Ortovox Women’s Civetta Jacket review: a light and well-featured jacket for hiking

For fast and light alpine adventures, the Ortovox Women’s Civetta Jacket is the waterproof you need

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Ortovox Women’s Civetta Jacket
(Image: © Ortovox)

Advnture Verdict

A hard-working, intelligent and ultralight waterproof jacket you can take absolutely everywhere and will never regret carrying.

Pros

  • +

    Ultra light

  • +

    Compact

  • +

    Well featured

Cons

  • -

    Pricey

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First impressions

With the waterproofing of a hardshell but the feel of a windbreaker, the Ortovox Women’s Civetta Jacket has a micro bead structure on the inside to protect the membrane and to keep the jacket from feeling sticky against your skin. Beads so small you can’t see them help the jacket’s fabric absorb moisture and move it away from your body so that the jacket feels dry on the inside.

The Civetta stuffs into its own chest pocket, which has a hang loop so this jacket can be attached to a harness. Elastic wrists and waist seal out weather without adding weight. And Ortovox’s self-regulating hood has an elastic band and a reinforced peak so that it stays on and blocks weather in wind and rain.

Specifications

• Price: $315 (US) / £250 (UK) / €290 (EU)
• Sizes: XS–XL
• Weight: 155g / 5.5oz
• Waterproofing Technology: Toray Dermizax DT
• Colors: Blue Lake / Green Isar / Blush

In the field

This jacket is so small and light, it was hard to understand what a workhorse it is. But when I got caught in a spring downpour, it proved its mettle.

The fully waterproof jacket walked the fine line between minimalist and protective. It’s cut long enough that it didn’t ride up when I sat down. And my arms had full mobility, so when I reached for a hold scrambling up a fourth-class route, the hem didn’t ride. The sleeves were comfortably long.  And the clean silhouette had nothing to get snagged.

Merino inserts in the chin and forehead were soft on my skin and prevented chafing. And the single chest pocket held snacks, a map or a phone.

I loved this jacket for its compact protection. It’s a shell I always had with me because it takes up negligible space in my pack, and barely adds weight.

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Berne Broudy
Berne Broudy

Vermont-based writer, photographer and adventurer, Berne reports on hiking, biking, skiing, overlanding, travel, climbing and kayaking for category-leading publications in the U.S., Europe and beyond. In the field, she’s been asked to deliver a herd of llamas to a Bolivian mountaintop corral, had first fat-biking descents in Alaska, helped establish East Greenland’s first sport climbing and biked the length of Jordan. She’s worked to help brands clean up their materials and manufacturing, and has had guns pulled on her in at least three continents.