbier jacket and pants represent the pinnacle of technical outerwear designed for skiers and snowboarders from The North Face, so all materials are top notch. Both are made from 3-layer Gore-Tex fabric featuring the famous membrane that guarantees to keep the elements out while still being highly breathable. As a bonus, the top layer of this fabric is made fully from recycled materials. Zippers are YKK and are of the waterproof type where this is required. We had a kit in size XL; it wasn’t exactly super-light weight at 870 g for the pants and 850 g for the jacket but that’s nothing that will bother you unless you are heading for the longest or highest ascents. In exchange, the outfit felt pretty robust, so it should handle some abuse in tight trees or from the stray contact with a ski edge, but it’s far from the feel of the sturdy 3-layer armors of the old times. The Summit Verbier combo was very comfortable all day long, and the waterproofing worked faultlessly even on a rather wet day, just as you would expect. I tested the outfit during some resort skiing and on two ski tours in the Bavarian Alps in the first half of December, as well as for a day of shooting with our man Roy Kittler—188 cm tall—as model for my photography in Kühtai, Tyrol.

There is no shortage of technical features on the Summer Verbier bib. In total, there are five pockets; the most useful pair in my opinion is at the front of the thighs, my preferred place to store anything in pants while skiing. They are pretty deep and offer plenty of space, but have some straps and smaller inner sleeves to keep things like beacons or phones in place in case you like to store them there. There are also loops to attach things that you want to prevent from getting lost. There are two pockets at the waist which are great to put your hands in when waiting around, and finally one big pocket at the chest–again with some inner organization–which is a good spot to keep things like credit cards or keys. There are two ventilation zippers at the inner thighs with a mesh fabric guarding the openings, a robust armor against edge contact at the inner calf and classic snow gaiters. The bottom width of the legs can be adjusted with a zipper and three buttons; they are still rather wide even in the tightest setup, which might annoy some ski tourers, but I managed to fix all problems simply by flapping up the cuff while on the ascent.

In terms of technical features, there are of course under-arm ventilation zippers. The collar is high and roomy; it could be a touch tighter for my liking, but you might disagree when wearing a layer or two with a high collar underneath. The inside of the collar has an added soft fabric that feels nice on the skin and doesn’t collect much snow as some other variants of this feature tend to do. There are plenty of pockets. How many pockets a good jacket needs to have is obviously a matter of personal taste; in this case, I probably could do with fewer pockets. That being said, (almost) all pockets in this jacket are well thought-out and serve a purpose. The highlight is the left chest pocket that can be opened both from inside or outside, and features an inner sleeve and strap for a mobile phone as well as a port for headphones. On the inside of the jacket, there are two open mesh pockets to quickly store things like gloves. On the outside there are two big chest pockets, one with a little strap inside, and two big pockets at the waist. The latter are a bit hard to get to due to a snow guard on top of the zippers and—at least in my opinion—are a bit useless for the intended application since this is where most of the time the waist strap of the backpack will sit. Better to have than not to have, you might say, but it adds a layer of cloth and therefore makes the jacket bigger than necessary when you want to store it away in a backpack while on the way up. Again, a question of personal preference.