Mont Lightspeed Jacket – Reviewed & Tested

If it wasn’t for the Mont Lightspeed, Taylor might not have survived Victoria’s coldest, wettest spring in recent history.

The Mont Lightspeed is an all-rounder rain jacket. You’ll buy it once and won’t even know if you’re crying once.

Because nobody can confirm if that’s water gathering on the PFA-free DWR coating or teardrops

The three layers of ultralight protection offer extreme durability, extreme breathability, and extreme water resistance; all with an extreme irresistibility in design.

Why am I the right person to do this review?

I hate cold weather and I hate rain. In fact, I wouldn’t even do the hike or the trail run or the bike ride or whatever if I didn’t have a jacket like this. Seriously, I’ve cancelled entire bookings because of ominous clouds. I frequently let it affect my mood. My friends had to check in on my mental health multiple times this spring.

I’ve also hiked over 10,000km of trails in the USA and about 2,000 Down Under, and have been a resident gearhead in reviews for WAE and a couple of other sites in the States for the better part of a decade now.

Plus, I’m dumb enough to summit a peak with $9 lawn aerator sandals from Bunnings

I put about 300km on the Lightspeed over the last three months, and it’s the successor to my Montbell Versalite and Frogg Toggs – plus I’m a former convert from Frogg Toggs, Marmot Precip, and Patagonia Torrentshell so I’ve pretty much tried ’em all at this point.

Quick Specifications

Weight: 165g (Men’s M)
Breathability: 48,000g/m²/24 hours (this is quite good for a rain jacket)
Water Resistance: 20,000mm (this is industry standard)
Colours: Firecracker Orange (dangerously close to ‘hunter’ orange) or Everglade Teal
RRP: $389.95

Buy Now

Your spring survival kit in Victoria

Performance

What I like about this jacket is that you can still get a full range of motion even when you’re still wearing a pack or running vest. It keeps you flexible and limber and that’s not something to take lightly – only to wear lightly.

After summiting Fainter North in 75km/h winds I can confirm that the Lightspeed is indeed fully windproof, which I profusely thank the designers for. And the water resistance is also up to snuff, as it took an extended, torrential, proper High Country downpour to wet this jacket out, which is par for the course; I’ve never experienced an ultralight jacket that can truly handle a long one.

Apart from this, I found the elastic, non-adjustable cuffs to underperform and often let water through. The elastic is also beginning to lose its tensility after 300km of use.

Read more: 7 Tips for Rainy Day Hiking

Although sometimes water gets in other ways…cause you tried to cross, uh, too fast…

Comfort

As mentioned above, the flexibility in this jacket is excellent and I loved getting full extension on some of the downhills.

But, equally annoying is the fact that there are no hand pockets. To be fair, Mont doesn’t advertise the Lightspeed as a hiking jacket, which would be the primary activity in which you’d want pockets, but it still seems like such a simple addition – especially when there’s already a zipper on the chest for ventilation. When I was walking the steeper sections of some trail runs I found myself so deeply yearning for somewhere to warm my hands.

Lack of pockets might be why the elastic loses its tensility too, since my hands were often balled at the wrists

Thus I’d say that for a gloved bike ride, non-freezing trail run or skiing, this is an extremely comfy and perfect jacket. The hood and its laminated visor put in good work on their own or paired with a hat. Maybe I should just always carry gloves regardless.

Read more: Alpine Backcountry Winter Safety

Durability

If rain was a truck then the Lightspeed would be a brick wall. The three layers are woven with Mont’s patented Epic Thread and ‘Hydronaute’ technology, a neologism that you can compare to Outdoor Research’s Pertex, Montbell’s Gore-Tex INFINIUM WINDSTOPPER or Patagonia’s H2No technology.

The fabric is 100% nylon, and although I can’t find any information on whether it’s ten-denier or 30 or heavier, it is UN-deniably durable. It’s taken a fair share of whacks from overgrowth, lashing rain, and low-hanging trees and held up well. It has flapped in the wind like a kite in a hurricane or a card in a bike wheel and been gravy.

The only thing that doesn’t seem to be lasting is the elastic at the wrist cuffs.

Unless you like to run like a Naruto character

This is kind of important since this is often the place where rain can get in, and could’ve been both remedied and upgraded with a bit of velcro, but I suppose it won’t be a dealbreaker for everyone.

The YKK AquaGuard zipper is a bit more heavy-duty than most other rain jackets, so it should theoretically hold up longer – although I’ve never had a problem with the smaller zippers before either. And finally I think the three-layer design is also conducive to durability, as I’ve found the DWR coatings of 2.5-layer jackets to degrade much more quickly than this one, so it does score higher in that regard.

Design

Something that always annoyed me about other brands is that they’ll try to sell you all these extra, useless features as ‘upgrades’ when the reality is that all those extra cords and cinches are actually just holding you back. No risk of that with the Lightspeed. I think Mont tends to play it pretty safe with most of their designs, and the Lightspeed is no exception. But when you’re packing ultralight, you kind of want something streamlined anyway, right?

The single chest pocket is for packing the jacket into itself, or a cumbersome place for lil sweet treats

My suspicion is that this jacket is modelled after the extremely similar Outdoor Research Helium Diamond, as it sports the same water resistance, weight, and pocket placement. Regardless, I do think the cut and size of this jacket are both a bit better, and it’ll fit you true to size.

I may be a broken record, but I only wish there were pockets. To be honest, even the lack of pit zips here can be excused because of how surprisingly breathable this jacket is, but I’ll shake my fist like an old man at rock music about the hand pockets all day long.

Sustainability

Similar to design, Mont’s approach to sustainability is one that’s totally fine, albeit fairly risk-averse.

• All rainwear is PFC-free, which parallels an industry-wide trend, and is probably the most important environmental consideration when purchasing a rain jacket.

And it’s still perfectly water repellent

• Most of the nylons that comprise their gear, such as the Hydronaute fabrics, are recycled but still imported (it is Australia after all). There are notes on their approach to ethical manufacturing, PFAS-free design and Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) standard.
• Mont does some interesting work with reforestation both abroad and at home, which you can read about on the Mont website along with all the other regulations and bureaucratised environmental standards in the outdoors industry that are being dutifully adhered to.
• Carbon neutral is on the agenda, but currently this doesn’t include concrete public goals.
• Echoing Jon’s experiences with Mont’s gear, I do think that durability should also factor into a product’s sustainability. Mont products are clearly built to last. Plus they’re covered by a repair warranty. This means they’ll ultimately create less waste on this mortal coil than fast outdoors fashion.

Price

Retailing at $389.95, you’re buying this jacket because you want the best. It has a higher water resistance than some slightly cheaper counterparts, more breathability, and the three-layer design gives it a better durability as well. That’s the price of fresh air, baby.

A quick visual here might help any potential buyers understand what you get for the price (it scrolls on mobile):

Final Thoughts

Apart from my equally idiosyncratic allergy to both bright oranges and androgynous teals, the Mont Lightspeed is a hell of a rain jacket. If you take care of it, it’ll take care of you on anything from a drizzly maintenance run along the creek to some kinda crazy cross-country skiing or bikepacking trip through the High Country.

The Lightspeed occupies an undeniable niche at the top end of the ultralight rain jacket market, so if you’ve got the cash to spare then it’s definitely a reliable choice from a reliable Aussie brand.

And you’ll be 100% haute-couture the whole way