La Sportiva Supercouloir 1000 Down Jacket Evaluation: Packable, Technical, Intensely Heat

Once I reached the third anchor, the wind was howling inside the craggy couloir draped in heavy north-facing shade. By that time, I was shivering and my hands were going numb. Driving an ice tool deep into the roots of a frozen shrub, I clipped to my anchor. 

I had enough dexterity to reach the gear loop on the back of my harness from which my La Sportiva Supercouloir 1000 down jacket hung. I unclipped it and shook it from its integrated stuff sack. The down baffles popped open, and I slid it on for immediate solace from the cold. When you need something really warm, medium warm won’t do. 

The aptly named Supercouloir 1000 is impressively compressible. That’s what 1,000 cubic inches (in³) of down will do for you. It’s been easy to carry clipped to my harness, stuffed into my smallest ski touring pack, and even compressed into my running vest’s back pocket.

I’ve been testing a smattering of pieces from La Sportiva’s new Alpine Tech collection over the past several months. The Supercouloir Down 1000 could be my favorite so far. It’s not only massively compressible, but it’s also intensely warm, technical, and movement-oriented. This has made it a great match for ice climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing around Colorado.

In short: La Sportiva’s new Alpine Tech line is a big step forward for the brand’s outerwear offerings. The new Supercouloir 1000 down jacket is its poofiest jacket to date. Stuffed with high-quality 1,000-fill power down, the La Sportiva Supercouloir 1000 is designed to provide maximum warmth in a lightweight, movement-oriented package that stuffs into its own pocket. It’s also got clever features that make it an exceptional companion for ice climbing, mountaineering, winter hiking, and backcountry skiing.

La Sportiva Supercouloir 1000 Down Jacket Review

Body

I don’t skimp on warmth in the backcountry anymore. You’ll always find me with one more warm layer at the bottom of my pack, even if I don’t intend to use it. I’ve been caught in too many cold situations to make that mistake again.

I’ve been toting La Sportiva’s Supercouloir 1000 down jacket around with me this season. It’s light at 440 g, and it packs down so small that it feels silly not to. I’ve stuffed it into the bottom of my backcountry ski pack, dangled it off my harness, and carried it with me on every backcountry outing all season — even winter trail running when I was headed deep into the snowy mountains.

Thankfully, it isn’t delicate like some ultralight puffies. The AlpineTech line was designed for rugged mountain endeavors, after all. 

Build and Features

The main body is Pertex Quantum fabric coated with a PFC-free DWR. Although it’s incredibly light, I’ve found it to be resilient, too. I’ve scraped it against enough rocks to feel confident in its durability even for an ultralight fabric that isn’t indestructible. It’s a solid DWR, too. The down has stayed lofty even after a few hours of dumping snow.

The jacket’s sleeves are interesting. They’re made from a burlier 86% recycled polyamide/14% polyester ripstop fabric. It has been impressively tough throughout the test period. It’s a clever way to add durability strategically while keeping the whole package light.

They stood up well during the test period, too. The sleeves didn’t suffer any cuts or tears even after being stuffed into backpacks, dragged against rock and ice, and grazed against the occasional ice screw’s teeth.

The sleeves are also noticeably low profile. There’s no bunching or excess fabric to get snagged. Plus, the down baffles don’t extend as far down the arm as on other down jackets. They transition to stretchy elastic fabric high up on the wrist to stay out of the way. They resist getting snagged and sliced on rock, cracks, and pointy climbing gear. 

There’s also a surprise under each armpit — stretchy elastic panels replace down baffles to improve the jacket’s mobility. I was able to reach over my head and swing my ice tools without the jacket restricting the movement. The panels add breathability in areas that typically get sweaty fast. It expands the usable temperature range ever so slightly on an otherwise intensely warm puffy.

The hood of the La Sportiva’s Supercouloir 1000 down jacket is well designed, too. It fits over my climbing helmet, and two cinch cords at the front of the neck cinch down the face hole. Another cinch in the back tightens the hood around your head. I wore it frequently while ice climbing, and I never felt like it got in the way or that it restricted my head movements. 

Like any good climbing jacket, it also has a two-way zipper, which I utilize constantly while ice climbing. I could keep the top zipper zipped up to my chin for warmth, but open the bottom zipper to access my belay loop and ATC for rappelling and belaying. It also allowed me to keep the hem of the jacket safely away from all the pointy things on my harness. 

1,000-Fill Power Down

There have been exactly zero instances where I’ve wanted my big puffy jacket to be less lofty, less warm, or less packable. So, where does this jacket stack up in warmth? I’d call it intensely warm for its weight. 

