May 18th, 2009
I started hiking the Appalachian Trail with a relatively cheap rain coat from the Weather company. When I got to Walasi-Yi 30 miles in they told me the jacket would likely fail, and was heavy anyway so I upgraded to the Marmot Mica ultralight coat. While it is light, it is not a backpacking jacket. Around mile 300 I started getting wet when I would wear the Mica in the rain, and not from sweat. Water was just seeping through the material. It took me two weeks on the phone with Marmot to get them to exchange the jacket on warranty. When I first called, Angie laughed at me when I told her I was hiking the AT with a Mica. They of course only recommend the $400 Exum, which is way out of my budget. She then promised to call me back on two separate occasions, but never did. One time when I called I talked to Brian who said he’d email me, which also never happened. Finally last monday I was able to get them to upgrade me to a Minimalist, which at least is Gore-Tex. But apparently they weren’t able to ship it in a timely manner because I still don’t have it, and they claimed to use 2 day FedEx. Under normal conditions this might be manageable, but on the trail it is anything but. It rains 70% of the time, and hiking in a cheap interim poncho is awful, sweat and stability wise. I will never buy a Marmot product again, and if you are considering doing any real outdoor activities I strongly suggest you look elsewhere for rain gear. Marmot clearly does not stand by their products and their customer support is terrible. Grade: Not Trailworthy.
May 21st, 2009 at 3:43 pm
So, I guess we don’t like them anymore!!