Most people are probably already aware and know all about soft shell and hard shell jackets but if you didn't, these Microlight Alpine Down jackets are useless when in rains. Got absolutely drenched yesterday out on the bike, it was only spitting when I left but it got worse the further I got from home, gloves were soaked, trousers drenched and sticking to my legs, shoes and socks squelching, jacket and tshirt soaked right through - all insulation value gone, surface water spraying off my tyres like a sprinkler, cold, windy, numb fingers and toes, another 26 miles to get home. Got back and struggled to undo a buckle or get my shoes off as my fingers were too numb, unpleasant but not serious, makes you think about people who have got into trouble by gallivanting off ill-prepared on expeditions into the wilderness with the wrong gear and lacking survival skills. I recall watching one of those Mountain Men programmes on Discovery where a guy called Marty would fly solo in a small single propeller aeroplane deep into remote parts of Alaska for trapping, on one episode his old snowmobile brokedown and he had to hike back to his cabin in well below zero conditions, he noted that one of the most dangerous things he could do was get too hot and start sweating, presumably because insulation is trapped air and getting it wet collapses it, wet layers wick away your body heat and the moisture can also freeze. Me trying to undo a buckle with cold hands in above zero conditions is just a small insight into what it would be like for someone hiking in a remote location and falling through thin ice and getting soaked, if they got out and hypothermia started to set in, how long before their hands weren't even functioning properly to try and light a fire or change into dry stuff if they have any?