I consider my The North Face Pumori Dorwn Parka to be a class-leading Denali-warm belay-style down-filled jacket. It’s a gigantic cocoon with arms. The Supercouloir 1000 doesn’t engulf me in warmth like the Pumori. But they’re on the same side of the warmth spectrum. La Sportiva’s Supercouloir 1000 is about as warm as a jacket can get without being big, bulky, and relegated to belays and basecamps like the Pumori is.

1,000 down is incredible, and until very recently it was rare in outdoor clothing. For one, it’s expensive — it comes from animals, after all, but also because down is typically harvested as a byproduct from young geese destined for meat products. On the other hand, 1,000 cubic inch down (in³) only comes from older geese whose plumage has had more time to develop and mature over a few years. It’s a much smaller market.

A down jacket’s fill power (1,000 for the Supercouloir) is the volume of 1 ounce of its down (in³). So, the Supercouloir’s high-quality down takes up 1,000 cubic inches per ounce. That’s more than 4 gallons per ounce. So, its 150 g of down means there’s about 23 gallons of top quality down stuffed in there.

A higher fill power doesn’t make the jacket automatically warmer, though. A higher fill power, therefore higher quality down, just means that less down is required to make an equally warm jacket. The North Face’s Pumori Down Parka is filled with 800-fill power down, but there’s a lot of it in there, which is why it’s massively insulating. The Supercouloir, on the other hand, can get away with far less down filling because of the 1,000 cubic inch (in³) down. That makes it not only exceptionally light but also impressively packable.

Fit & Warmth

I love the athletic cut of this jacket. It’s slim, but it’s roomy in the chest and shoulders for unrestricted movement. That narrow cut won’t work for all body types, however. I’m 6’1” and 185 pounds, and the U.S. men’s large (European XL) size fits me athletically, yet comfortably, despite the arms feeling a tiny bit short.

I wouldn’t hesitate to size up in this jacket. Especially if I wanted a little more room in the body, length in the arms, or for it to function as a belay-style storm bunker.

The Supercouloir 1000 occupies a unique spot on the insulation spectrum. It can work as a massively warm midlayer or a functional outer layer. I integrated it into a few different layering systems. I most frequently added it on top of my The North Face Torre Egger softshell at transition points while backcountry skiing and ice climbing.

It was roomy enough. But there was a limit to how many layers I could fit underneath before it felt tight.

Unlike big belay jackets, however, it was low-profile enough to layer decently under my roomier La Sportiva Supercouloir GTX PRO hardshell jacket for super-frigid storm days. I quickly overheated in this configuration, though — that’s a lot of insulation to trap under a hardshell for warm people like me. I preferred layering it on top so it was easier to stow.

Speaking of stowing, I’m a sucker for things that stuff into their own pockets, and the Supercouloir 1000 does. It took me a few tries to figure out how to fold it into the inner left drop pocket, but it’s effective. The result is a compact bundle that’s much smaller than typical ice climbing parkas thanks to the compressible down. It’s about the size of a football.

A small hang loop accepts a carabiner easily and once I clipped it to the back of my harness, I forgot it was there. It’s petite enough that I never snagged it with the back of my crampons while climbing or walking.

Price

At $450, nobody is calling the Supercouloir cheap — and 1000-fill power down has never come cheap. But compared to the rest of the market, La Sportiva’s new flagship down jacket competes well.  

For comparison, the aforementioned The North Face Pumori costs $650. Arc’teryx’s 750-Fill Thorium Hoodie costs $500, Rab’s 1000-Fill Power Zero G Down Jacket goes for $515, and Mountain Hardwear’s more minimal Ghost Whisperer UL Jacket costs $420.

La Sportiva Supercouloir 1000: Conclusion

1,000-fill power down is amazing. Obviously, you can still have fun and be successful in the harshest conditions without it. But when weight and packability really matter, the highest quality down on the market stuffed into ultralight materials makes a big difference. 

The Supercouloir 1000 takes up so little space that I’ve never hesitated to add it to my pack or onto my harness. It’s more than warm enough for any conditions I’ve encountered in Colorado’s alpine environments, and it’s coming with me to the Cascades later this season, too. 

What makes the Supercouloir 1000 stand out from the crowd, other than the attention to sustainability and the intense warmth-to-weight ratio? The innovative climbing features and strategically integrated materials. It’s tough where it needs to be, stretchy in just the right places, and warm all over.

La Sportiva’s Supercouloir 1000 is a solid puffy for ice climbers, mountaineers, winter hikers, and backcountry skiers looking to push through the coldest conditions.